Nastassja Kinski is too often asked to look vulnerable and mysterious. In Paris, Texas, she gets to make us reconsider whose pain matters, and gives a performance worth the film’s demands on our patience.
Fi1m perspective
When Nastassja Kinski’s Jane speaks in Paris, Texas (1984), the plainness of the dialogue matters. She makes us attend to the effort of saying something painful, and to how much understanding a person can reasonably expect. We were moved by her because she makes it harder to feel sorry for Travis alone. His unhappiness can no longer be our only concern. This is the Kinski performance we recommend most readily, even when the film’s patient pace begins to ask more than it needs to.
Her work with Wim Wenders began with Wrong Move (1975); international recognition followed with Roman Polanski’s Tess (1979). The early 1980s brought a mixture of European and Hollywood work, including Cat People (1982) and Francis Ford Coppola’s One from the Heart (1982). She was repeatedly cast for a combination of beauty, vulnerability and sensuality. That can leave an actor with little to do except remain fascinating while other people do the talking. The reunion with Wenders in Paris, Texas gave her vulnerability a more demanding use.
Wenders gets something valuable from her by giving Jane a say in how we understand the people on screen. The script, credited to Sam Shepard and L.M. Kit Carson, keeps unpleasant feelings in ordinary language. Kinski suits that writing because her emotional isolation is clear without elaborate explanation. Her screen time is limited, but the part is central. We have to listen to what she can bring herself to say, not just wait for information that will move the story along.
The caution is that a gift for suggesting solitude can be used lazily. Mysterious, seductive parts have been a recurring feature of her casting, and mystery alone gives an actor little to work with. We would look for the roles that allow her this much difficulty in expressing herself; a beautiful, unreadable face is a meagre substitute for a character. Start with Paris, Texas, and do not expect it to hurry.
Biography
Nastassja Kinski is a German actress and former model born on 24 January 1961 in Berlin. She is the daughter of actor Klaus Kinski and has appeared in more than 60 films in Europe and the United States.
Her worldwide breakthrough came with Stay as You Are (1978). She received a Golden Globe Award for her performance as the title character in Tess (1979). Other films include One from the Heart (1982), Cat People (1982) and Paris, Texas (1984), in which she played Jane.
