Five Easy Pieces + Intro 15

Five Easy Pieces was released soon after Jack Nicholson’s breakthrough supporting role in the landmark counter-cultural road movie Easy Rider.

Nicholson is Robert Dupea, an oil rig worker who has abandoned his privileged upper-class life and successful career as a classical pianist. Becoming troubled and disillusioned with his self-imposed exile, he plans to return home to his family, taking along his uncouth girlfriend Rayette (Karen Black).

While Easy Rider cemented Nicholson’s status as a great character actor, Five Easy Pieces proved his star potential; his performance as Dupea embodies the self-destructive dissatisfaction and alienation so common amongst the cinema of New Hollywood.

This screening features a pre-recorded introduction by Gaylene Gould, Founder and Creative Director of The Space to Come.