Bob Rafelson

Bob Rafelson was born in New York to a Jewish family, the cousin of Samson Raphael son , who wrote a handful of Ernst Lubitsch films . He made compatible an adventurous life with trips to Arizona to attend a rodeo, or do pobratinas with jazz, with the study of philosophy at one of the prestigious Ivy League universities, Darmoutn College. When he did his military service he ended up in Japan, and there he got to know the cinema of Yasujiro Ozu , which he appreciated a lot, especially Tales from Tokyo .

As a filmmaker, he can be associated in part with the so-called “television generation”, since in the 1960s, together with producer David Susskind, he made the television show “The Monkees” for Columbia Screen Gems, dedicated to this band of rock. Precisely his screen debut was with Head , an anti-system film from 1968 co-written with his friend Jack Nicholson of him, starring “The Monkees”, and apparently devised under the influence of drugs; The actor went so far as to say that “you might think that I gave him the chance to start a career, but he was the one who gave it to me.” It wasn’t that it swept the box office, but it drew attention and made possible the creation of a company, together with their friends Bert Schneider and Steve Blauner, BBS (acronym for Bert, Bob and Steve) Productions, from which came a countercultural film that marked era, Easy Rider . His approach is somewhat reminiscent of Coppola’s with Zoetrope around the same time, and from there another mythical film by Peter Bogdanovich would also come out , The Last Movie (1971).

Very shortly after, in 1970, Rafelson would deliver, with Jack Nicholson playing the leading role, what is undoubtedly his best film, My life is my life , with a plot about broken dreams that earned 4 Oscar nominations, for best film , script and main actors, Nicholson and Karen Black .

Rafelson’s association with Nicholson was a happy one, and although the actor’s price was skyrocketing and all the directors wanted to work with him, there was time to work together on several occasions, in addition to the aforementioned they were together in The King of Marvin Gardens ( 1972), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), a remake of Tay Garnett ‘s classic film noir , with more explicit eroticism, the slightly deteriorated comedy She Never Denies (1992) and another sample of updated film noir, Blood and Wine (nineteen ninety six). The filmmaker considered the characters and their effort to be free from the confinement of the environment where they were formed to be very important in his films.

It is clear that the moral ambiguity and existentialist traits of film noir appealed to him, as he also filmed The Case of the Black Widow (1987), with wonderful Debra Winger and Theresa Russell , and the adaptation of an unfinished novel by Raymond Chandler in Poodle . Springs (1998), with the leading role of the deceased a few weeks before, James Caan . Even when it comes to tackling an unlikely genre like adventure based on historical facts, in The Mountains of the Moon(1990), about the explorations of the British Richard Burton, gives it a very personal touch, not suitable for all palates, this is not Indiana Jones. Although the greatest rarity in his filmography is the 1976 film I want to stay hungry , in which there were then young and unknown actors, who answer to the men of Jeff Bridges , Sally Field and Arnold Schwarzenegger .

Bob Rafelson married Toby Carr, with whom they had two children, and who was a production designer on several of his films. The misfortune caused the daughter Julie, at the age of 11, to die from a gas explosion. Toby suffered from cancer from which he recovered, and the couple divorced, although they remained on good terms. Rafelson’s second wife, Gabrielle Taurek, bore him two children. The filmmaker has died of lung cancer at the age of 89.