Five Easy Pieces (Milo Rau) about how we deal with the emotional shock and pain caused by an extremely upsetting experience. Milo Rau's "Five Easy Pieces" is also a reflection on theatre. The title "Five Easy Pieces" refers to a series of exercises that Igor Stravinsky composed in 1917 in order to teach children how to play the piano, and that were also called "Five Easy Pieces". The theatre production of Milo Rau is made up of five monologues, each offering a different perspective on how children learn to act and how they learn to grow up. Milo Rau sees his performances as "Lehrstücke", in
Jack Nicholson top five, including Nicholson's first for Best Actor. The role seemed perfect for Nicholson, with biographer Ken Burke noting that his "smartass demeanor balances his genuine concern for the treatment of his fellow patients with his independent spirit too free to exist in a repressive social structure". Forman allowed Nicholson to improvise throughout the film, including most of the group therapy sequences. Reviewer Marie Brenner notes that his bravura performance "transcends the screen" and continually inspires the other actors by lightening their mental illnesses with his comic dialogue. She describes his performance: Also in 1975, Nicholson starred in Michelangelo Antonioni's