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Topic: Bob Rafelson

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	RollingStone.com: Mountains of the Moon Review
		Bob Rafelson's new movie has no stars, and its subject is British colonialism.
		Since the Sixties, Rafelson has dreamed of making a film about Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke, the English explorers who set out for Africa in 1854 (the first of two journeys) to discover the "mountains of the moon," the fabled source of the Nile.
		Rafelson's fondness for breathtaking vistas sometimes slows the pacing to Masterpiece Theater speed, but his commitment to stimulate the mind along with the senses fires the film.
	www.rollingstone.com /reviews/movie/_/id/5949017?pageid=rs.ReviewsMovieArchive&pageregion=mainRegion&afl=imdb (899 words)

	Untitled
		Bob Rafelson, labelled one of the kings of independent film in the late sixties and early seventies, was involved in the making of Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces, among others.
		Bob Rafelson's recollections of Cannes way back in 1968 are a little hazy.
		Perhaps surprisingly, Rafelson, a filmmaker acknowledged as one of the kings of the independents in the late 1960s and early 1970s, seems to be out of favour in present-day Hollywood.
	www.filmfestivals.com /cannes98/starsus7.htm (954 words)

	Bob Rafelson @ Filmbug
		Bob Rafelson is one of American cinemas leading figures, having distinguished himself over the past three decades as a director, writer and producer of a unique collection of award-winning and ground-breaking films.
		Rafelson later directed the psychological thriller BLACK WIDOW, starring Debra Winger and Theresa Russell in which Winger's hunt for a serial killer threads through a character study of the two women.
		An inveterate world traveler, Rafelson was drawn to the historical saga of explorers Sir Richard Burton and John Speke and their search for the origin of the Nile.
	www.filmbug.com /db/34980 (515 words)

	Bob Rafelson (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		Rafelson scored an early commercial success in 1966 when, with partner Bert Schneider, he created the popular series, "The Monkees" (1966-68), featuring a pop group manufactured especially for the show.
		Rafelson's output since the mid-70s has been sporadic, partly due to his reputation as a "difficult" director.
		Rafelson is the nephew of playwright-screenwriter Samson Raphaelson (1894-1983) (THE JAZZ SINGER, 1927; ONE HOUR WITH YOU, 1932; THE MERRY WIDDOW, 1934; SUSPICION, 1941; HEAVEN CAN WAIT, 1943; THE HARVEY GIRLS, 1946; et al.).
	theoscarsite.com /whoswho5/rafelson_b.htm (319 words)

	The Film Journal...Passionate and informed film criticism from an auteurist perspective.
		Rafelson’s camera, which is customarily stoic, goes in for an uncharacteristic zoom to Craig’s face as he lets loose, the film’s mise-en-scene reflecting Craig’s blissfulness.
		Reflection on Rafelson’s work as a whole, from the beautifully perceptive portraits of “odd American places” to his later so-called film noirs (a genre the director continues to masterfully manipulate to his own ends), demonstrate that he improved, not declined, and that his films are of a piece.
		Though Rafelson is wide-ranging in his allowance for various acting styles—from the menace of Stellan Skarsgard to the off-kilter, frequently comical insanity of Grace Zabriskie and Joss Akland—Jackson and Jovovich ground the film.
	www.thefilmjournal.com /issue11/rafelson.html (13596 words)

	Empire Information Services: News Story
		Bob Rafelson, maverick filmmaker and screenwriter will speak following a screening of his film "Mountains of the Moon" (1990), on Friday, October 7, 2005 at 7:00 p.m.
		Bob Rafelson is best-known for his critically-acclaimed collaborations with actor Jack Nicholson, including "Five Easy Pieces" (United States, 1970, 96 minutes, color, 35 mm), one of the most influential films of its era.
		Prior to Rafelson's film triumphs the director also co-created and produced the hit television series "The Monkees" (1966-1968), which received an Emmy for Best Television Show, and launched the successful career of the ersatz pop group of the same name.
	www.eisinc.com /release/storiesh/WRINST.582.html (486 words)

	VH1.com : Movies : Person : Bob Rafelson : Biography
		His breezy, patchwork writing style was perfectly suited to the Beatles-like TV sitcom The Monkees (1966-67), wherein Rafelson worked as writer, director, and coproducer (with Bert Schneider).
		Critics of Stay Hungry called Rafelson on the carpet for his credit-grabbing attempts to become an "auteur" director, even though these same critics had applauded Rafelson's auterism in his earlier productions.
		Bob Rafelson's most recent film was Mountains of the Moon (1990) a lavish but still distinctly Rafelsonesque period piece about a 19th century "anti-establishment" rugged individualist, explorer Sir Richard Burton.
	www.vh1.com /movies/person/95058/bio.jhtml (409 words)

