We celebrate this July 4th by looking back at a iconic American classic ‘Five Easy Pieces’. The film is best known for its memorable scene inside a Denny’s Diner, so I thought it would be fun to show some stills of that scene being filmed, which was in November of 1969 as well as what those same locations look like today. First, here’s a shot of the scene where Jack Nicholson confronts a stubborn waitress (played by Lorna Thayer).
Here’s how that very same booth looks like today:
The film was shot at a Denny’s restaurant in Eugene, Oregon. Here’s some shots of its exterior in 1969:
Here’s a shot of the restaurant today. Surprisingly it hasn’t changed too much:
Here’s a shot of the lighting equipment used for the scene:
Here’s the sign customers saw on the Denny’s door the day the movie was shot.
Cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs getting ready to shoot the classic scene:
Here’s Director Bob Rafelson, Karen Black, Lorna Thayer, and Jack Nicholson sitting around the lunch table and rehearsing their lines for the now famous scene:
Kovacs checks the lighting levels as Nicholson and Black prepare:
Getting the boom mike into place:
Here’s a shot of the final scene where Nicholson decides to abandon Black:
And here’s how that location looks like today:
Scopophilia 