Paper by Marian Castro.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.moma.org\/d\/assets\/W1siZiIsIjIwMTUvMTAvMTQvM29kMHdwbDRwa196b29tXzE0MjM1MTM1MDdfUGFyaXNfVGV4YXNfMnguanBnIl0sWyJwIiwiY29udmVydCIsIi1xdWFsaXR5IDkwIC1yZXNpemUgNzc1eDUyNV4gLWdyYXZpdHkgQ2VudGVyIC1jcm9wIDc3NXg1MjUrMCswIl1d\/zoom_1423513507_Paris,%20Texas@2x.jpg?sha=f77f45c34c328bff\")
Texas, 1984. A long shot of a man walking through the desert, his clothes powdered with dirt and dust. He is holding an empty water jug, donning a red cap and a brown suit, his hair raggedy, his face confused and beard growing tangled and long. He is surrounded by stretches of the Southwest desert, desolate rock formations and mountains. Travis Henderson walks on, his face confused, yet determined.<\/p>\n
Tehran, 1997. A man is driving through the raggedy outskirts of Iran. We see him driving with a sense of urgency in his searching eyes. He rolls down the window to talk to several men that he passes along the way, asking them questions, vaguely offering them a job that he does not specify. Many talk with him, but later disperse as he continues on. This man continues driving down the road. The camera remains in the passenger seat, offering the audience only a view of the window next to Mr. Badii. He drives on, still determined.<\/p>\n
Amid the turbulent political landscapes of the late 20th century, Wim Wenders\u2019 Paris, Texas by Wim Wenders and Abbas Kiarostami\u2019s Taste of Cherry both utilize minimalist cinema to depict alienation and disillusionment in societies marked by national trauma of the era, illustrating the psychological effects of political upheaval in society. Both New German Cinema and Post-Iranian Revolution Cinema also reveal similarities that emphasize themes of identity, memory and loneliness through use of low-budget, minimalist filmmaking techniques such as contemplative long takes, use of non-professional actors and shooting on-location in rural areas. Political turbulence paving way to a collective societal collapse of mental health is something
\nthat is especially relevant in today\u2019s American political landscape. Analyzing how such polarizing political states affect a society, especially that of Reagan\u2019s 1980s America and Post-Islamic Revolution Iran can help us better understand how cinematic expression works to illustrate alienation amid political upheaval today.<\/p>\n
Post WW2, the German film industry grappled with ways to transform what once was a
\nmedium for propaganda under Hitler\u2019s regime to an outlet of creative expression and hope.
\n\u201cMany German films of the period also react to the troubled history of the medium itself as the
\nprime Nazi propaganda tool\u201d (Nowell-Smith 614). New German Cinema arose in the 1960s and
\ndwindled on into the early 1980s as a movement of young filmmakers aiming to produce
\nlow-budget films that posed as critiques of society under their own Oberhausen Manifesto.
\nHeralded by names like Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders and Rainer Werner Fassbender, the
\nmovement emphasized themes such as alienation, loneliness and dealing with \u201cthe outsider\u201d
\nusing minimalist filmmaking techniques. Paris, Texas (1985) is a film by Wim Wenders that
\ndisplays various traits of New German Cinema. This film utilizes various minimalist techniques
\nsuch as long takes and use of silence that depict contemplation within the characters, on-location
\nshooting in Texas, natural lighting of the sun and indoor spaces as well as mundane, natural
\ndialogue between characters. It paints Wenders\u2019 vision of America through the perspective of an
\noutsider, through the lens of an amnesiac man who seems to be learning the ropes of what his life
\nused to be amid a vintage Americana landscape.<\/p>\n
Identity, memory and loneliness also were prominent features of Post-Iranian Revolution
\ncinema, which garnered popularity in the mid-1980s and onward. Amid the replacement of Shah
\nMohammad Reza Pahlavi\u2019s government and with Ruhollah Khomeini\u2019s Islamic state, this film
\nmovement worked under the censorship of the new Islamic Republic of Iran, which paved the
\nway for a plethora of interesting ideas that were however, under strict supervision on behalf of
\nthe Khomeini administration. Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi and Mohsen Makhmabalf were
\namong the prominent filmmakers of the era. Post-Iranian Cinema emphasizes philosophical
\nthemes that deal with the meaning of life and connection. Its minimalist filmmaking techniques
\nare similar to that of New German Cinema and its similarities in themes consist of themes like
\nloneliness, alienation, search for meaning. In Taste of Cherry, there is use of natural lighting as
\nMr. Badii drives up and down the village, natural flowing dialogue between him and all the men
\nhe meets, use of non-professional actors such as Hosseein Nori (the seminarian) and
\nAbdolrahman Bagheri (Mr. Bagheri), shooting on-location in the hills of Tehran and total
\nabsence of artistic editing.<\/p>\n
However, the two movements also differ in some ways such as Post-Iranian Revolution
\nCinema being a lot more influenced by current political censorship in its time whereas New
\nGerman Cinema was more affected by influence of the past and the Nazi regime\u2019s propaganda.
