If not Michele Cuciuffo, who could play Travis? Travis, this infinitely sad man who stumbles through the desert in Wim Wenders’ film “Paris, Texas”, appears in the loneliest pub in the world, eats a few ice cubes there and then falls over. Travis, whose secret you only find out at the very end of a very long film, Travis, who says the first word in the film after 25 minutes, “Paris”.
Cuciuffo’s silence on the Central Theater stage is more interesting (and brief) than Harry Dean Stanton ever does in the film. He just has to be there, with his body and his face, in which one could read, make up a hundred stories. You don’t have to be familiar with the original film to immediately guess that this man carries pain and an unquenchable longing within him, that there must have been storming and raging inside him, and that this storm has given way to a huge emptiness that he never fill it again, but with which he will come to terms. Which Michele Cuciuffo also shows with a very great human truth.
At the Central Theater they continue the line of bringing big film material to the small stage without hesitation. Josef Rödl also created a film background that crops up again and again, he shot with Cuciuffo, not in Texas, but in a similarly desolate gravel pit. That fits, only the kepi has a different color than the original. Nevertheless, the age of the material is noticeable – the film was released in German cinemas in early 1985, and so much Lonesome cowboyAttitude paired with an image of women in need of renovation is a little irritating today. But at least Rödl has a lot less Ry Cooder bottleneck guitar blues, and Daron Yates (Travis’ brother Walt), Luisa Böse (Travis’ life love Jane), Lance Kalota (Travis’ son Hunter) and of course Cuciuffo make the love ballad nice and vivid. Rödl could only give them a little more time. Everything runs perfectly, but there is no need to hurry here (until September 27th).