Godard made the famous pronouncement, “Le cinéma, c’est Nicholas Ray,” in his 1957 review of Bitter Victory, claiming that Ray alone was capable of remaking the cinema. This full-scale centenary retrospective, scheduled over two seasons and centred on the recent restoration of We Can’t Go Home Again, features many rare, restored, studio and archival prints of Ray’s films, providing the ideal opportunity to put Godard’s assertion to the test. In some of the most beautiful, personal and distinctive films ever made in Hollywood, and then in a series of increasingly difficult independent productions, Ray redefined commercial cinema. Even when constrained by studio edicts and economics, the restive Ray produced films that were daringly impulsive and sometimes rawly autobiographical, reflecting his profound understanding of and estrangement from the ethos of postwar America. From the brooding romanticism of his directorial debut They Live by Night and the emotional violence of In a Lonely Place and On Dangerous Ground, through the CinemaScope expressionism of Rebel Without a Cause and Bigger Than Life and the epic spectacle of 55 Days at Peking and King of Kings, Ray transformed his love of the forlorn, the vulnerable and the misfit, his identification with the abject innocent and angry outsider into a vision adverse to the coercive optimism and desperate conformity of the fifties. Poetic, pessimistic, high-strung and humanist, Ray’s films are set in a lonely place and on dangerous ground—the wounded psyches of often solitary nomads, strangers who keep looking for a home in a world to which they “have not been properly introduced.”
On October 30, Susan Ray will appear at TIFF Bell Lightbox to present a restored version of their groundbreaking collective feature We Can’t Go Home Again (1973-79), in addition to introducing the full-length restoration of Ray’s classic Bitter Victory (1957).
The Cinemas Is Nicholas Ray is programmed by TIFF Cinematheque Senior Programmer James Quandt. Hollywood Classics is a deluxe year-round series of American films, both canonical and cult, celebrated or unjustly obscure, presented as often as possible in new, restored or rare prints. Hollywood Classics screens every Tuesday and Saturday beginning October 2.DID YOU KNOW THAT..●
About Nicholas Ray:
Ray studied architecture under Frank Lloyd Wright, where he learned the importance of space and geography, and his later love for CinemaScope. (MUBI)
● Alan Lomax and Ray traveled around the south and recorded folk musicians for the Library of Congress. They were eventually hired by CBS to produce a regular evening slot headed by Woody Guthrie. (IMDB)
● Elia Kazan was called to Hollywood to make his feature film debut A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), and hired Ray to be his assistant, where Ray was first introduced to film making. (MUBI)
● Ray met actress Gloria Grahame, who became his second wife, during the shooting of his film A Woman’s Secret (1949) (MUBI)
● In the 70s, Ray became a teacher at New York University where one of his students was Jim Jarmusch. They developed a friendship and together made We Can’t Go Home Again (1976), half documentary and half fiction. (MUBI)
● Jim Jarmusch says that he often looked to Ray for script advice, and misses him to this day. (Wikipedia)
About Nicholas Ray Films:
● They Live by Night (1949) is remembered today for Ray’s unique use of the camera. It was one of the first times a helicopter was used to shoot action. (MUBI)
● Humphrey Bogart was so impressed with Ray’s film debut he invited Ray to direct his first independent production, Knock on Any Door (1949), for a loan-out at Columbia. (MUBI)
● During his years at RKO, Ray did uncredited touch-up work to film such as Roseanna McCoy (1949), The Racket (1951), Androcles and the Lion (1952), and Macao (1952). (MUBI)
● Bogart and Ray collaborated again on In a Lonely Place (1950) and the result is considered one of Bogart’s best and most complex performances. The film has gained a reputation over the decades as a classic example of both film noir and existential, heartbreaking romance. (MUBI)
● Lauren Bacall and Ginger Rogers were considered for the role of Laurel Gray in In a Lonely Place (1950). Bogart naturally wanted his wife to play opposite him, but Warner Bros. refused to release her from her contract. Rogers was reportedly the producers' first choice, but Nicholas Ray convinced them that his own wife, Gloria Grahame, would be the right choice for the role. At the time, Gloria Grahame was estranged from her husband as she was having an affair with Ray’s son from a previous marriage. She would later go on to marry Ray’s son. (IMDB)
