The Travels of Bob Rafelson

Just as Jack Nicholson in $The King of Marvin Gardens$ left the safety and the dim light of the radio studio and laid himself open to the cold weather and winter light of Atlantic City, to experience the delusion of a dream, so did Bob Rafelson, from the very start of his career, lay himself open to the winds of change, to the delusions and utopias of the sixties. A select member of the most illustrious generation of American filmmakers of the sixties and seventies --together with Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Brian DePalma, Monty Helman, Terrence Malick and Peter Bogdanovich-- he infused new life into the American cinematic landscape by documenting the spirit of the counter-culture ($Head$, $Five Easy Pieces$, $The King of Marvin Gardens$), rejecting the stereotypes of the film studios.

Narrative ease, improvisation (in his earlier films), his personal journey and quest, a certain tone of sarcasm, film $noir$ mythology, the depiction of peculiar characters and a critical attitude towards America's unshakable institutions (e.g. the family): all these are ingredients of his directorial identity.

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