Bob Rafelson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Robert "Bob" Rafelson (February 21, 1933-July 23, 2022) was an American film director, writer and producer. He was most famous for directing and co-writing the film Five Easy Pieces, starring Jack Nicholson, as well as being one of the creators of the pop group and TV series, The Monkees (with Raybert/BBS Productions partner Bert Schneider). Rafelson was born in New York City, the son of a hat manufacturer. His uncle was screenwriter and playwright Samson Raphaelson. Rafelson and Nicholson have been collaborators for over thirty years. Nicholson and Rafelson wrote and produced and Rafelson directed Head, starring the Monkees, in 1968, followed by Five Easy Pieces. In subsequent years, Rafelson directed Nicholson in four more films, including The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), Man Trouble (1992), and Blood and Wine (1996). Rafelson has adapted the works of legendary noir authors James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, and Dashiell Hammett. Description above from the Wikipedia article Bob Rafelson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Works

The Monkees

Micky, Mike, Peter, and Davy are four young men in mid-1960s LA, members of a struggling country-folk-rock band looking for their big break amid madcap encounters with a variety of people straight out of TV and movie central casting, with full knowledge that their existence is part of a weekly television series

Release Date1966-09-12

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Charactersd

Episode Count58

Vote Count49

Leaving Las Vegas

Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his drinking, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with prostitute Sera.

Release Date1995-10-27

Charactersd Man At Mall

Vote Count1513

Stay Hungry

A dishonest businessman asks rich layabout Craig Blake to help him buy a gym, which will be demolished for a development project in Alabama. But after spending time with weightlifter Joe Santo and gym worker Mary Tate Farnsworth, Craig wants out of the deal. The property negotiations turn ugly, causing a brawl at the gym and a spectacle at a big bodybuilding meet, as Craig learns that it's not easy to turn your back on fair-weather friends.

Release Date1976-04-23

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Charactersd Man on a Sidewalk with Painting (uncredited)

Vote Count81

Five Easy Pieces

A drop-out from upper-class America picks up work along the way on oil-rigs when his life isn't spent in a squalid succession of bars, motels, and other points of interest.

Release Date1970-09-12

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Charactersd Man in Elevator (uncredited)

Vote Count539

Head

In this surrealistic and free-form follow-up to the Monkees' television show, the band frolic their way through a series of musical set pieces and vignettes containing humor and anti-establishment social commentary.

Release Date1968-11-06

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Charactersd Self (uncredited)

Vote Count92

Always … But Not Forever

A middle-aged couple, on the verge of proceeding with a divorce, find themselves questioning their decision to separate when fellow friends and neighbors, oblivious to their marital troubles, assemble at their house for a 4th of July Weekend party.

Release Date1985-10-04

Charactersd Sam

Vote Count3

Wet

The attractive Davida enters a shop shortly before off-time and wants to buy a bathtub. Just the manager is still there. As business is not well, he is willing to stay longer. Davida wants to try the bathtubs. Although this is not allowed in the shop the manager agrees. As if that is not enough, Davida says she wants the bathtub for two and needs to be sure it fits her needs. She wants the manager to take place in the bathtub too.

Release Date1994-05-04

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Charactersd Rejected Customer (uncredited)

Vote Count6

Mora

A reporter travelling to Latin America witnesses a murder through the lens of his camera.

Release Date1982-12-29

Charactersd Gangster

Vote Count1

On the tracks of a filmmaker

Release Date1988-01-01

Charactersd Bob Rafelson

Porn.com

Veteran film director Matty Bonkers, a Hollywood legend, arrives in Berlin for an honorary retrospective tribute. While introducing his film Mockery, he receives a phone call from his producer lying in intensive care at a hospital. Blau needs a favor for old times' sake. Could Matty finish a porn movie before his legs get broken by Tokyo Tony? Matty reluctantly agrees. On the set he meets movie star and ex-cello-player Inga - and the experience is bizarre spirited uplifting a comédie humaine.

