Acclaimed director Bob Rafelson ("Five Easy Pieces", "Stay Hungry") is followed in Paris by then film student-turned-actress Camille de Casabianca while he was promoting
the remake of "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and she tries to interview the man about his films, his artistic choices and whatever comes her mind. When I say she tries to
interview I really mean it since from the get-go Rafelson presents himself as someone who does not want to be there at all, it starts with him blocking the camera when he opens
his hotel door room then he explains some reasoning why he hates interviews but agrees to talk to her ("No one's gonna see this movie, it'll be a video thing"). Boy, was he wrong
and I saw it.
Truth is that the man was a real character, he was just pretending to be this easily annoyed guy who dodges questions, gives one or two insightful questions and makes some
deep analysis behind "The Postman..." by presenting some scenes, or even more strange than fiction but very real, he picks random senior ladies and gentleman to re-enact the
love on the kitchen table scene originally performed by Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange. And those non-professional actors had a quite enjoyable time acting, though it was a
tough scene to recreate. The young reporter who claims to not be an actress gets easily embarassed when Rafelson insists for her performance of the same sequence but it all works
out.
What did we get from here? He didn't take himself so seriously when it comes to consider himself an artist, he was just the director and didn't create high expectations to
each release and as long as he kept working he was fine. Looking at his career, which goes from the comedy "Head" (1968) up to the thriller "No Good Deed", there isn't much of a
characteristic or some evident trade-mark in his works except for his long partnership with Jack Nicholson on several projects - my favorite being the underrated "The King of
Marvin Gardens". We see someone quite unpredictable, somewhat fun to be with and a very free-spirited individual. It's really strange to see a fun portrait of a director talking
about himself and his movies. HIm? Modest? Sort of. He was a real gigantic character, larger than life and quite amusing to be around. 8/10.
