Celebrating its 40th anniversary, this restoration of Five Easy Pieces brings back to our attention one of the most notable collaborations between Jack Nicholson and director Bob Rafelson. Nicholson personifies Bobby Dupea, and the difficult, awkward life of a gifted man who hasn't discovered a way to fully express his talent, or find his place in the world –and maybe never will. Bobby is a classic misfit – disillusioned about being a musician, unhappy as an oil rigger, and unable to make a commitment to his girlfriend, Rayette, who hopes for marriage. When he visits his family home on Puget Sound after a long absence, things don't get better; they get worse. Bobby hates the repressive atmosphere: his brother is unbearable, his father can't speak, and his sister is involved with his father's supercilious male nurse. When Bobby sets his sights on his brother's fiancée, Catherine Van Oost (movingly played by the beautiful Susan Anspach), things seem like they might improve, until Rayette arrives and Bobby realises he is caught in a collision between his two lives.

Featuring the wonderful work of cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, and a soundtrack that skilfully offsets Tammy Wynette with Chopin, Five Easy Pieces is a terrific example of the kind of quality filmmaking which emerged from the USA in the 1970s which explored love, loss and the burden of the American dream.