\nThe middle east has always been colored with political unrest, from Egypt to Palestine. The first
\nintifada in Gaza began in the late 1980s with \u201cclashes continuing into the early 1990s\u201d (The
\nEconomist). \u201cThe breakthrough for Iranian New Wave was Dariush Mehrjui\u2019s second feature,
\nThe Cow. This starkly realistic account of peasant life, adapted from a short story by leftist writer
\nGholam-Hossein Saedi, was banned in Iran for more than a year\u2026\u201d (Cook 651). It is a very
\ninteresting inference to make that the Iranian film movement\u2019s roots have always had
\ncomplications with censorship but also have focused on stories about the poor as depicted by
\nprogressive members of Iranian society. Iranian cinema focused more on contemporary themes
\nthat dealt with current social issues, such as Crimson Gold (2004) and Close-Up (1990), which
\ndealt with Iran\u2019s current social issues in an almost documentary-like style. Although New
\nGerman Cinema often did produce films that were contemporary and dealt with social issues, it
\ndid not shy away as much from historical films such as Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) and
\nThe Tin Drum (1979), which both dealt with time periods of the past such as 16th-century Spain
\nand Nazi-era Germany.<\/p>\n
In the 1980s, America was marked by the era of Ronald Reagan, entering his presidency
\nas well as a new decade and attempting to deal with the public\u2019s national trauma of the political
\nturbulence of the 1970s. As Reagan worked to shoot patriotism powerfully upward amid national
\ntrauma, he attempted to surface the traits of the American Dream back into the public
\nimagination. As a staunch conservative, Reagan attempted to emphasize a capitalist mindset,
\nfamily values, the dream of suburbia.<\/p>\n
In Paris, Texas, Travis shows his brother, Walt, a washed-out photo of an empty lot in
\nwhat looks like the middle of nowhere. Travis begins to explain how the photo showed a plot of
\nland that Travis bought in Paris, Texas. It was where he and his family grew up and was where
\nhe planned to build a house with his now ex-wife, Jane and their son. The plan never came to
\nfruition and the lot remains empty and desolate. The American spirit champions the dream of
\nworking one\u2019s way up, starting a family, building a home, becoming successful in Western
\nsociety\u2019s eyes – yet often the dream is hollow. Travis\u2019s story is set in Reagan\u2019s America.
