“I guess every picture we’ve ever done has been, in a way, to try to find some kind of philosophy for the characters in the film. And so, that’s why I have a need for the characters to really analyze love, discuss it, kill it, destroy it, hurt each other, do all the stuff in that war, in that word-polemic and film-polemic of what life is. And the rest of the stuff doesn’t really interest me. It may interest other people, but I have a one-track mind. That’s all I’m interested in – love. And the lack of it. When it stops. And the pain that’s caused by loss of things that are taken away from us that we really need. ”
— John Cassavetes
The DVD of John Cassavetes’ Love Streams is finally available for purchase, either from the Criterion site, or on Amazon
My video-essay, “Watching Gena Rowlands,” is included in the special features. My friends had me over for dinner on Friday night so we could have a ceremonial viewing of it. It was great, a celebratory moment, both for the fact that this nearly-lost film, never out on DVD until now, is available to the public finally, but also for my inclusion in the Criterion release. I have good friends and I am grateful for them.
Scott Tobias, over at The Dissolve, has a very nice piece up about the Love Streams release. A commenter left the above quote from Cassavetes in the comments section over there, and it’s a beautiful quote, one that pretty much encapsulates Cassavetes’ obsessions and views on life.
