Cassavetes

Started by (kelvin), August 16, 2003, 02:56:42 PM

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(kelvin)

Are there any films by Cassavetes, (esp. A Woman Under the Influence, Shadow) available on DVD? If so, they are somehow hard to find.

MacGuffin

"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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Pubrick

geez mac, u should work for the elderly.
under the paving stones.

(kelvin)

Thanks a lot, MacGuffin.

AlguienEstolamiPantalones

here is my take on him

overrated

in the wrong hands, people just rip him off wholesale and their films are even more duller then his

in the right hands, you can take elements from his films and add to them others and create something great

marty took howard hawks and cassavetties, and blended the two and added all sorts of other shit from all over the place


but some people just copy cassavetties, and they are too snooby to add anything differnt to the mix, and they just suck


now cassavetties films, i think the imporv caused the films to be awkward, im not a fan of imporv in the wrong hands

christopher guest can do it, john couldnt i think, but he did some new ideas that he brought to the table and people like marty took them and added his own shit and people like myself get influenced by marty so in directlly cassavetties has influenced me

(kelvin)

I watched Murder of a Chinese Bookie a few days ago, and the film had quite some impact on me. I had never seen anything else by Cassavetes before, unfortunately.
Ben Gazzara was just perfect in it, and the movie was, in my opinion, very intense, and "discreet", too.

AlguienEstolamiPantalones

Quote from: chriskelvinI watched Murder of a Chinese Bookie a few days ago, and the film had quite some impact on me. I had never seen anything else by Cassavetes before, unfortunately.
Ben Gazzara was just perfect in it, and the movie was, in my opinion, very intense, and "discreet", too.

that was his best film, and a example of what i mean in taking elements of his and tweaking them

i would never copy his work or study it, but he did have a few interesting ideas

Ghostboy

WOW -- read this and marvel at the amazingness of it all.

godardian

Quote from: GhostboyWOW -- read this and marvel at the amazingness of it all.

I actually have Cray's Cassavetes book.

But he wrote or said something in Film Comment once, calling Mulholland Drive as "smart-ass," that makes me take everything he says with a grain of salt. Plus, I'm rather ambivalent about Cassavetes (as a filmmaker, by all accounts he was a marvelous man) and find Cray's unequivocal admiration of Mike Leigh and Carl T. Dreyer easier to share.
""Money doesn't come into it. It never has. I do what I do because it's all that I am." - Morrissey

"Lacan stressed more and more in his work the power and organizing principle of the symbolic, understood as the networks, social, cultural, and linguistic, into which a child is born. These precede the birth of a child, which is why Lacan can say that language is there from before the actual moment of birth. It is there in the social structures which are at play in the family and, of course, in the ideals, goals, and histories of the parents. This world of language can hardly be grasped by the newborn and yet it will act on the whole of the child's existence."

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LostEraser

Yea, Ray Carney's writing is what got me into John Cassavetes and really made me see his films in a new light. Now he is one of my favorite filmmakers. Despite what most people think, his films were not imporvised. They were planned and directed by Cassavetes. Every detail of his films were thought out and planned to an almost perfectionist degree in fact. Even Shadows which has the disclaimer at the end that it was improvised. Only the first version that Carney talks about in that article was improvised. Then he reshot everything. And that's how he worked ever since. He encouraged impovisation but then that just inspired him to re write and re shoot everything based on the actors imporvisation. He is a true auteur and he created one of the most original styles in film ever. That whole grainy, amateur, seemingly unplanned and improvised look was his style.

Back to Carney, I really like his writing. I find it incredibly reshreshing and almost chathartic to read him actually. Yes, he hates David Lynch and many other filmmakers that I like. But that's just because he has a very extreme point of view on what independant filmaking should be. And it's great to read his stuff when there are so many film critics out there who see things in the exact opposite way he does. We kind of some one like him out there who only sticks up for the underdogs in filmaking.
Capra tells us that, in effect, love's dreams are only dreams and that they will never quite bear translation into practical forms of relationship and expression. They will never be realized in the world but only in our consciousness and in our most daring and glorious works of art - but that, for Capra, is no reason to abandon love's dreams.
--Ray Carney, American Vision: The Films Of Frank Capra

kotte

"I know men, I know all their hypocrisies, and what a pregnant woman means to a man, and what sports or non-sports mean, or philosophy, or culture, or what happens, and when it's interesting to talk about, when it brings tears to the eyes, and when it means nothing. The complexities of men are like the complexities of women. But they're definitely not the same."

- John Cassavetes, Cassavetes on Cassavetes

I'm reading this book and I love it. I love it because of many different things.

It's about a filmmaker's take on life but not just that. It's about a man's take on life. I feel it's as much about philosophy of life as it is about the philiosophy of filmmaking.

It's a story about a passionate man told by himself.

Read it!

Alethia

Quote from: kotte"I know men, I know all their hypocrisies, and what a pregnant woman means to a man, and what sports or non-sports mean, or philosophy, or culture, or what happens, and when it's interesting to talk about, when it brings tears to the eyes, and when it means nothing. The complexities of men are like the complexities of women. But they're definitely not the same."

- John Cassavetes, Cassavetes on Cassavetes

I'm reading this book and I love it. I love it because of many different things.

It's about a filmmaker's take on life but not just that. It's about a man's take on life. I feel it's as much about philosophy of life as it is about the philiosophy of filmmaking.

It's a story about a passionate man told by himself.

Read it!

yes!  i'm so happy you like it

kotte

Quote from: ewardyes!  i'm so happy you like it

I love it! :)

SiliasRuby

#13
Cassavetes is one of my other heavy favorites. A few months ago I saw a double feature of 'Minnie and Moskovitz' and 'Love Streams'. Quite a whirlwind of passion involved in the filmmaking, but Cassavetes has always had that. 'Love Streams' is pure him, you can feel his cinematic presence throughout this epic portrait of a writer on his last legs mentally. It might now be his best but it might be his most personal. I have seen 'shadows', 'faces', and 'a woman under the influence', which I think is his best. Do not have a favorite so far. I have not seen 'Killing of a Chinese Bookie' or 'opening night' but when I do I'll check in with you.
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