\nCharacters are seen walking in desolate, arid desert land, peppered with worn-down billboards
\nechoing failed consumerism in a hollowed out country. In a later scene, Travis watches a Super 8
\nfilm of his family on vacation, contrasting their happy faces and kisses with his current
\nloneliness, years after running away from his ex-wife and son in a fire that abruptly ended their
\nfamily. Reagan\u2019s era of family values echoes throughout society, but sometimes only produce
\nhollow shells of the nuclear family. The American Dream exists, but only as a far away fantasy
\nand not the tangible ladder that society champions.<\/p>\n
1990s Iran was a massively politically turbulent time, dealing with the aftermath of the
\n1979 Islamic Revolution and the even fresher aftermath of the Iraq-Iran War. Being under heavy
\ncensorship, filmmakers of the Iranian movement had to create their own language of minimalism
\nthrough simple storytelling techniques, no special editing, non-professional actors and
\nlow-budget production. Post-Iranian Revolution Cinema however, was politically aware and did
\nnot shy away from touching on such details within its storytelling. In Taste of Cherry, Mr. Badii
\npicks up a young boy who is said to be a soldier. He is timid and seems to be very respectful of
\nhis elders but still very afraid. Mr. Badii passes by groups of young soldiers, marching on. He
\nreminisces on how he even used to be a soldier himself. Later on, he joins a man making eggs in
\nhis makeshift home. The man mentions how there have been so many Afghanis in Iran and how
\nhard the war in Afghanistan and Iraq has been for the citizens of Iran. Mr. Badii mentions how
\n\u201chundreds of dead people were being buried at that moment\u201d. Although under strict censorship,
\npost-Iranian Revolution Cinema does not shy away from being self-aware of its own national
\nturbulence. The narratives are aware of the national trauma that Iran has endured. The soldiers
\nand talks of wars current and past echo the violence and distress of Iranian society that has left
\nlong-lasting scars on the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe protagonists in this genre, accordingly, begin in a state of flight. They are
\nintroduced to us as being on the run; we perceive them traveling away from something they
\nreject or fear even before we understand what that thing is.\u201d (Pag\u00e8s 3). The motifs of transit that
\nParis, Texas and Taste of Cherry share is an inseparable part of my connection between the two
\nfilm movements and mise en sc\u00e8nes of the films. In Taste of Cherry, Mr. Badii drives up and
\ndown the road, searching for a man to help him with his suicide plan. He attempts to gently lure
\nthem in to discuss his job for them, but ends up running into men from different walks of life that
\noffer him various perspectives on life itself. Mr. Badii never explicitly mentions why he is
\ncommitting suicide, but he does mention that he had a family. In Paris, Texas, Travis was
\nmissing for four years until he was found walking on some highway road in the desert. As an
\naudience, we wonder why he seems to be walking eternally to a destination unknown. By the end
\nof the film, we realize that Travis was not walking to something but away from something – as he
\nwas running away from the disaster he had ensued amid the fire that burned down his family\u2019s
\nhome. Both men are in transit, running away from something that overwhelmed them. And for
\nboth men, it is their own lives. Both men also share a similarity of having a family, indicating
\nsigns of overwhelm and broken-down strength that may have been caused by relationships with
\ntheir respective families.<\/p>\n
Another special motif of transit used in both films is the visual of the car. In New German
\nCinema and Post-Iranian Revolution Cinema, cars symbolize confession, truth and vulnerability.
\nIn Paris, Texas, after Travis is picked up from the desert by Walt, he chooses to stay mute for
\nsome time, to the frustration of his brother. The first words that Travis utters are \u201cParis, Texas\u201d,
\nforeshadowing his later story about his broken dream of building a house for his family on the
\nvacant lot in that location. Later on, Travis and his son go on a car chase, trying to keep track of
\nTravis\u2019s wife who was driving a bright red car. The last scene of Travis is of him contemplating
\nin solitude as he drives to an unknown location after he returns their son to his ex-wife, Jane.
\nTaste of Cherry\u2019 s use of the car is very overt, as 90% of the film happens from the perspective of
\nthe driver\u2019s seat and passenger\u2019s seat. Mr. Badii drives around and looks for someone to help him
\nwith his suicide, opening way for a few different conversations. The last man that Mr. Badii
\npicks up is a Turkish taxidermist who works at the museum, he tells Mr. Badii about his own
\nsuicide attempt and how tasting mulberries and resdiscovering the simple pleasures of life turned
\nit all around. \u201cHe tells Badii that his troubled relationship with his wife once led him to decide
\non suicide: he travelled out to a mulberry plantation with the intention of hanging himself from a
\ntree, but found his rope wouldn\u2019t hold; he climbed the tree in order to retie it, brushing his hand
\nagainst some mulberries; he tasted them, he looked up to notice the sunrise; he decided not to kill
\nhimself.\u201d (Abbott 3).<\/p>\n
In both these films, cars symbolize vulnerability. As Mr. Bagheri tells Mr. Badii
\nvulnerable stories about his own suicide, Mr. Badii listens to his confessions. In Paris, Texas,
\nTravis\u2019s time in vehicles seem to act as spaces for him to be vulnerable – such as in his last scene
\nafter his emotional parting with his family and when he first begins to speak to his brother.
