Learning on ScreenJohn Cassavetes: Shadows / Faces
Shadows (1959) 2012. GB. Blu-ray + DVD. 82 minutes (plus 30 minutes of extras). BFI Home Video. Certificate PG. Price: £19.99
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Faces (1968). 2012. GB. Blu-ray + DVD. 130 minutes (plus 80 minutes of extras). BFI Home Video. Certificate 15. Price: £19.99
About the Author: Dr Brian Hoyle lectures in film studies at the University of Dundee and is currently completing a monograph on the films of John Boorman and researching articles on Ken Russell and the Pre-Raphaelites; Music in the films of Powell and Pressburger and Benjamin Britten at the BBC. He has also recently contributed entries on ‘British Art Cinema’ and several key British art films to Intellect Press’ forthcoming Directory of British Cinema.
E-mail: B.P.Hoyle@dundee.ac.uk
… superb releases of two pivotal, uncompromising American movies
The British Film Institute (BFI) continues its commitment to high quality Dual Format releases with this pair of pioneering works by John Cassavetes, the father of American independent cinema. Although they were made almost a decade apart, Shadows (1959) and Faces (1968) are companion pieces of a kind. The earlier film, Cassavetes’ directorial debut, was a semi-professional experiment which grew out of a series of amateur workshops the actor organised in New York. Upon its release, the film’s use of Manhattan locations, jarring cuts and a bebop score, drew comparisons with the French New Wave. However, Shadows shares a kinship with the avant-garde works of American filmmakers such as Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage and Jonas Mekas. Indeed, Mekas called the first version of Shadows (released in 1958) a masterpiece and was incensed when Cassavetes shot new sequences and recut the film a year later (it is the director’s second, preferred version, that is included here).
Faces marked a return to independent filmmaking after two rather unhappy, but interesting, studio features, Two Late Blues (1961) and A Child is Waiting (1963). Like Shadows, this portrait of a failing marriage grew out of improvisations. However, the final film was largely scripted and the acting is simply in a different league to those in the earlier effort. Indeed, John Marley, Gena Rowland (the director’s wife), Lynn Carlin and Seymour Cassel give some of the most emotionally raw performances in American cinema. (The last two received Oscar nominations for their efforts, which was unprecedented for an independently made non-union film.) Further, while one hesitates to use the word ‘polished’ to describe a Cassavetes film, as his work thrives on rough edges, Shadows is notably more confident that its predecessor in every department. It was also a great popular success, which was instrumental in convincing Hollywood to (temporarily) stop making bloated spectacles and to concentrate on small, director-led films for adults.
Gena Rowlands in 'Faces' (BFI)