Release Date2002-06-26

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Charactersd Matty Bonkers

Vote Count7

We Blew It

How did America change from Easy Rider into Donald Trump? What became of the dreams and utopias of the 1960's and 1970's? What do the people who lived in that golden age think about it today? Did they really blow it? Shot in Cinemascope - from New Jersey to California - this melancholic and elegiac road-movie draws upon the portrait of a confused, complex and incandescent America one year after the start of the electoral campaign. That golden age has become its last romantic border and an inconsolable America is about to pull on a trigger called Trump.

Release Date2017-11-08

Charactersd Self

Vote Count9

Sodankylä Forever

The Midnight Sun Film Festival is held every June in the Finnish village of Sodankylä beyond the arctic circle — where the sun never sets. Founded by Aki and Mika Kaurismäki along with Anssi Mänttäri and Peter von Bagh in 1985, the festival has played host to an international who’s who of directors and each day begins with a two-hour discussion. To mark the festival’s silver anniversary, festival director Peter von Bagh edited together highlights from these dialogues to create an epic four-part choral history of cinema drawn from the anecdotes, insights, and wisdom of his all-star cast: Coppola, Fuller, Forman, Chabrol, Corman, Demy, Kieslowski, Kiarostami, Varda, Oliveira, Erice, Rouch, Gilliam, Jancso — and 64 more. Ranging across innumerable topics (war, censorship, movie stars, formative influences, America, neorealism) these voices, many now passed away, engage in a personal dialogue across the years that’s by turns charming, profound, hilarious and moving.

Release Date2010-08-05

Charactersd Self

Who Is Henry Jaglom?

Hailed by some as a cinematic genius, a feminist voice and a true maverick of American cinema, dismissed by others as a voyeuristic fraud and the "world's worst director," Henry Jaglom obsessively confuses and abuses the line between life and art. Featuring scores of interviews (including Orson Welles, Dennis Hopper, Milos Forman and Peter Bogdanovich) and rare behind-the-scenes footage, this hilarious documentary explores the fascinating question of Who Is Henry Jaglom?

Release Date1997-07-08

Charactersd Self

Vote Count5

No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos

The artistry, triumph and lifelong friendship of the great cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond. With film school equipment, they shoot the Soviet crackdown of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. As refugees they struggle in Hollywood, finally breaking into the mainstream with their pivotal contribution to the "American New Wave."

Release Date2009-01-11

Charactersd Self

Vote Count11

BBStory: An American Film Renaissance

This 2009 documentary features directors Bob Rafelson, Peter Bogdanovich, and Henry Jaglom, actor-director Jack Nicholson, and actresses Karen Black and Ellen Burstyn, among others, reminiscing about the making of the groundbreaking films of BBS Productions.

Release Date2010-11-23

Charactersd Self

Soul Searching in 'Five Easy Pieces'

A video piece featuring director Bob Rafelson and actor Jack Nicholson, discussing the production of the film "Five Easy Pieces" (1970).

Release Date2010-11-23

Charactersd Self

Vote Count1

Modesty

Bob Rafelson: Self-portrait

Release Date1981-01-07

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Charactersd Self

America Lost and Found: The BBS Story

Documentary on the BBS company who released some of the best films of the 1970s.

Release Date2010-11-23

Charactersd Self

Vote Count1

Notre Dame de la Croisette

A woman goes to Cannes and, lost in its chaos and unable to obtain tickets, ends up watching it on television from her hotel room.

Release Date1983-02-23

Charactersd Self

Vote Count1

Reflections of a Philosopher King

A short video piece featuring director Bob Rafelson and actress Ellen Burstyn discussing the evolution of the characters in The King of Marvin Gardens (1972) and how accidents on the set proved beneficial to the film.

Release Date2010-11-23

Charactersd Self

Hey, Hey, We're The Monkees

Documentary focusing The Monkees, the 1960s pop group originally created for a TV sitcom. Interviews with the band members, the show's creators, and musical collaborators and peers are featured.

Release Date1997-01-22

Charactersd Self (archive footage)

Vote Count3

Afterthoughts

A 2002 video piece featuring director Bob Rafelson, cinematographer László Kovács, and actor Bruce Dern discussing style and process of the film The King of Marvin Gardens (1972).

