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Post by petrolino on Feb 29, 2020 2:11:28 GMT
Damn. I love James Dean - I never forgot his dates in my life, not once; no matter what state I found myself in, ever - only other actor I can say that about is John Cazale.
Anyhow, I know Dennis Hopper, Martin Sheen and Al Pacino are with me on this. Dean was unique; dangerous, quirky, deadly, funny, poetic, coarse, experimental, diverse, adventurous, multi-talented, supremely focused ... I think Hopper was right, that he would travelled down all sorts of artistic avenues.
Like Jean Harlow, who took her time putting the best foot forward, Dean became a uniquely divisive figure. I just wish he'd stuck around a bit longer, but alas, some things just aren't mean to be. Then again, maybe I'm just a sentimental fool.
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Post by OldAussie on Feb 29, 2020 2:17:51 GMT
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spiderwort
Junior Member
@spiderwort
Posts: 2,544
Likes: 9,340
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Post by spiderwort on Feb 29, 2020 20:52:47 GMT
Petrolino, I could go on for days and days about Dean. There was a time in my younger life when he symbolized so much for me, and inspired me in so many ways. And later I got to know and work with people who knew him well back in the day. I think he was a troubled young man, but a very gifted talent who I'm sure, if he had lived, would have done more and more interesting work, including directing at some point.
For a couple of years I lived in the Monterey Bay area, and every time I drove back and forth to L.A. in order to get to the I-5 Freeway I drove through Chalome where he was killed. There wasn't much there except a gas station and a cafe. It was strange to drive by there at first, but then I made peace with it. Not sure if they do today, but decades ago they had James Dean items - postcards and other things - that you could buy. I stopped in the station/store once, then never did again. There's a marker outside in his honor. I don't have the same attachment to Dean now that I had then, but the memory of that initial inspiration is still strong in me, and I will be forever grateful for it.
EDIT: I just found this, which might interest you; it may also make you sad. Look if you wish.
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Post by teleadm on Feb 29, 2020 22:53:57 GMT
I have to admit that it take a few viewings before I understood why Rebel Without a Cause became important all over the world, not just in the U.S.A.
The generation that came after WWII, who had it all but as the title wisely says was "without a cause", with an older generation who never understood why they weren't just thankfull and enjoyed their freedom. just as Dean's character says or don't say that a feeling can't be explained in a few simple words to satisfy the older generation, who was clueless how to handle the situation. Thinking psychotherapy was the answer, but never understanding the restlessness that material things doesn't solve problems, they just look good in the "happy housewife" world.
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Post by petrolino on Mar 1, 2020 0:07:48 GMT
Petrolino, I could go on for days and days about Dean. There was a time in my younger life when he symbolized so much for me, and inspired me in so many ways. And later I got to know and work with people who knew him well back in the day. I think he was a troubled young man, but a very gifted talent who I'm sure, if he had lived, would have done more and more interesting work, including directing at some point. For a couple of years I lived in the Monterey Bay area, and every time I drove back and forth to L.A. in order to get to the I-5 Freeway I drove through Chalome where he was killed. There wasn't much there except a gas station and a cafe. It was strange to drive by there at first, but then I made peace with it. Not sure if they do today, but decades ago they had James Dean items - postcards and other things - that you could buy. I stopped in the station/store once, then never did again. There's a marker outside in his honor. I don't have the same attachment to Dean now that I had then, but the memory of that initial inspiration is still strong in me, and I will be forever grateful for it.
I was driven by pure emotion when I posted about James Dean. It felt like blessed release.
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Post by petrolino on Mar 1, 2020 0:08:21 GMT
I have to admit that it take a few viewings before I understood why Rebel Without a Cause became important all over the world, not just in the U.S.A. The generation that came after WWII, who had it all but as the title wisely says was "without a cause", with an older generation who never understood why they weren't just thankfull and enjoyed their freedom. just as Dean's character says or don't say that a feeling can't be explained in a few simple words to satisfy the older generation, who was clueless how to handle the situation. Thinking psychotherapy was the answer, but never understanding the restlessness that material things doesn't solve problems, they just look good in the "happy housewife" world. The psychology behind Nicholas Ray's films is interesting.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Mar 1, 2020 1:35:58 GMT
Now at the Griffith's Park Observatory  location for  It was pretty cool going thru these same doors  |
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Post by petrolino on Mar 1, 2020 3:22:00 GMT
Jimmy Dean
Artist Dennis Hopper who actively sought to keep James Dean's memory alive
Jazz fanatic James Dean breaks out the bongo fury (he took heat for hanging out in clubs designated as "blacks only")
James Dean & Alain Delon : Rebel Icons
Rebel Icon Zbigniew Cybulski : affectionately dubbed "the Polish James Dean" in the mid-1950s
Rebel Icons : Longtime friends & James Dean fanatics, Al Pacino & Martin Sheen
Jimmy & Marilyn adorn walls in Prague, Czech Republic
“I think the majority of the American people then didn’t realize this was going on in the Southwest,” “Children of Giant” director Hector Galán told NBC News. “Everybody was aware of the Jim Crow laws against African Americans and what they had to endure. But those same laws applied to Mexican Americans.”
“Children of Giant” premieres April 17 on PBS. It is the season opener for VOCES, Latino Public Broadcasting’s arts and culture series on PBS.
