by Clarke Fountain
synopsis
Young filmmaker Halpern does homage in this documentary to a directorial veteran, Nicholas Ray, whose films included Johnny Guitar and Rebel Without A Cause. Ray, who initially studied architecture at Taliesen under Frank Lloyd Wright, was a highly regarded auteur director. At the time the documentary was made, Ray's filmmaking career was virtually over, and he was teaching film at Harpur College in Binghamton, N.Y. The documentary includes clips from several of the director's films, interviews with Natalie Wood, François Truffaut and others, and brief shots of him at work as a teacher and as a director.