● Johnny Guitar (1954), which Ray hated making, mostly because of Joan Crawford, was a box-office success. Today the film has gathered a cult status. Martin Scorsese is a big fan of the film claiming: “There’s really no other film quite like it.” (MUBI)
● During the filming of Rebel Without a Cause (1955) Ray and James Dean formed a very close bond, with Ray allowing Dean to improvise and even direct to his liking. (MUBI)
● James Dean, Sal Mineo, and Natalie Wood, the three lead actors of Rebel Without a Cause (1955), all died young under tragic circumstances: Dean died in a car accident, Mineo was stabbed, and Wood drowned. In addition, Edward Platt committed suicide in 1974. (IMDB)● Natalie Wood was first considered too naive and wholesome for the role of Judy in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Both Ray and Wood later claimed that he changed his mind after she was in a car accident with Dennis Hopper and someone in the hospital called her a "goddamn juvenile delinquent". (IMDB)
● The opening scene of Rebel Without a Cause (1955) with Jim Stark and the toy monkey was improvised by James Dean after the production had been shooting for nearly 24 hours straight. He asked Nicholas Ray to roll the camera because he wanted to do something. Ray obliged and the improvisation went on to become the famous opening scene. (IMDB)
● The French magazine Cahiers du Cinema named Bigger Than Life (1956) one of the 10 best films of the 50s. (MUBI) ● Average shot length in Bigger Than Life (1956) is 11 seconds long. (IMDB) ● Ida Lupino directed On Dangerous Ground (1952) for several days when Ray fell ill. (IMDB)
Cultural Influence:
• Martin Scorsese is a fan of Ray's, particularly his expressionistic use of color in Johnny Guitar (1954), Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Bigger Than Life (1956). He used clips from two of these films in his documentary A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995). (IMDB)
• Director Curtis Hanson states In A Lonely Place (1950) as an important influence on his direction of L.A. Confidential (1997). (IMDB)
• François Truffaut wrote essays about Ray (who is featured prominently in his book The Films in My Life). He asserts that They Live by Night (1949) is Ray's best movie, and gives special attention to his films Bigger Than Life (1956) and Johnny Guitar (1954). (IMDB)
• Wim Wenders is another European admirer of Ray's work and has paid homage to him in many movies. He even gave Ray a cameo in his film The American Friend (1977). He co-directed Ray's final film, the experimental documentary Lightning Over Water (1980), and edited it after Ray's death. The film is a touching portrait of the final days of Nicholas Ray's life. (IMDB)
• In This Is It (2009), Michael Jackson is edited into a scene of In a Lonely Place (1950), where he speaks to Dixon Steele (Humphrey Bogart) before being shot at by him. (IMDB)
• In 2007, James Dean’s famous line "You're tearing me apart" from Rebel Without a Cause (1955) was voted as the #97 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere Magazine. (IMDB)
• Jim Jarmusch “unofficially” dedicated his first film, Permanent Vacation (1980), to Ray, acknowledging his great debt to his tutelage. (James Quandt)
Quotes by/about Nicholas Ray: ●
“I’m a stranger here myself.” Nicholas Ray ●
François Truffaut once noted: “There are no Ray films that do not have a scene at the close of day; he is the poet of nightfall, and of course everything is permitted in Hollywood except poetry.” (David Thompson, The Guardian) ●
Ray once said of script writers: “‘It was all in the script’ a disillusioned writer will tell you. But it was never all in the script. If it were, why make the movie?” (V. F. Perkins, The Cinema of Nicholas Ray).
● Ray called himself "the best damn filmmaker in the world who has never made one entirely good, entirely satisfactory film." (Steve Ryfle, Los Angeles Time) ●
Robin Wood noted: “If there is a single recurrent image that seems to express the whole spirit of Ray’s art, it is probably that of hands reaching out to touch.” (James Quandt) ●
“A boy needs his father at certain times of his life,” Ray wrote in his autobiography, “so he can kick him in the shins, so he can fight for the love of his mother.” (James Quandt).