A veteran, award-winning filmmaker based in Austin, Texas, Galán has produced and directed a number of documentaries for PBS, Frontline and others, including the critically acclaimed “Chicano! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement.” He said “Children of Giant” is an ode to the Mexican American families, much like his own, who endured prejudice in the 1950s and beyond and overcame it.
In returning to Marfa 60 years after the making of “Giant,” Galán explores the story behind the making of the film and its enduring legacy. He deftly weaves clips from “Giant” with interviews with the townspeople who witnessed this extraordinary confluence of fantasy and real life. Many were kids at the time and some found screen time as extras, their lives mirroring the controversial themes in the film.
Image: Hector Galán, director of the documentary “Children Of Giant”
In "Giant," Stevens depicted how Mexican Americans were critical to the success of the ranching industry in Texas in the 1950s and were valued for their skills and work ethic. Outside the ranches, however, they were not treated as equals, forced to attend separate schools and unable to get into restaurants.
Even in death they were treated as others. “Children of Giant” dwells on a barbed wire fence which is still a line of demarcation for burials at the cemetery. Whites on one side, Mexican Americans on the other.
Ironically, the movie was an open set, and whites and Mexican Americans intermingled during filmmaking.
“The movie was way ahead of its time,” Galán, who was born and raised in West Texas, told NBC. “Those are the stories my parents would tell me, the things they had to endure when they were kids. That’s what attracted me to this.”
“There’s a lot of young people who are actually unaware,” says documentary filmmaker Hector Galán. “This is a history lesson (for them). It’s not really an advocacy film, or hitting people over the head. It’s something that happened and let’s not repeat it.”
His father attended one of the so-called Mexican schools that were common at the time. “I can’t imagine what he had to go through, the separateness,” Galán said.
Not surprisingly, power brokers in Texas weren’t happy with “Giant” upon its release, objecting vigorously to the depiction of bigotry and class divisions. Boycotts were threatened, but never materialized. In "Giant," Stevens depicted how Mexican Americans were critical to the success of the ranching industry in Texas in the 1950s and were valued for their skills and work ethic. Outside the ranches, however, they were not treated as equals, forced to attend separate schools and unable to get into restaurants.
Even in death they were treated as others. “Children of Giant” dwells on a barbed wire fence which is still a line of demarcation for burials at the cemetery. Whites on one side, Mexican Americans on the other.
Ironically, the movie was an open set, and whites and Mexican Americans intermingled during filmmaking.
“The movie was way ahead of its time,” Galán, who was born and raised in West Texas, told NBC. “Those are the stories my parents would tell me, the things they had to endure when they were kids. That’s what attracted me to this.”
- NBC News
'Blue Jeans' - Lana Del Rey
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Post by petrolino on Mar 1, 2020 3:51:40 GMT
Now at the Griffith's Park Observatory The Indiana photography series is pretty stunning, including iconic pictures taken in Fairmount that become typically irreverent. Somebody should upload Dean's iconic pictures from when he was in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
"Jimmy had lived with our family for as long as I can remember; he was nine when he moved in after his mother died. I was born three years later, so he was more like an older brother. He called my mother, his father’s sister, “mom”. My grandfather built the farmhouse in this picture, in Fairmount, Indiana, in 1904, and I still live here.
He was a normal kid. He’d play with me, setting up electric trains on the floor, or put me on his motorbike and drive to an ice-cream parlour, with me sitting in front, holding on to the handlebars. He bought me this toy racing car. He was kind and playful; we were very close, and he called me Markie. “Jimmy” was a very different person to “James Dean” – not a rebel, but warm, caring and good at anything to do with the arts. But no one dreamed he’d be a star.
He left home at 17 for California. Once his acting career started, first there and then in New York, he would send us postcards, telling us when he was going to be on TV; he did a lot of TV shows early on. He was also an artist: he sketched, took photographs, painted oils and watercolours, and was working on a sculpture of himself when he died. His father wanted him to be an attorney.
This photograph is one of a series taken by Dennis Stock in February 1955, for Life magazine; he shot Jimmy in New York, in Hollywood, and back home in Fairmount. My dad picked him and Dennis up from the railroad station one evening and Mum cooked us a big dinner. I was 11. To me, he was the same old Jimmy, but my dad thought he seemed a bit nervous. When we said goodbye, he said he’d be back in a couple of weeks. It was the last time I saw him.
I was staying with my older sister when I heard about his death in September. My parents weren’t home: they had driven to California to see him. Jimmy’s dad called my sister to tell her. My parents found out when they got back. It was such a terrible shock. His funeral, at the Quaker Church, was the biggest Fairmount has ever had. His death changed our lives.
Today, I manage Jimmy’s legacy. I take the responsibility seriously – I try to make sure anything that’s done is in good taste. It was the 60th anniversary of his death a few months ago; it’s hard to believe he’s been gone that long.
He still has such a huge following. I think people relate to his personal life, losing his mother at such a young age. East Of Eden and Rebel Without A Cause were both movies about teens in conflict with their families, and a lot of people have had similar experiences.
Of all the photographs of Jimmy, Dennis’s pictures are how most people remember him. Without them, I don’t think I would remember much of the time he lived with us. They appeared in Life in March 1955, just a few days before East Of Eden was released. He’s very photogenic – I’ve never seen a bad picture of him. In this picture, I was having so much fun, and so was he."
- Marcus Dean
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Post by RiP, IMDb on Mar 1, 2020 8:11:37 GMT
One of my aunts (my mom's sister) and her family live there.
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