I remembered Red Hat Harry walking though the desert in the opening minutes, and the climax where he talks to estranged wife Nastassja Kinski through the one-way glass, but not the entire hour of movie in between. His brother Dean Stockwell has been raising the estranged couple’s son with wife Aurore Clément (a regular Akerman star) after both parents disappeared. Harry is mute and keeps walking out of situations, even gets kicked off a flight, but Dean wrestles him home and he finally softens up and tries to connect with the kid, usually acting like a kid himself, watching home movies of the parents in happier times. He borrows the truck and enlists the kid in trying to track down his mom via the drive-thru bank where she makes monthly deposits, then they follow her car and that’s how they find the peep show where she’s working for John Lurie. Lurie, Stockwell, Kinski and Stanton have all appeared in David Lynch movies – he might be a fan. After the German road movies I thought I’d rewatch this one in glorious HD before tackling the “ultimate road movie,” Until the End of the World.

I’m not above giving you the overused screenshots:

Claire Denis assisted… I’m not above the most obvious trivia either.

The kid is my age, Kit Carson’s and Karen Black’s son, later starred in a Tobe Hooper movie.