Post by petrolino on Aug 4, 2018 15:13:01 GMT
In March of this year, the independent classic 'Faces' celebrated it's 50th anniversary. It's been described as a gamechanger, a groundbreaking picture released during a particularly fertile period in underground American art cinema. The film is a character-based drama shot in the style of "cinéma vérité" in which Maria Frost (Lynn Carlin) and Richard Frost (John Marley) find their marriage on the rocks. In 2011, 'Faces' was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
"In 1968, a year before the moon landing, John Cassavetes released his fourth film as director. Shot and edited in the director’s own house, and starring his friends – who often doubled as camera operators – Faces was three years in the making. It was made outside of the studio system, on a budget of just $275,000. And yet the film bagged Cassavetes an Academy nomination for best original screenplay. Which is to say, there was something happening in movies in 1968.
A decade before punk bands proved it was possible to make great music with just a guitar, three chords and a fearless attitude, Cassavetes showed it was possible to make a great movie with just a 16mm Bolex, a group of dedicated friends and an insatiable curiosity about the human condition.
Shot on grainy 16mm film stock and set over one night, Faces zeroes in on an unhappy marriage in middle-class suburbia. The four words “I want a divorce” trigger a booze-fuelled night of infidelity, as the husband in question (John Marley) and an obnoxious businessman (Fred Draper) dance and sing gobbledygook with a prostitute (Gena Rowlands).
The wild guffaws soon give way to tears and trembling. At 130 minutes (trimmed back from an original three hours), it’s an emotionally bruising film about confronting a decaying marriage, replete with Cassavetes’ trademarks: intense long takes, handheld camerawork and performances that will take your breath away. Rowlands later spoke of Faces in no uncertain terms: “[We] gave independent filmmaking a new name.” Along with the director’s groundbreaking debut, Shadows (1959), Faces crowned Cassavetes the godfather of American independent cinema."
A decade before punk bands proved it was possible to make great music with just a guitar, three chords and a fearless attitude, Cassavetes showed it was possible to make a great movie with just a 16mm Bolex, a group of dedicated friends and an insatiable curiosity about the human condition.
Shot on grainy 16mm film stock and set over one night, Faces zeroes in on an unhappy marriage in middle-class suburbia. The four words “I want a divorce” trigger a booze-fuelled night of infidelity, as the husband in question (John Marley) and an obnoxious businessman (Fred Draper) dance and sing gobbledygook with a prostitute (Gena Rowlands).
The wild guffaws soon give way to tears and trembling. At 130 minutes (trimmed back from an original three hours), it’s an emotionally bruising film about confronting a decaying marriage, replete with Cassavetes’ trademarks: intense long takes, handheld camerawork and performances that will take your breath away. Rowlands later spoke of Faces in no uncertain terms: “[We] gave independent filmmaking a new name.” Along with the director’s groundbreaking debut, Shadows (1959), Faces crowned Cassavetes the godfather of American independent cinema."
- Oliver Lunn, The British Film Institute
Lynn Carlin & John Marley in 'Faces'
John Cassavetes & Gena Rowlands
"Actress-turned-singer Scarlett Johansson and singer-turned-actress Debbie Harry sit and chat View-style in a new Artist to Artist segment up now on MySpace. The two sip champagne in a recording studio while discussing subjects like meeting Peter Falk, making music in aquatic places and the 30th anniversary of Blondie’s Parallel Lines (The songs are still “so totally modern and timeless,” says Johansson.) Johansson only briefly mentions her album of Tom Waits covers, but maybe she’s just there trying to get the inside track over Kirsten Dunst to play the role of Harry in that upcoming Blondie film."
- Daniel Kreps, Rolling Stone
John Cassavetes, Elke Krivat, Ben Gazzara & Peter Falk
Seymour Cassel & John Cassavetes
Seymour Cassel & Steve Buscemi in 'In The Soup' (1992)
Steve Buscemi on John Cassavetes
