The films of JOHN CASSAVETES - part 1: An Introduction
July 29th 2010 13:33
John Cassavetes: The God Father of independent cinema
John Cassavetes Directing Shadows
John Cassavetes was an American film maker who has become more acknowledged for his influence in the creation of a more sophisticated and truthful cinema. Some of his most important films were once completely unavailable, some of his lesser recognized works are still unavailable, but concerning some of the people who were familiar with his work (Peter Bogdanovich, Martin Scorsese, Steven Speilberg), he was considered a force of nature and also the greatest actor’s director who ever lived, infact the acting in his films were so good that people often mistook the actors as improvising on camera, which is actually a myth.
Even though many students of cinema are becoming more aware of him, it seems his legacy has overshadowed the very films that made such an impact originally and the series I will be doing will hopefuly demystify many of his films, which baffled critics and inspired artists who wanted to make something complexly different.
John Cassavetes
His first film ‘Shadows’ was made in 1958 following the debuts of the first features by American independent filmmakers; Shirley Clarke (Portrait of Jason), Lionel Rogosin (On the Bowery) and Morris Engel (Lovers and Lollypops). Yet he is referred to as the ‘father of independent filmmaking’. This is probably due to the fact that his work as a director lasted longer than these other filmmakers.
Cassavetes funded his own movies from acting in films like ‘The Dirty Dozen’, ‘The Killers’ and ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, up until he died in 1989. Despite his success as an actor, he battled as much as any independent filmmaker to get his films seen. He continued to do so even in the face of sometimes commercial and critical failure.
His 1974 film ‘A Woman Under the Influence’ was his most commercially successful film and received Oscar nominations for Best Director and Best Actress, but he still battled to get the film seen as no film festival wanted to touch it. He finally resorted to asking Martin Scorsese to pull his own documentary ‘Italian American’ out of the New York film festival in order to help him get ‘A Woman Under The Influence’ into the festival for a Premiere.
Even though Cassavetes was fiercely independent, his films still grabbed the attention of many filmmakers, from Ingmar Bergman to Wes Anderson, inspiring generations of filmmakers to a position where Peter Bogdanovich (filmmaker, critic and writer) would describe him as “the most influential filmmaker since Orson Welles”.
Cassavetes with wife and muse Gena Rowlands
Through out the next three weeks I will be taking readers through all of the films he would make, discussing them, analysing them and taking you through how his body of work developed and sometimes went in very surprising directions as he created films, that provided a significantly different experience than most, beginning in 1958 with Shadows and ending in 1989 with Love Streams which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin film festival.
Keep your eyes open as this continues!
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
I really enjoyed reading these on my site, great idea to republish in your own domain.
We have discussed Cassavetes at length in the real world so have nothing more to contribute really.
Not until I watch the uncut version of Husbands at least, which i do have on DVD but haven't got around to watching yet.
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
The first week will be films you've already had me write about before on your site - but after that will all be fresh stuff - stay tuned, this time I'm gonna go all the way - it's gonna get exciting!
It's about time to start writing about some IMPORTANT films!
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Thanks for reading!
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight