Bob Rafelson
Mit 15 war er Rodeoreiter in Arizona, mit 17 Matrose auf Transatlantikschiffen, mit 19 Jazz-Schlagzeuger in Acapulco und Radio-DJ in Japan, 1966 erfand er „The Monkees“. Gemeinsam mit Bert Schneider gründete er die Produktionsfirma BBS, eine Geburtsstätte des „New Hollywood“. Seinem Regiedebüt HEAD folgten in großen zeitlichen Abständen Filme quer durch alle Genres. In etwa jedem zweiten: sein Freund Jack Nicholson. Er wolle in seinem Leben nur zehn Filme machen, so gut wie FIVE EASY PIECES, das hat Rafelson vor 35 Jahren gesagt. „So malte er nur wenig und langsam, (…) am liebsten schöne Weiber nach der Natur oder solche männlichen Köpfe, deren Inhaber Geist, Charakter und etwas Erlebnis besaßen, (…) Heiße Sinnlichkeit, und eine geheimnisvolle Trauer waren ziemlich die Elemente seiner Tätigkeit.“ (aus: „Der grüne Heinrich“ von Gottfried Keller)
Im neuen REVOLVER-Heft gibt es ein Interview mit Bob Rafelson, auf das Franz Müller und ich ganz stolz sind. Aber das Folgende hat er uns nicht erzählt.
Bob Rafelson: I once had a conversation with Eric Rohmer who… I can’t remember which picture it was, it might have been CLAIRE’S KNEE, where he visited the set a year before he shot the picture and spent two days planting tulips in a garden bed around the house because he wanted a certain color to work its way into the frame.
Peter Tonguette: That’s extraordinary.
Bob Rafelson: Just by the way, at the time he and I had met he was sort of running out of Lincoln Center and I was sitting somewhat forlorn on the steps while a picture of mine was screening and a picture of his was screening. And I think I might have met him before, but I didn’t recognize him, and he just looked nervous and he bummed a cigarette from me. He was very shy and I said, “Are you Eric Rohmer?” And he sort of gave me a half-assed answer, like he could be or maybe he isn’t or who was I. I said, “I’m Bob Rafelson.” He said, “Oh, FIVE EASY PIECES?” “Yes,” I said. And I said, “Would you like to see my neighborhood? I was born just a few minutes from here.” And he said, “Yes.” So we got into a taxi and started to drive around and very slowly he removed an artificial moustache he was wearing and folded it into his wallet. [Laughter] And under that was the real Eric Rohmer. And we spent the whole night walking through my neighborhood and talking about our life stories and then—I think this was during the screening of Marvin Gardens—he wound up spending several years with the sister of my co-author. So that was the relationship. And we talked a little bit about framing and color and precision.