James Dean – the First American Teenager (1975)
Director: Ray Connolly
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Connolly's catch-all compilation follows the trail blazed by Joe Boyd's Hendrix movie: lotsa clips of the Star in action (including obscure TV footage and a 'rare' screen test), lotsa glossy interviews with those who loved or hated him, as much rock music as possible, and fragments of memorabilia like a hilariously stilted road safety commercial. The most lucidly evasive contribution comes from Dean's long time 'mentor' Leonard Rosenman; the most affably stoned from Dennis Hopper. But Connolly makes his reliance on the original movies a real problem: when someone mentions Dean getting into a car, for instance, we're shown a clip from Giant of him doing just that...and so the film constantly reinforces the Hollywood 'image' it purports to question. And the dismal coyness about Dean's sex life means the movie scarcely makes it even as gossip.Author: TR
Cast & crew
Director: Ray Connolly
Producer: David Puttnam, Sandy Lieberson
Cast: Carroll Baker full cast
Genre(s): Documentaries
Duration: 80 mins
Features
Gray's anatomy
James Gray wants to push buttons—again.
The next big thing?
Gigantic Releasing tries to rethink indie distribution…without movie theaters.
Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova, First Lady of Soviet Cinema
So you think you can dance, comrade?
Puppet master
Coraline director Henry Selick takes stop-motion animation into 3-D.
Socratic method
Laurent Cantet's approach on the set matches the message of his film.
Wander woman
Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy puts a Bush-era spin on the road movie.
Oscars
Read our interviews with the nominees, our reviews of the nominated films and more.

What do you think?
Post your review now