Still Need to Watch: Too Late Blues, A Child is Waiting, Love Streams, Big Trouble
John Cassavetes was one of the very best and fascinating artists of the second half of the twentieth century. His work should be studied by everyone.
8. Gloria [1980]
It does not happen too often. but every once in a while a major filmmaker like Cassavetes directs their own script and at times it feels like a “director-for-hire job.” Do not get me wrong, I enjoyed this film, found Rowlands great as usual, and there is plenty of Cassavetes DNA very obviously in the film. There is an element of twee-ness and an almost Hollywood quality to the film that makes it infinitely less interesting than your typical Cassavetes film though. It simply does not feel essential.
7. Shadows [1959]
The debut film of John Cassavetes would be remarkable if it was released in any time period for its understanding and love for humanity. To have the vision to have orchestrated this piece of art in the late fifties though is in some ways hard to believe though. The film truly captures the deep inner struggle to know oneself, to be comfortable with oneself, and the turmoil that comes from being seen. On the surface, the film seems to recklessly employ the “tragic mulatto” stereotype with two of its three main characters, but the film (mostly) overcomes that sinkhole by staying true to the characters as people. Their existence does not reinforce white supremacy but more captures the struggle to be human.
6. Faces [1968]
“Just be yourself.” “Of course, I’m myself. Who else would I be?” “I’m serious.”
The fourth film from John Cassavetes captures the tragedy a generation experienced by marrying right away before they were ready and the experience of grieving for lost time. By the time characters such as Richard Forst were ready to confront the fact that the life they have built for themselves was one that they were forced into by forces they were not savvy enough to recognize, they have no choice but to choose between their own sense of self or keeping together their family. While the film could have been edited in a way to make the tension that would naturally come out of a dozen characters all facing that dilemma to varying degrees, the way the film just managed to constantly create scenarios where everything is going relatively fine until there is just a brief explosion was fairly brilliant and certainly true to life. Everyone in the film is just begging for help, and it is radiating off all of them throughout the whole thing. It’s in a very human way and chooses not to beat you over the head about it. “It’s ludicrous how mechanical a person can be,” and the pain we cause others as lash out to escape is tragic to the nth degree.
5. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie [1976]
What struck me so much about this film is how much of a nothing doofus the protagonist – Cosmo Vittelli – is despite in many ways his story is structured to make him seem much more like a traditional “hero” (for wont of a better term). And it is that tension that makes the film so fascinating. Cosmo is in deep to the mob, is trying to run his business well and with care, and is trying to treat his women workers well. He is just such a goddamn bumbling mess of an idiot and is so clearly responsible for all the problems in his life that it is a miracle that he has lived this long let alone survived the chaotic events of the film. The film in some ways seems like a giant joke in that way. Not to say there are not tender moments and all that, but in reality the film is about a bozo who somehow is the last man standing.
4. Opening Night [1977]
Opening Night puts on display the absolute horror show that is the tension between creating art and being a celebrity. There is something so paradoxical about art and commerce, and the absolute tragedy of that is beautifully portrayed here. While the focus is on Gena Rowlands obviously, the impact this dynamic has is clearly had on everyone on screen. Rowlands’ character has to carry the brunt of it though as the star. Rowlands is actively deteriorating rapidly and in deep need of help and is in desperate need of help. While people are concerned and attempts are made to help, there is no sense that there is something just completely and utterly fundamentally wrong with this whole setup. And that is what makes this movie so sad.
3. Minnie and Moskowitz [1971]
“The movies are a conspiracy…the movies set you up…and no matter how bright you are, you believe it.”
No one captures that the absolutely tragedy of what the world does to men and women and thus what men and women do to each other quite like John Cassavetes. Seymour captures so much how men get destroyed by the world and never have a chance to be “good.” He is simultaneously coddled and left abandoned to the wolves. He has no one to model himself. Minnie has been stuck between what she was told to expect from the world and the brutal reality awaiting her. She is trying to figure out how to navigate a world and find someone given that all of her expectations for the world were based on myths and fairy tales. Seymour and Minnie come together unexpectedly and it is a disaster in so many ways. Even if they were, deep down, right for each other, they have been so fucked up by the world that there is no way they can be good to each other because they do not know how. The film ends with them getting married and what feels like an ironic happy ending closing montage.
2. Husbands [1970]
“I think you’re too complicated for your own good.”
As Cassavetes was wont to do whenever he could, his film here explores the inner tragedy of the men of the world. He, Peter Falk, and Ben Gazzara are three married friends from Long Island who have just lost the fourth man in their group. They proceed to go one this multi-day bender warpath where they reveal just how fragile their individual and collective psyches are. All it takes is a small push to cause the house of cards that is their lives to completely fall apart. For so many, they put on a mask and put on a show every day to prove to some unknown audience that everything is okay. Deep down, so many people are on deeply unsteady ground. While these men in particular are the generation that suffered from fake growing up too fast before they had any sense of self, their stories speak to a universal human experience that so many suffer from.
1. A Woman Under the Influence [1974]
“Aw, sweetheart, don’t worry about me. I’m a grown-up. I’m fine. I’m happy. Really.”
There are so many things one could connect with or take away from this amazing piece of work, but I kept coming back to the still not fully accepted notion that some people are just not meant to be parents. And it takes a major toll on everyone involved. The moments that stood out to me the most throughout this whole thing though where the children of Falk and Rowlands took time to check in on their mom or validate their mom. It is so much effort children to care for and look after their mentally unhealthy parents but so many still do everywhere. Those heartbreaking moments are rarely captured anywhere in film let alone as well as they were here.
The Reel World 