American Cinematographer - February 1985 - 76

solitary cabin in the middle of no¬
where. The room is the archetypal
ancient motel room in its dusty,
beat-up ambiance, but has a few
unique features in its garish red
bedspreads and the signs of the
zodiac stenciled on the wall over
the beds. Muller shot with the

partially in shadow, with the
daylight slanting through a win¬
room

dow at the foot of the beds. While
the more colorful aspects of the

appropriate settings for
Houston, Port Arthur,
numerous small towns and points
between were finally chosen.
Muller emphasizes that finding lo¬
cations has always been integral to
the development of the films he
has worked on with Wenders,
partly because the films are shot in
chronological order and because
often, the story undergoes change
and development as a result of

room are

their interaction with the location.

not

"Everything

fully discernible, they do
overtly come to the viewer's

attention.

"Showing off" is what
with singling out
portions of the image in a way that
is inconsistent with the story. He
says, "What I try to avoid is point¬
ing at something so that I become
patronizing to the people who
look at the image. I'd rather give
Muller equates

the audience the chance to dis¬
cover it themselves. For me, that's
- that you
things to discover for
yourself." As an example he men¬
a

very

important thing

still have

tions the

scene in which Travis
stumbles into the dark bar. "You
don't have to say everything to
make yourself clear. I don't feel
the need to see his face that well
because I've got most of my infor¬

mation anyway.
scene,

if I

start

In this specific
lighting up the

whole bar it loses a lot of its char¬
acter
it becomes a film set. The
location is really the means of tell¬
-

well, and when I
location with light
lose something substantial."

ing the story

as

blow away a
you

Another result of
Muller's dislike of calling atten¬
tion to portions of the image in an
artificial way is the fact that he and
Wenders never work with a zoom
lens. He says, "I think that's an

lazy way and a way
that's not well thought out, of lift¬
ing out something that's impor¬
easy way

and

a

tant." As the

native, he

more

says,

difficult alter¬

"You

can

make

something important in the
you construct

way

the image."

The locations for Paris,
Texas

were

carefully selected by

Wenders, who had spent three
months traveling around Texas
through both cities and rural areas

74

find the
the story.

to

American

Cinematographer

starts with the finding
of the location. We find the loca¬
tions that fit the story and fit the
man or woman who has to move
around in that place, so a lot is

already given. The same with the
light, actually, because you choose
a location, whether you're con¬
scious of it or not, because you
have a certain light there." Since
Muller's preference is always to
use natural or available light, he
works to preserve and use the light
he finds as much as possible with¬
out the addition of what he calls
"made" light. He says, "I tend to

much respect the light that is
already there on the location."
Shooting a film in chron¬
ological order is Muller's favorite
way of working, but a procedure
he has found in practice only in
very

adaptation, and the ending
not really determined until it

was
was

time to shoot it. Muller and Wen¬
ders sometimes discussed the logic
of various endings as they drove
from one location to another.
Rather than considering this kind
of uncertainty a problem for his

work, Muller feels that he is stim¬
ulated by the risk. He expresses a
preference for jumping right in
and

shooting a film rather than for
being involved in lengthy pre-pro¬
duction work or working with
storyboards, because he thinks
that the film really happens when
it is actually being made.
Muller quotes a line from
an unrealized Wenders script to
describe their working method for
previous films - "The adventure of
this film is finding the images for
the story." Since they work with¬
out a storyboard, it is entirely pos¬
sible for immediate impressions on
the location to play a large role in
shaping the story. Shooting in the
Southwest, Muller was particu¬
larly conscious, as a stranger in un¬
familiar surroundings, of trying to
wipe away pre-conceptions and let
his wonder or worry come to the
surface and work for him in ap¬

proaching
cause

I'm

an

image. He

not

an

says,

"Be¬

American and

the films of Wenders. He finds that
for himself, the advantages far out¬

not

weigh the disadvantages, "There is
more of a development in every¬
thing. You can invent new things

try that well, every place I go I'm
kind of baffled by what I see. I
choose a point of view that some¬
how translates how I feel or how I
felt the first time I saw something.
The impression it makes on me
flows into this whole decision¬

and fit them in the film and you
have no continuity problems. You

change the story halfway
through without being bothered
by an ending that you might have
shot already. You really work
from A to Z; you can grow in the
film. Everybody goes with the
story. When you shoot the end of
the story the shooting is finished."
The script for Paris, Texas was by
American playwright Sam
Shepard, but by the time shooting
can

living in this

cause

I don't

country, and be¬
know the coun¬

even

making."
Seeing things through the
eyes of an outsider is important to
Paris, Texas. Travis, it's main

character,

emerges

from

an

alco¬

Shepard was work¬

holic haze and a four year-long
state of amnesiac wandering to re¬
discover the look of the world and
to find himself no less an outsider
in his brother's home in Los An¬

in Country, making
his participation in changes more

geles where his seven year-old son
Hunter is being brought up by his

difficult. The story was

sometimes
changing and evolving from day to
day as Wenders worked with

brother and sister-in-law. He be¬
lieves his only hope of belonging
somewhere is to reunite his vio¬

the

lently separated family by taking

was

ing

in progress
as an actor

writer L.M. "Kit" Carson

March 1985

on
American Cinematographer - February 1985

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - February 1985
