Desert Films

by James Franco

written by James Franco

directed by James Franco and Peter Gold

with James Franco e Blaine Kern III and Elli Papadiamanti (opera singer) e Konstantino Diminakis (pianist)

technical director Nena Jimenez

sound Nena Jimenez

lighting Allie Jimenez

production Fondazione Teatro di Napoli - Teatro Bellini, James Franco & Ashton Ramsey

in collaboration with Theatre 29

James Franco brings to the stage his gaze on Hollywood: a world of myths, desire, images and shadows, where fame seduces and consumes at once.

Desert Films is an English-language performance suspended between theatre and cinema, reality and fiction, starring James Franco and Blaine Kern, and is part of a series of cinematic storytelling exploring the nature and price of fame. The work revives the Robert Blake–inspired character from the film Lost Highway, presenting him as a mysterious apparition who confronts a young actor — kidnapped and bound — and delivers an unsettling monologue on the seductions and traps of celebrity. The show deliberately creates an intimate and disquieting experience in which the audience has the feeling of witnessing something raw and immediate — almost as if a film scene were coming to life on stage.

Franco explains: “One of my main interests is Hollywood. I deeply love the art and craft of cinema and the people who devote themselves to it. I'm also very interested in stories that treat Hollywood as a kind of addiction, stories in which people love it so much that someone even ends up dying from being close to its heat.”