Rebel Dabble Babble

In the bank, in the beginning comes James Franco to ask us, Damon and I, to make a piece based on the rumors rumors of Nick Ray, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, James Dean and Dennis Hopper, and the time the time they spent in Bungalow number two at Chateau Marmont during the filming and rehearsal of Rebel Without a Cause.  What is said is that I wish to dabble.

 

Damon and I construct two sets, two re-creations.  The Bungalow number two at the Chateau Marmont, and the staircase in Jim’s house in Rebel Without Cause, an enclosure and a stage.  We begin to conceive of scenes/actions.  We audition people for the parts, the actors for Judy/Natalie Wood, Jim’s Mother/Natalie Wood’s mother and Plato/Sal Mineo.  It was decided that I/Paul would play the father and Nick Ray. James Franco would play Jim/James Dean.  Elyse Poppers as Judy/Natalie Wood, Suzan Averitt as Jim’s Mother/Natalie Wood’s mother, Jay Yi as Plato/Sal Mineo.

 

Session One, Episode One.  Two days of filming. It’s an encounter of characters, an improvisation, an abstraction of existing scenes of the film Rebel Without a Cause beginning with the staircase antics of Jim, the Father and the Mother and art world bedtime reading with Jim and the Father in bed.  Substituting rehearsals in the bungalow with life drawing lessons conducted by Jim’s father as Nick Ray with James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo as students.  The nude models, the friezes, the statues for the life drawing are Natalie Wood, Jim’s Father and Sal Mineo.  

 

Session Two, Episode Two. Seven days of videotaping without Jim, James and the Mothers, Suzan.  The bungalow is reminiscent of a head, a skull, a reliquary.  It is to be a requiem, a box, a stage for a fantasy play.  A subconscious Oedipus.  A mass for the dead, a composition or song, a token of remembrance.  Interchangeable archetypes, performers, characters, role-play of relationships.  Father and daughter, older male film director and younger starlet.  Older male, younger female.  Male and female stars and future stars.  The story of a love affair.  The bungalow the upstairs downstairs layering of the portrayal the trail of a cartoon.  A subconscious tracking, the house as a trap without a mother.   The rumors, Rebel Without a Cause, performance art memorabilia are a structure, a coat rack, to hang the action and the work on.  The characters in the piece are ultimately iconic, representing more than a singularity. Sex doubles for James Dean James Franco Natalie Wood Elyse Poppers, skilled professionals.  Pornographic director hired.  Nick Ray director films Nick Ray pornographer director.  They do what they do best.  They play a role.  They provide a service.   These actions are played out, reinvented, extended all in the attempt to create a house, a theatrical home of drama and trauma.

 

The bathtub, the film Splendor in the Grass, the tub scene.  The flip out.  Tub therapy.  Bathtub therapy.  Natalie Wood starlet daughter actress patient.  Nick Ray director father therapist, patient.  The action begins with water therapy then champagne therapy yellow shower urine and finally gravy therapy fetal fecal bath.  

 

Hollywood film is a populous medium along with its cousin the adult entertainment world, primarily financial and profit motivated.  Giving the population what it desires and what it is conditioned to want. The dream machine.

 

Art as a dangling participle.

 

 --Paul McCarthy