and i think that’s a goodbye.
“I'm actually sad to start this episode, can't believe that we really went through the whole filmography of Delilah Lawrence. Thanks to everyone who was patient enough to listen and bring more ideas about the movies and her craft! Social media is a terrible place, I know, but I love reading everything all of you say or when someone messages me just to tell how much they liked the new episode or give me a suggestion. A lot of new listeners came up when I was doing the Twin Peaks reading so a special shoutout!
Anyway... Paris, Texas. Delilah's last movie and also a rare occasion where one of her films is widely acclaimed by american film critics. The international crowd has always been a little more crazy for her, reason why people thought she left the country when she stopped making movies. So, she literally sweeped all the important awards of the season, earning a Best Picture and a Best Original Screenplay on the Oscars, and she barely left her home during the press for the movie. Everyone at the time was curious because it seemed to be a new chapter for Delilah, like she was saying ‘yes, I've been having personal issues, I know you know all about that, but I'm leaving it behind now’. People were anxiously waiting to see what she was going to do next, and then... Nothing. She totally vanished. Now I don't know if she really wanted to make her movies or if her plan all along was to make people think she wanted to, but it doesn't matter. The woman simply disappeared.
It's a very simple plot. Man and woman love each other. Man and woman can't make it work. Man and woman resent each other. Man and woman break up. They have a child together and they leave him behind so they can have new lives. The protagonist, the man, who obviously represents Delilah here — and I'd like to point out that there are only two movies here the character supposed to be Delilah are woman: Eraserhead, because it's kinda autobiographical, and Mulholland Drive, and we all know what happened after Mulholland Drive. Check out the episode about the movie if you don't! Alright, we learn that the man wakes up from a kind of coma after four years. He's been walking around, completely unresponsive to the world. He meets his son again, who was living with his brother, and thinks ‘this kid has to know his mother’. The thing is, the woman is gone. Nobody knows where she is.
When they meet again, she doesn't know it's him, because she is working as a personal stripper now, I guess, and there's a glass that separates and hides the customers from her. He starts telling their story to her, which is the most beautiful scene of the movie, and she promptly starts crying out of despair when she recognizes him. They discuss who gave up on their relationship first, but in the end it doesn't really matter. They loved each other once. They still love each, you could say. But the trust has already been broken, they can't do anything. He returns their child to her and leaves again, but this time in a happier light. Both have a new chance to restart. There’s no grudges anymore.
Now... I want to remind you once again that I don't know Delilah Lawrence, I don't know Vivian Scott, I have nothing do with their lives, I don't what happened to make them break up. But I know that losing Vivian, who was her lover and business partner, really changed Delilah. I think that with Paris, Texas she may have tried to acknowledge her issues? It's notoriously stated that she was the difficult one on their relationship. And the character of the child is very symbolical, you could see it as the representation of Delilah and Vivian's work together. They loved each other once, maybe the love is still there, but they can't be together anymore. Delilah knows that. She is smart enough to recognize both the importance of the past and the need for a new chance. And then she stopped making movies. (...)” — Donna Jo Buell on her indie podcast The Viewer’s Cut.