Reviews
DVD
Five Easy Pieces
Directed by Bob Rafelson, starring Jack Nicholson, Karen Black
A year after Easy Rider was released, Five Easy Pieces not only confirmed Jack Nicholson's status as a bona fide star, it helped usher in a decade of filmmaking in the United States that would produce some of the greatest titles ever to come out of Hollywood. Unconfined by plot restrictions or the need to appease audiences with a happy ending, this is the story of a drifter who deliberately alienates himself from those close to him in an aimless search for identity. It also boasts some of the wickedest dialogue from that celebrated era.
Lines like "I faked a little Chopin, and you faked a big response" or the entire famed Chicken Salad Scene ("I want you to hold it between your knees") demonstrate that the writer and director Bob Rafelson was unafraid to let his protagonist, Bobby Dupea (Nicholson) speak with a mix of intelligence and insolence. Dupea isn't a "nice" guy, he's a confused guy who is capable of warmth and loyalty but is incapable of commitment and frightened by long-term responsibility.
And so he runs: from a family of musical performers to the oil rigs of middle America; from the arms of his pregnant waitress girlfriend to other women to whom he is not emotionally attached. Dupea drifts between social classes and finds small satisfactions but remains essentially directionless. Five Easy Pieces tells its story in a way that keeps us guessing to where we are being led. It is, after all, a portrait of a character that has no idea where he is headed.
Ben Davey
TV
Cao Xueqin
Directed by Wang Jing, starring Du Zonghua, Shi Lanya
This 30-episode drama offers a precious window into the life of Cao Xueqin, author of the classic novel, Dream of the Red Chamber.
Much of the story is based on research findings of Chou Ju-ch'ang and other leading scholars who have probed 18th-century Chinese history to discover traces of the little-known writer.
Political disasters struck the Cao family twice, between which the teenaged Cao enjoyed a few years of leisurely life that deepened his view on people's different attitudes as his family's status changed.
The drama is well structured, intertwining Cao's fate with assassination attempts on the emperors and the princes. It is indeed a feast for lovers of the novel and opens a gate for new readers to enter the treasure trove of traditional Chinese culture.
Cao himself seems to know too little about the basics of the society to support himself or his family. It's hard to believe that such a person would be capable of depicting profound characters in his novel.
BTV-1, 7:45 pm until the end of June
Liu Jun
(China Daily 06/14/2007 page20)