\n\u201cInstead of talking about his suicidal feelings, Badii passes over and over through a
\nhellish stretch of industrial debris, abandoned machinery and brown, dry vegetation. The land
\nitself looks ready to give up\u2026 simultaneously a real landscape and projection of Mr. Badii\u2019s
\nmental state\u201d (Erickson 2). The desert is another similarity that both Paris, Texas and Taste of
\nCherry share. Both films are shot in very desolate, barren landscapes such as Tehran, Iran and
\nTexas, USA. This symbolizes a certain disillusionment with their countries amid post-war
\nnational trauma and distress. As mentioned earlier, Paris, Texas\u2019 s landscape of a broken-down
\nAmericana world symbolizes the failure and emptiness of the American Dream. As Erickson
\nmentioned, Mr. Badii\u2019s journey through industrial debris is \u201csimultaneously a real landscape and
\nprojection of Mr. Badii\u2019s mental state\u201d, which may have been instilled by the national distress of
\nthe Iraq-Iran War and the Islamic Revolution\u2019s aftermath under Khomeini.<\/p>\n
In both Paris, Texas and Taste of Cherry, cinema is used as an artistic response to the
\ncurrent socio-political state of affairs of their respective eras (Reagan-era America and
\nPost-Islamic Revolution Iran). New German Cinema and Post Iranian Revolution Cinema both
\nshare roots in their contemplative, minimalist style and themes of alienation that reflect the
\nstruggles of the common man within a societal landscape marked by national trauma and
\ndistress. Wim Wenders himself claims, “A film can promote the idea of change without any
\npolitical message whatsoever but in its form and language can tell people that they can change
\ntheir lives and contribute to progressive changes in the world”. Film has the ability to be used as
\na medium of expression in the midst of political upheaval and as Wenders suggests, can inspire
\naudiences to incite lasting change in one\u2019s society through creative expression and the power of
\ngreat storytelling.<\/p>\n
Works Cited<\/strong> Paper by Marian Castro. Texas, 1984. A long shot of a man walking through the desert, his clothes powdered with dirt and dust. He is holding an empty water jug, donning a red cap and a brown suit, his hair raggedy, his face confused and beard growing tangled and long. He is surrounded by stretches […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":504,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-papers","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/504"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48717"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48720,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48717\/revisions\/48720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAbbott, Mathew. Abbas Kiarostami and Film-Philosophy. Edinburgh University Press, 2017.
\nhttps:\/\/doi.org\/10.1515\/9780748699919.
\n\u201cA Chronology of the Middle East Conflict.\u201d The Economist, from course materials.
\nCook, David A. A History of Narrative Film: Middle East\/Israel. 5th ed., W. W. Norton &
\nCompany, 2016.
\nErickson, Steve. \u201cReview: Taste of Cherry by Abbas Kiarostami.\u201d Film Quarterly, vol. 52, no. 3,
\n1999, pp. 52\u201354. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2307\/1213826.
\nNowell-Smith, Geoffrey, editor. The Oxford History of World Cinema. Oxford University Press,
\n1996.
\nPag\u00e8s, Anna. \u201cA Kind of Road: The Eye and the Gaze in Wim Wenders\u2019s Paris, Texas.\u201d Journal
\nof Philosophy of Education, vol. 55, no. 4\u20135, 2021, pp. 754\u201363.
\nhttps:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/1467-9752.12601.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"