Nicholas Ray - Influence

Influence

Certain French New Wave directors and critics (most notably Jean-Luc Godard) held Ray in high regard. Wim Wenders' films are indebted to Ray, from the casting of Dennis Hopper in Rebel Without a Cause and the expressionistic use of colour in his own film The American Friend, to the title of his science fiction film Until the End of the World (which were the last spoken words in Ray’s biblical epic King of Kings).

Interrupted, a film about Ray to be directed by Philip Kaufman, was announced for 2007.

In the decades after his professional peak, Ray continues to influence directors to this day:

• Jean-Luc Godard was a huge admirer of Ray and famously said in his review of Bitter Victory:

"There was theatre (Griffith), poetry (Murnau), painting (Rossellini), dance (Eisenstein), music (Renoir). Henceforth there is cinema. And the cinema is Nicholas Ray."

In addition, Godard's films abound in multiple references to Nicholas Ray's films. In Godard's film, Contempt, the character played by Michel Piccoli claims to have written Ray's Bigger Than Life and in La Chinoise, a young Maoist defends the politics of Johnny Guitar to his anti-American colleagues.

• Martin Scorsese is a fan of Ray's, particularly his expressionistic use of color in Johnny Guitar (1954), Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Bigger Than Life (1956). He used clips from two of them in his documentary A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies.

• Director Curtis Hanson is featured on a documentary for the DVD release of In A Lonely Place, giving his analysis of the film. The film was one of many influences on his direction of L.A. Confidential (1997).

• François Truffaut wrote essays about Ray (who is featured prominently in his book The Films in My Life). He asserts that They Live by Night (1949) is Ray's best movie, but gives special attention to his films Bigger Than Life (1956) and Johnny Guitar (1954).

• Wim Wenders is another European admirer of Ray's and has paid homage to him in many movies. He even gave Ray a cameo in his film The American Friend. He co-directed Ray's final film, the experimental documentary Lightning Over Water, and edited it after Ray's death. The film is a touching portrait of the final days of Nicholas Ray's life.

• At New York University, Ray taught and befriended cult director Jim Jarmusch, who became his assistant. In turn, Jarmusch says that he looked to Ray for script advice, and misses him to this day.