	The DVD Journal: The King of Marvin Gardens (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		Rafelson, who got started as a writer and director for The Monkees' TV series, has a distinct talent for crafting loose, idiosyncratic moments that are both unexpected and lyrical.
		There are several such moments here, and while a few of them adequately capture Rafelson's free-spirited tone, he resolutely fails to incorporate these fleeting bits of novelty into any greater context or dramatic fabric.
		Why Nicholson continues to humor Rafelson's disputed talent as a filmmaker (and how their teaming survived 1986's romantic Man Trouble) is one of the small mysteries of movie history.
	www.dvdjournal.com /reviews/kingofmarvingardens.html (459 words)

	Guardian Unlimited Film \| Features \| Bob Rafelson: The King of Marvin Gardens
		Rafelson's portrait of a wintry Atlantic City as a down-at-heel holiday and gambling resort seems to point up the characters' disillusion.
		Rafelson, David Thomson has said, is "a raconteur of vivid, touching events, himself looking on from the dark".
		And in both films what we see are people we can't dislike, and who seem very real, struggling to make sense of lives which have ceased to be capable of the kind of redemption they hesitantly seek.
	film.guardian.co.uk /Century_Of_Films/Story/0,4135,117895,00.html (463 words)

	New York State Writers Institute - Bob Rafelson
		Bob Rafelson, maverick filmmaker and screenwriter, is best-known for his critically-acclaimed collaborations with actor Jack Nicholson, including "Five Easy Pieces" (1970), one of the most influential films of its era.
		The story of two brothers who become entangled in a bizarre get-rich-quick scheme in Atlantic City, New Jersey, "The King Marvin Gardens" is widely regarded by many latter-day critics as a film ahead of its time, and a touchstone of 1970s moviemaking.
		Rafelson and Nicholson also co-scripted (and Rafelson directed) "Head" (1968), the Monkees' feature debut.
	www.albany.edu /writers-inst/rafelson_bob.html (351 words)

	The House on Turk Street - Movie Preview (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		As Ackland sees it, first there was Rafelson, who has occupied almost legendary status in the film business since such epoch-making movies as Five Easy Pieces and The King of Marvin Gardens.
		Bob is also technically brilliant and, in my opinion, it’s independents like these that are saving this industry.
		Samuel L Jackson stars as Jack Friar, a cello-playing cop who is about to go on a long-awaited vacation when he is begged by a neighbour to go looking for her daughter, who has run off with her boyfriend.
	www.preview-online.com /jul-aug02/feature_articles/houseonturk (367 words)

	REELINSIDER.COM - FIVE EASY PIECES (1970)
		Titled with reference to a book of piano lessons for beginners, Bob Rafelson's 1970 drama Five Easy Pieces is the affirmation of Jack Nicholson's arrival as a big time movie actor.
		Among them is the awful confrontation of father and son with Bobby wheeling his paraplegic dad onto the grounds of their island only to crumble into tears trying to achieve forgiveness for crimes real and imagined.
		I'm not sure Rafelson's movie is an outright classic although it certainly influenced 1970 and stamped BBS and Raybert as production houses with an air of legitimacy.
	www.reelinsider.com /fiveeasypieces.html (1699 words)

	The Monkees (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		In mid 1965, then producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider (the son of Columbia Pictures exec Abe Schneider) auditioned existing rock groups, including The Lovin' Spoonful.
		Fortunately, according to Rafelson none of the groups had the "primitiveness they were looking for." The two producers came to the conclusion that only amateurs would have this quality and decided to hold auditions for the group.
		Rafelson and Schneider received 437 applicants, many of who would later become famous in their own right, among them Stephen Stills (later of Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, and Nash), Danny Hutton (later of Three Dog Night), Harry Nilsson, and Paul Williams.
	www.cvalley.net /~canote/monkees_1.html (2029 words)

	filmcritic.com Movie Review: Stay Hungry
		This setup doesn't sound like much -- but Bob Rafelson's quirky production is difficult to resist, thanks to lively performances by Sally Field and a young Arnold Schwarzenegger.
		Rafelson, who's lately been making films with titles like Tales of Erotica and Porn.com (the latter starring himself), knows how to put the right amount of oddball perversion into his movie.
		Rafelson, Bridges, and Field offer a joint commentary track on the new (and long awaited) DVD.
	www.filmcritic.com /misc/emporium.nsf/2a460f93626cd4678625624c007f2b46/63d43f53459bed6488256e9500700030?OpenDocument (362 words)

