Jack Nicholson places the most famous sandwich order in film history (Sony Pictures Repertory)
CABARET CINEMA: FIVE EASY PIECES (Bob Rafelson, 1970)
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Friday, October 12, free with $7 bar minimum, 9:30
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org
A key film that helped lead 1960s cinema into the grittier 1970s, Bob Rafelson’s Five Easy Pieces is one of the most American of dramas, a tale of ennui and unrest among the rich and the poor, a road movie that travels from trailer parks to fashionable country estates. Caught in between is Bobby Dupea (Jack Nicholson), a former piano prodigy now working on an oil rig and living with a well-meaning but not very bright waitress, Rayette (Karen Black). When Bobby finds out that his father is ill, he reluctantly returns to the family home, the prodigal son who had left all that behind, escaping to a less-complicated though unsatisfying life putting his fingers in a bowling ball rather than tickling the keys of a grand piano. Back in his old house, he has to deal with his brother, Carl (Ralph Waite), a onetime violinist who can no longer play because of an injured neck and who serves as the film’s comic relief; Carl’s wife, Catherine (Susan Anspach), a snooty woman Bobby has always been attracted to; and Bobby’s sister, Partita (Lois Smith), a lonely, troubled soul who has the hots for Spicer (John Ryan), the live-in nurse who takes care of their wheelchair-bound father (William Challee). Rafelson had previously directed the psychedelic movie Head (he cocreated the Monkees band and TV show) and would go on to make such films as The King of Marvin Gardens, Stay Hungry, and Black Widow; written by Carole Eastman, Five Easy Pieces fits flawlessly in between them, a deeply philosophical work that captures the myriad changes the country was experiencing as the Woodstock Generation was forced to start growing up. The film suffers from some unsteady editing primarily in the earlier scenes, but it is still a gem, featuring at least two unforgettable scenes, one that takes place in a California highway traffic jam and the other in a diner, where Bobby places an order for the ages. And as good as Nicholson is, earning the first of seven Best Actor Oscar nominations, Helena Kallianiotes nearly steals the picture as a crazy woman railing against the ills of the world from the backseat of Bobby’s car. Five Easy Pieces will be screening October 12 as part of the Rubin Museum Cabaret Cinema series “Happiness is . . .” and will be introduced by comedian Brooke Van Poppelen. “Living here . . . that’s what you want?” Bobby asks Catherine. “Yes,” his sister-in-law responds. “That will make you happy?” he says. “I hope it will. Yes,” she replies. The series continues with such other happy films as Fellini’s 8½, Truffaut’s The 400 Blows, and Bergman’s Cries and Whispers, held in conjunction with the larger program “Happy Talk.”