JAMES DEAN
US, 2001, 95 minutes, Colour.
James Franco, Michael Moriarty, Valentina Cervi, Enrico Colentoni, Edward Herrmann, Joanna Linville, John Pleshette, Barry Primus, David Proval, Samuel Gould, Amy Rydell, Mark Rydell.
Directed by Mark Rydell.
James Dean is one of several films about the famed actor of the 1950s who died tragically in 1955 in a car accident. He appeared in three films as a star: East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, Giant. They are still some of the most significant Hollywood films of the 1950s.
James Franco won a Golden Globe award for his performance as James Dean. There is a slight resemblance and he recreates the character and his life and work quite credibly. Michael Moriarty won an Emmy for his role as Dean’s father from whom he was alienated. The film is peopled with a number of real-life directors and stars including a potential relationship with Pier Angeli, work with Elia Kazan and Raymond Massey in East of Eden, work with Nicholas Ray in Rebel Without a Cause. Mark Rydell, the director (The Rose, On Golden Pond) appears as Jack Warner.
Many people commented that the film was not entirely accurate about the details of Dean’s life. Rather, it is an interpretation.
1.Audience interest in James Dean? His reputation after many decades? A cult and mystique about him, as a star, his films, his love of cars, speed and his death? Raising the question, what if he had lived?
2.The film as made for television, its television style?
3.The film about a film, the portrait of actors, auditions, a study of acting, ambitions and pressures? The issue of personal life of a star? Relationships, sexuality? Dean and the background of Method Acting?
4.The scenes of making East of Eden, his relationship with director Elia Kazan? The interviews, the scenes with Raymond Massey? With Julie Harris? The influence of Jack Warner? The build-up to the premiere? Nicholas Ray and the stars for Rebel Without a Cause, the fight scene? George Stevens and the moods and arguments for Giant? The image of his father, the oil? Jack Warner’s interest in him, happy after the success of East of Eden, the conracts? Love-hate relationship? The suddenness of his death?
5.The variety of characters and film stars and directors including Daniel Mann, Geraldine Page and a young Martin Landau? The names, the filming of The Silver Chalice?
6.The portrait of James Dean as a little boy, love for his mother, her illness, the poems, his father? His mother’s death and the funeral? The farewell? Going to Indiana? With his relations? The bike, growing up, going to California? His father and his wife? Wanting to act? His father’s distance from him, alienation? His being by himself, with Martin Landau, going to New York? Christine White and the audition? The glasses, eating? Television and the litter – and the phone call to his father? The play, the meeting with Kazan?
7.The relationship with Pier Angeli, Pier Angeli’s mother and her interference, the relationship, marriage and issues?
8.Elia Kazan as a father figure, fame, going to the hills, truth and the effect? The talk?
9.The portrait of Dean’s father, in himself, the grief at his wife’s death, alienation from his son – and the fictional final meeting?
10.Dean and his love for cars, speed, with Pier Angeli, the staging of his death?
11.Dean’s achievement, a Hollywood icon, the strength of his talent, his method and style, his being a rebel image, his personal life, selfishness, bisexuality, the hurt that he experienced, that he inflicted? The impact of a short life?