	SAN SEBASTIAN Film Festival 1996 - Films
		Pieces was not the first collaboration between Nicholson and writer/director Bob Rafelson: that had been two years earlier, when together they wrote Head, conceived as a vehicle for The Monkees, the pop group Rafelson and his partner, Bob Schneider, created.
		But, for Rafelson, it belongs chiefly with two of the early films which made Nicholson's reputation.
		Matters come to a head in the aforementioned father/son conflict when Alex's stepson Jason (Stephen Dorff) falls for his mistress, Gabriella (Jennifer Lopez, soon to be seen in the title role of the Selena biopic), and comes up with a plot of his own.
	www.filmfestivals.com /sanseb96/sfilm2.htm (340 words)

	Harry Winston Rare Timepieces at the BNL Taormina Film Fest (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		Yesterday, at the beautiful Taormina Antique Theater, American producer Bob Rafelson was awarded the Taormina Arte Award for Cinematic Excellence.
		Before the prize giving Ceremony at the Greek Theatre, Harry Winston partner of the Festival for the third consecutive year, hosted Bob Rafelson together with special guests for a private cocktail at the Rare Timepieces Club located on the splendid terrace of the Timeo Hotel.
		Bob Rafelson was awarded the Taormina Arte Award for Cinematic Excellence.
	www.hwrt.ch /taormina/17_06.htm (202 words)

	Amazon.co.uk: Mountains Of The Moon [1989]: DVD (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		In director Bob Rafelson's MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON, Richard Francis Burton (Patrick Bergin) and John Hanning Speke (Iain Glen), two of history's most remarkable adventurers, set out to Africa in 1854 to find the mysterious source of the Nile River, their expedition supported by the Royal Geographic Society.
		Their quest is treacherous--the two men face intense hardship in the African wilderness and must confront native tribes that proceed to capture them and hold Burton hostage while torturing him.
		Bob Rafaelson, the man behind the camera, does not feel the need to spare the audience of any graphic details from the expeditions (including spearings, native sex, castrations, and ugly political maneuvering), and in the end, this is the best way to go since sparing us would have cheated us.
	www.amazon.co.uk /exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000AGVPQ (589 words)

	Head (movie) -- Facts, Info, and Encyclopedia article (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		It was written and produced by Bob Rafelson and (additional info and facts about Jack Nicholson) Jack Nicholson, and directed by Rafelson.
		Writers: Bob Rafelson, (additional info and facts about Jack Nicholson) Jack Nicholson, the (additional info and facts about Monkees) Monkees (uncredited)
		Producers: Bob Rafelson, Bert Schneider, (additional info and facts about Jack Nicholson) Jack Nicholson, Ward Sylvester
	www.absoluteastronomy.com /encyclopedia/h/he/head_(movie).htm (467 words)

	Blood and Wine (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		The film is full of angry people--Alex and Suzanne fight, Victor is ailing and has no time for niceties as he and Alex try to regain the necklace, Gabriella is continually anxious because she is an illegal immigrant, and Jason hates Alex.
		Director Bob Rafelson stirs up the stew as Caine, Lopez, Dorff, and the particularly great Davis give fine support to Nicholson's portrayal of a weary but determined man, mad at himself for letting life’s obstacles get in his way.
		BLOOD AND WINE is the sixth movie director Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson collaborated on.
	www.videoflicks.com /titles/1074/1074442.htm?14107 (696 words)

	Amazon.com: Stay Hungry (1976): DVD (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		Wealthy and aimless, he is involved in a real estate deal with a group of high-powered partners--and his only responsibility in the whole shebang is to evict the tenants of one building that needs to be torn down and has a gym filled with body builders.
		For a film with the kind of ensemble star power that this art-film had, one woul d be surprised to find that it also was the first serious role for future mega-star Arnold Schwarzenegger, playing a suprisingly articulate and overwhelmingly personally irresistable bodybuilder, in essence, himself.
		The plot is a bit silly and contrived; Bridges plays a down on his luck good ole boy, who tries unsuccesfully at first to ploy his charm into talking the owner of a small and musty gym into relinquishing his lease so Bridges' shady real estate partners can go ahead with a big down-town development.
	www.amazon.com /exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00018YC3M?v=glance (1472 words)

	BLACK WIDOW - DVD
		Scripted by '80s stalwart Ronald Bass and directed by fallen '70s wunderkind Bob Rafelson, it's a coldly professional piece of work that combines some clear (if obvious) Hitchcockian doubling with the director's patented sterile master shots.
		Combined with Rafelson's spacious compositions and drab pastels, Black Widow makes for an experience that is mechanically flawless but lacking in soul.
		While day scenes squeeze what they can from Rafelson's muted '80s palette, there's a slight fuzziness to the image that detracts; night scenes lack detail, and are occasionally beset by the jaggies.
	www.filmfreakcentral.net /dvdreviews/blackwidow.htm (601 words)

