Director Nicholas Ray’s 1955 classic Rebel Without a Cause has been restored by Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation. Cinema Retro L.A. correspondent Mark Cerulli attended the recent premiere. Here is his report:
On November 1st, Warner Bros. unveiled a loving restoration of the James Dean classic, Rebel Without A Cause at a special screening at the Los Angeles Museum of Art. The project was funded by the Italian fashion house Gucci, which also threw a cocktail party at LACMA’s Japanese Pavilion before the show. Their party was attended by some of LA’s glitterati including actress Camilla Belle and original Rebel cast member Jack Grinnage (“Moose”).
Since this restoration was supported by Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation, the director was supposed to introduce the film personally. Work commitments kept him elsewhere, but he came up with a crowd pleasing last minute substitute – his frequent collaborator, Leonardo DiCaprio. The actor seemed relaxed and genuinely excited to be there as he read Scorsese’s statement about how the film was instrumental in fostering his interest in and love of movies – especially its palette of rich and vivid colors. (And unlike most celebrity presenters who duck out of events as soon as the lights go down, DiCaprio took an aisle seat and stayed for the entire film!)
It goes without saying that the film looked and sounded spectacular. The colors popped and Dean’s iconic screen presence, Natalie Wood’s fragile beauty and Sal Mineo’s haunting performance all came across as poignantly as they did on the day of release in 1955. According to Scorsese in the premiere program, “the original color negative was scanned at 8K resolution” and the sound had to be digitally sourced and cleaned from the original release print.
Although the film came out of director Nicholas Ray’s wish to portray “young people growing up”, it remains a timeless snapshot of 1950s America and a showcase for the raw power of James Dean.
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