This article is a gold-mine. John Cassavetes’ films released on DVD, bringing out the discussions of his work.
There’s a guy out in California – an ex-boyfriend – who was my partner-in-crime in Cassavetes obsession. I always think of him when Cassavetes’ name comes up. I loved that guy. I’ve lost track of him … sadly. I am sure he has seen this article. I am sure of it. And I am sure that when he saw it, he thought of me, too.
Here is Manohla Dargis’s piece, with great background on Cassavetes
It was his fierce idealism and relentless optimism that helped make him who he was. He was also difficult, unyielding, chaotic. He was a huge drinker. He raced into the grave, basically.
The last paragraph of the article made a lump rise in my throat.
The hostility Cassavetes inspired has always puzzled me. Like Orson Welles, he didn’t always play well with others and he didn’t make all that much money for the movie industry. The other reason for the discomfort, I think, is that he called himself an artist. Many critics prefer their art with subtitles or not at all. Cassavetes dared to believe that art and movies were not mutually exclusive, and he never gave up on the movies’ capacity to move us, to make us feel, to connect us to the world and to other people. It says something about our age that it actually comes as a shock to hear him talk with such frank sincerity about his films as art, which he does in a French television interview included in the Criterion box set. For him, art was never a dirty word; it was a reason for living, the animating pulse.
I love Cassavetes and Rowlands. It wasn’t that he ‘called’ himself an artist–anyone can do that. It was because he WAS an artist that many disliked him. Compared to his films(their dialog, focus, themes, maturity, depth, etc), much of Hollywood fare was laid bare as pop entertainment. Even his acting was quirky and unusual. Thanks for mentioning this article.
Exactly. He just lived it. It can’t have been easy to live with him, because of that … but it was the only way he COULD live.
Sam Shaw, the great photographer, took a wonderful series of black and white photographs of Cassavetes, Rowlands, Gazzara, Falk – all of them cavorting by the pool in the Cassavetes back yard. One of the photos is John and Gena, cradling their dog between them, the two of them leaning in at the same moment to kiss the dog.
They are young, and beautiful. I have had that photo on my wall for over 10 years now.
I look at it sometimes and am reminded of who I REALLY am. It’s easy to get lost sometimes.
I remember during the last Movie Quote game I did, you guessed the quote from “Gloria” – I felt like we were members of the same tribe or something!
“Members of the same tribe” I like that, but I am reminded of Woody Allen’s famous line–“I wouldn’t want to me a member of any group that would have someone like me as a member.”
I thought that was Groucho Marx.
Groucho Marx, Woody Allen, what’s the dif …
I’m no expert on Cassavetes (or film in general), but I enjoyed Tempest enough to sit through it two or three times, back when.
Ken – I adore Tempest. Just LOVE it.
For me, those 2 have a magic together.
Cassavetes is in my pantheon of faves. The films he directed are endlessly fascinating and complex (and funny!) without being pretentious. But I adore his acting work, too…from Marvin and Tighe, to Mikey and Nicky, to the best-ever Columbo episode, to even the car commercial in Rosemary’s Baby.
For the record, it was Groucho.