	Head (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		- All four Monkees, Bob Rafelson, Bert Schnieder, and Jack Nicholson spent a full weekend in Ojai, CA throwing out ideas for the movie, speaking into a tape recorder.
		The Monkees Micky Dolenz, Mike Nesmith, Davy Jones and Peter Tork didn't really enjoy being labeled the pre-Fab Four back when their TV series was all the rage in 1966.
		With the help and support of Bob Rafaelson (co-producer, co-writer and director) and Jack Nicholson (co-producer, co-writer, and, if you look closely, bit player), the Monkees expressed their displeasure over being packaged for popular consumption in the non sequitur masterpiece Head.
	www.monkeesrule43.homestead.com /head.html (622 words)

	Head (1969) : Directed by Bob Rafelson, reviewed by Nick Burton (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		The film uses the Monkees' manufactured image as a springboard for a surprisingly sharp satire on the media that spawned them.
		Depending on which story you believe, the screenplay by director Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson (yes, that Jack Nicholson) was either thrown together arbitrarily or carefully crafted by Nicholson to illustrate the theories of prescient media guru Marshall McLuhan.
		The film is ostensibly a 90-minute extension of the TV show, a breathless, rapidly edited series of scenes satirizing the potluck of genres found in television's late night graveyards: westerns, war movies, horror films, etc. Costumes and sets change with a breathless rapidity reminiscent of the "war" scenes from the Marx Brother's Duck Soup.
	www.pifmagazine.com /SID/552 (645 words)

	Amazon.com: The King of Marvin Gardens (1972) : Video (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		Director Bob Rafelson creates a haunting story of disparate souls who cling to hopes that are as faded as the Atlantic City facade they inhabit.
		This movie has one the best performances by Jack Nicholson and proves that acting is more about being true to life than acting like you want to be noticed; that along with Bruce Dern's outstanding performance, playing Nicholson's brother, is what makes this film tick.
		I've never seen a movie that accurately portrays the dementia of the lower end of the middle class so well, as it does so without making them drunks or drug addicts which most people need to see, to understand how delusional these people are.
	www.amazon.com /exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/6302768802?v=glance (1527 words)

	Amazon.ca: DVD: No Good Deed (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		Samuel L. Jackson plays lonely police detective and amateur cellist Jack Friar, whose search for a missing girl results in being taken captive by a motley gang of dreamers, lost souls, and psychopaths on the eve of a bank heist.
		But the film's credulity is lost when Rafelson fails to convince us that Jack's honor-bound refusal to escape, despite a prime opportunity while nuzzling the defenseless Milla, is a good and honorable thing.
		Based on a short story entitled 'The House on Turk Street' by Dashiell Hammett, No Good Deed, is directed by Bob Rafelson.
	www.amazon.ca /exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000CDRW4 (745 words)

	Five Easy Pieces (1970)
		A second key scene is the one during traffic gridlock on a California highway, when the oil-rigger leaves his vehicle, jumps up on a truck stalled ahead, and plays a concerto on an upright piano located there.
		This was director Bob Rafelson's second film (and his best work) after he had directed the television pop band the Monkees in the mind-blowing Head (1968), a surrealistic and psychedelic film that was co-written with unemployed actor Jack Nicholson, the major star in this film, and emulated the European New Wave pictures of the era.
		Robert Eroica Dupea (Jack Nicholson), a talented classical pianist and musician, has rejected his well-to-do cultured family in the Pacific Northwest's Puget Sound area, and given up his promising career as a concert pianist.
	www.filmsite.org /five.html (1358 words)

	Five Easy Pieces
		It stars Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Billy Green Bush, Fannie Flagg and Sally Struthers.
		The movie was written by Carole Eastman (as Adrien Joyce) and Bob Rafelson, and was directed by Rafelson.
		It was nominated by Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Karen Black), Best Picture and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced.
	www.brainyencyclopedia.com /encyclopedia/f/fi/five_easy_pieces.html (299 words)

	Bob Rafelson Pics - Bob Rafelson News - Bob Rafelson Information
		Bob Rafelson Pics - Bob Rafelson News - Bob Rafelson Information
		The Monkees make fun of their pre-manufactured image and many other bizarre things occur.
		Tell the world what you think of Bob Rafelson.
	www.tv.com /bob-rafelson/person/69301/summary.html (54 words)

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