Release Date2002-03-14

Charactersd Self

Vote Count1

The Greatest Show on Earth

Johnny Slate successfully manages his circus as it moves from town to town.

Release Date1963-09-17

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Episode Count30

Vote Count1

Black Widow

Federal agent Alexandra Barnes believes that Catherine Petersen is a serial killer who marries rich men and then murders them for their money. But since Catherine is seemingly a master of disguise and has multiple identities, Alexandra can't prove anything with conventional detective work. With no other option, she goes undercover, pursuing the same man as Catherine, and hoping that Catherine will slip up and reveal her true identity.

Release Date1987-02-06

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count207

The Last Picture Show

High school seniors and best friends, Sonny and Duane, live in a dying Texas town. The handsome Duane is dating a local beauty, while Sonny is having an affair with the coach's wife. As graduation nears and both boys contemplate their futures, Duane eyes the army and Sonny takes over a local business. Each struggles to figure out if he can escape this dead-end town and build a better life somewhere else.

Release Date1971-10-03

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Vote Count720

The Postman Always Rings Twice

The sensuous wife of a lunch wagon proprietor and a rootless drifter begin a sordidly steamy affair and conspire to murder her Greek husband.

Release Date1981-03-20

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count514

No Good Deed

While doing a friend a favour and searching for a runaway teenager, a police detective stumbles upon a bizarre band of criminals about to pull off a bank robbery. The screenplay by Christopher Cannan and Steve Barancik is based on the short story "The House in Turk Street" by Dashiell Hammett.

Release Date2002-06-28

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count193

Picture Windows

A series of dramas inspired by famous paintings.

Release Date1995-10-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count1

The Mother and the Whore

Aimless young Alexandre juggles his relationships with his girlfriend, Marie, and a casual lover named Veronika. Marie becomes increasingly jealous of Alexandre's fling with Veronika and as the trio continues their unsustainable affair, the emotional stakes get higher, leading to conflict and unhappiness.

Release Date1973-05-01

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Vote Count184

Mountains of the Moon

The story of Captain Richard Francis Burton's and Lt. John Hanning Speke's expedition to find the source of the Nile river in the name of Queen Victoria's British Empire. The film tells the story of their meeting, their friendship emerging amidst hardship, and then dissolving after their journey.

Release Date1990-02-16

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count75

Blood and Wine

A man who has failed as a father and husband commits a heist to make money for his fledging business, but things become complicated when his wife interferes.

Release Date1996-10-03

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count171

Man Trouble

A sleazy but affable guard dog trainer is blackmailed to steal a manuscript for a tell-all book from one of his clients.

Release Date1992-07-17

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count61

The King of Marvin Gardens

Jason Staebler lives on the Boardwalk and fronts for the local mob in Atlantic City. He is a dreamer who asks his brother David, a radio personality from Philadelphia, to help him build a paradise on a Pacific Island, which might be just another of his pie-in-the-sky schemes. Inevitably, complications begin to pile up.

Release Date1972-10-13

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count89

Poodle Springs

Private eye Philip Marlowe and his bride move to a desert town, where he uncovers a land scheme.

Release Date1998-07-25

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count21

The World of Sholom Aleichem

This omnibus release consists of three playlets filmed and aired during television's Golden Age, and starring some of the legends of film and television. The collection originally ran as a two-hour segment on December 14, 1959, on the anthology series The Play of the Week, broadcast locally in New York City via the independent radio station WNTA. Each "tale" in the anthology was adapted from a single tale by the inimitable Sholom Aleichem, regarded by many as the "Yiddish Mark Twain". Included are: "A Tale of Chelm" starring Zero Mostel and Nancy Walker in the story of a bookseller attempting to buy a goat; "Bontche Schweig" about a poor man (Jack Gilford) whose recent arrival in Heaven makes the angels cry; and "The High School" about a Jewish merchant (Morris Carnovsky) persuaded by his wife (Gertrude Berg) to let their son attend a particular high school despite the enforcement of quotas for Jewish students.

Release Date1959-12-14

DepartmentWriting

JobScript Editor

Tales of Erotica

A series of erotic short films, all with similar unexpected endings.

Release Date1996-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count8