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REQUEST

Is it possible that anybody who has bought the Cassavetes box could scan the two Cassavetes essays that are included in the booklet, namely:

- "What's Wrong with Hollywood," Essay by John Cassavetes
- "And the Pursuit of Happiness," Essay by John Cassavetes

I think those are the only two written by Cassavetes himself... You would do me a huge favor! I live in Europe so I have bought another region 2 Cassavetes box. But that doesn't include some of the extras of the Criterion release. And I would really like to read the essays written by Cassavetes himself.

I don't know how long the Cassavetes essays are, but you would really do me a HUGE favor if you could scan them and post them here or mail them. Thanks.

Oh wow, I'm thrilled to see so much discussion in this thread regarding The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. Not only is this set one of my favorite things in the Criterion Collection, but Bookie has long been my favorite film in the set. To me, this film is significant in that it encapsulates perfectly an emotional aspect of Cassavete's work that I find to be wholly unique: the feeling of being embarrassed for the characters. Cass manipulates his audience in such a way that we literally experience the same shame and humiliation he dishes out to our heroes. I felt the same way watching many of the bumbling and immature antics of the characters in Faces, and of course there is the humbling experience of watching Mabel and Nick act so foolish and unstable in A Woman Under the Influence, not to mention the cringe-inducing drunken fumbling of Myrtle and Maurice in Opening night… all just devastating. However, none of these pricelessly dishonorable scenes made me squirm the way I did while watching Cosmo's consummate fall from grace. To me, the most heartbreaking moment in the whole film is when he's riding in the limo to pick up the girls, he's fidgeting with one of the gaudy corsages he is bringing, and he says quietly to himself with a soft chuckle “…I am amazing…â€

Just received the set today, and about the only thing I can say is: WOW!! what a beautiful set. arguably one of the best looking and put together sets in my collection.
Starting to watch the movies this coming weekend. Can`t wait

I watched Minnie and Moskowitz the other week for the first time ever and as much as I love this Criterion set, it sort of feels incomplete without it. Haven't watched Husbands or Love Streams yet and I'm sure I'll feel the same way afterwards but right now M&M is probably my favorite Cassavetes.

How on earth he was able to weave such a romantic, realistic and heartfelt story around such misfits is the stuff Cassavetes legend is made of and we all should be thankful for that too. This one's a keeper and I'm certain I will be revisiting it many times in the future.

That's odd - I found M & M my least favourite Cassavetes by quite a stretch (I've seen all those in the boxset, plus Love Streams). It felt at pains to stick to a plot that didn't really allow for the characters Cassavetes had created and, most of all, an unsuccessful attempt to try and channel the tone and construction of Capra but in Cassavetes' mock-improv style. It's worth watching if you get the chance - aside from anything else, it made me realise how painstakingly constructed his best films must be, despite their apparent free-for-all nature - but it's definitely in the second league.

Anyone else hear an intrusive amount of audio hiss in Opening Night? I know Cassavetes worked with cheap sound recording equipment, but I've read reviews that called Opening Night the cleanest audio transfer, which seems like the exact opposite to my ears. I didn't even notice a significant amount of hiss while watching the other movies in the set, including older ones like Faces. Is it just me, or is that the case for everyone else?

This latest news about Peter Falk is disheartening:

Fears have grown for the Columbo star Peter Falk who is 80 years old after he was spotted on Tuesday afternoon near his Beverly Hills home looking dazed and confused.

Peter was spotted waving his arms in the air and muttering to himself. A passer-by said that the star looked to be disorientated and someone eventually called police but when the police arrived Peter refused any help. He was allowed to go on his way.

It immediately brings to mind the "What time is it?" scene from A Woman Under the Influence.

Rosenbaum reprints a very nice essay on Cassavetes' films on his blog.

A 2004 Charlie Rose interview with Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara and Peter Bogdanovich to coincide with the original release of the Criterion boxset (it begins at 24 minutes in).

Oedipax wrote:This latest news about Peter Falk is disheartening:

Fears have grown for the Columbo star Peter Falk who is 80 years old after he was spotted on Tuesday afternoon near his Beverly Hills home looking dazed and confused.

Peter was spotted waving his arms in the air and muttering to himself. A passer-by said that the star looked to be disorientated and someone eventually called police but when the police arrived Peter refused any help. He was allowed to go on his way.

It immediately brings to mind the "What time is it?" scene from A Woman Under the Influence.

This left me disoriented.

A Woman Under the Influence and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie are being released as standalone editions in October.

but not Faces?

This is strange news. If the boxset is going OOP, it looks like I picked it up at the right time. Perhaps they lost the rights to all the films except for Woman Under the Influence and Killing of a Chinese Bookie...

mfunk9786 wrote:This is strange news. If the boxset is going OOP, it looks like I picked it up at the right time. Perhaps they lost the rights to all the films except for Woman Under the Influence and Killing of a Chinese Bookie...

The box isn't going anywhere. They make a point in the email accompanying their sell-sheets of saying that the box remains available. They are just unboxing the two most popular titles in hopes of generating more potential sales. They've done it with Monterey Pop and 400 Blows too.

So I just got through this wonderful boxset, and in terms of academic material, this may be one of Criterion's best, certainly the best that I own. Just the sheer size of it... if you like grand-scale views, this is your mountain to climb!

However, I have to say... am I the only one here disappointed by "Faces"?

I had seen, and loved, all the films in the set with the exception of "Faces" by the time I had bought it, and I felt I was saving the best for last, considering the type of reputation it has. But when I was done watching, I felt a little puzzled: 'either i just saw the most uneventful piece of lauded cinema ever, or i just witnessed the precursor to nearly every American indie film that followed'.

I admire Cassavetes because of his merging of his particular technique and aesthetic sense with the inner life of his characters flawlessly, but I felt these characters had no inner life, and that the film was somewhat barren because of it. This film was all technique, considered so revolutionary at the time, but he essentially seems to be replicating "Shadows" among the upper-middleclass. In this film, Cassavetes equates his 'realism' with shouting. The actors seemed to deliver their lines, tonally and in their tempo, as if it were dinner theatre. Except Seymour Cassel, who managed to pique my interest in what was happening just at the right time.

As you can tell, I was let down a bit

I remember watching Gloria and feeling like it was a bad joke, and it shouldn't be considered a "real" Cassavettes..

I watched The Killing of a Chinese Bookie a few months later after blind-buying the 5 film set from Criterion and haven't watched another Cassavettes since. I do agree with some that it leaves an impression but his style doesn't appeal to me. I don't think the sudden close-ups are intense or emotionally engaging, I didn't care what happened to Cosmo, and I think the bizarre shootout towards the end of the film seemed like a way of reminding the audience to still stay awake.

I'm definitely not a Cassavetes fan but I would recommend at least watching Faces before you sell off your set.

Domino, its ironic you mention Faces as that's probably my least favorite film in the set.

Chrisandy, Chinese Bookie is a dense, dense film, to say the least. It has a peculiar rhythm that few filmmakers besides Cassavetes have ever achieved, one that lurches and so forth. One shouldn't go in expecting a De Palma style blowdown or a Scorsese take on honor among thieves. This film is arguably his most personal film in the box (I tend to think Opening Night is), one that explores the notion of art vs. commerce in a very unusual way. The film is, unlike a lot of gangster films, strictly about the business and day to day life of small time hustlers; it doesn't try to ennoble anybody, especially not Gazzara, who is brilliant here. The gunfight at the end is Cassavetes' ultimate compromise: this is what the audience is looking for, he seems to be conceding. But I think he peels it back to show how futile it all is.

And just a note about Cassavetes' use of close-ups: I like to think of them not as indicators of something dramatic, tense or revealing, but as one of Cassavetes' many ways of searching through his characters, needling at them. Like Robert Altman, Cassavetes takes time to wander and sniff stuff out.

Try and give some of the other films another chance. Try Shadows or Opening Night, they're a lot more accesible. I had to ease myself into Cassavetes before I truly began to love his work.[/i]

I also think the Killing of a Chinese Bookie is dense, just not in the way you mean

domino harvey wrote:I'm definitely not a Cassavetes fan but I would recommend at least watching Faces before you sell off your set.

I'm not a Cassavetes fan either (and sold my set after blind-buying it), but I'd recommend getting through the rest of the films before you sell. His films are all fairly different, so you might find one that you like. I liked parts of Faces and quite liked the long cut of Chinese Bookie. I pretty much hated everything else, though, so that's why I sold it.

domino harvey wrote:I also think the Killing of a Chinese Bookie is dense, just not in the way you mean

Yeah, well... Ben Gazzarra could take you down a peg or two

Matt wrote:

domino harvey wrote:I'm definitely not a Cassavetes fan but I would recommend at least watching Faces before you sell off your set.

I'm not a Cassavetes fan either (and sold my set after blind-buying it), but I'd recommend getting through the rest of the films before you sell. His films are all fairly different, so you might find one that you like. I liked parts of Faces and quite liked the long cut of Chinese Bookie. I pretty much hated everything else, though, so that's why I sold it.

Woman Under the Influence you hated, or found horrible to sit through? For me, although I think it's expertly done, it's just not something I want to revisit full length any time soon, kind of like Grave of the Fireflies and Breaking the Waves... Maybe it's because it hits a little too close to home for me...

exte wrote:Woman Under the Influence you hated, or found horrible to sit through?

Both, I suppose, but more the latter. I thought it was unintentionally comic and it felt like a Lifetime movie because of it. I find Gena Rowlands one of the most unauthentic actresses in cinema, and not in the good Miriam Hopkins way. I would gladly undergo two hours of underanesthetized dental surgery before sitting through this again.

Matt wrote: I find Gena Rowlands one of the most unauthentic actresses in cinema

Pretty much, which is exactly why she and everyone else is so good in Faces, as the showy artificiality of everyone's interactions is the whole point.

Matt wrote:

exte wrote:Woman Under the Influence you hated, or found horrible to sit through?

Both, I suppose, but more the latter. I thought it was unintentionally comic and it felt like a Lifetime movie because of it. I find Gena Rowlands one of the most unauthentic actresses in cinema, and not in the good Miriam Hopkins way. I would gladly undergo two hours of underanesthetized dental surgery before sitting through this again.

Good to know that I'm not the only one to feel that way about Gena Rowlands. I was disappointed when Almodovar paid a tribute to her in the finale of All About My Mother. I wish he chose Barbara Stanwyck or Anna Magnani instead. Anyway, Matt is absolutely right about Chinese Bookie being the best and I do like Faces which I find very gripping. I just love seeing those suburban wives (in their 40s and 50s) getting really fucked up and clawing over the poor Seymour - the highlight of the film for me.