Details by Film
Shadows
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Faces
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A Woman Under the Influence
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The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
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The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
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Opening Night
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A Constant Forge: The Life and Art of John Cassavetes
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Shadows
John Cassavetes' directorial debut revolves around an interracial romance between Lelia (Lelia Goldoni), a light-skinned black woman living in New York City with her two brothers, and Tony (Anthony Ray), a white man. The relationship crumbles when Tony meets Lelia's brother Hugh (Hugh Hurd), a talented dark-skinned jazz singer struggling to find work, and discovers the truth about Lelia's racial heritage. Shot on location in Manhattan with a cast and crew made up primarily of amateurs, Cassavetes' Shadows is a visionary work that is widely considered the forerunner of the independent film movement.
Faces
The disintegration of a marriage is dissected in John Cassavetes' searing Faces. Shot in high-contrast 16mm black and white, the film follows the futile attempts of captain of industry Richard (John Marley) and his wife, Maria (Lynn Carlin), to escape the anguish of their empty marriage in the arms of others. Featuring astonishingly powerful, nervy performances from Marley, Carlin, and Cassavetes regulars Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel, Faces confronts suburban alienation and the battle of the sexes with a brutal honesty and compassion rarely matched in cinema.
A Woman Under the Influence
John Cassavetes' devastating drama details the emotional breakdown of a suburban housewife and her family's struggle to save her from herself. Starring Peter Falk and Gena Rowlands (in two of the most harrowing screen performances of the 1970s) as a married couple, deeply in love, yet unable to express their love in terms the other can understand, the film is an uncompromising portrait of domestic turmoil. The Criterion Collection is proud to present one of the benchmark films of American independent cinema-a heroic document from a true maverick director.
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
John Cassavetes engages film noir in his own inimitable style with The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. Ben Gazzara brilliantly portrays gentlemen's club owner Cosmo Vitelli, a man dedicated to pretenses of composure and self-possession. When he runs afoul of a small-time gangster, Cosmo is forced to commit a horrible crime in a last-ditch effort to save his beloved club and his way of life. Suspenseful, mesmerizing, and idiosyncratic, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie is a thought-provoking examination of desperation and masculine identity.
Opening Night
Broadway actress Myrtle Gordon (Gena Rowlands) rehearses for her latest play, about a woman unable to admit that she is aging. When she witnesses the accidental death of an adoring young fan, she begins to confront the personal and professional turmoil she faces in her own life. Featuring a moving performance by Rowlands (and with some scenes shot on stages with live audiences reacting freely to the writing and performing), John Cassavetes' Opening Night exposes the drama of an actress who at great personal cost makes a part her own.
A Constant Forge: The Life and Art of John Cassavetes
Charles Kiselyak’s A Constant Forge—The Life and Art of John Cassavetes is a detailed journey through the career of one of film’s greatest pioneers and iconoclasts. Assembled from candid interviews with Cassavetes’ collaborators and friends, rare photographs, archival footage, and the director’s own words, the film paints a revealing portrait of a man whose fierce love, courage, and dedication changed the face of cinema forever.
Release Information:
Technical Specifications
Supplements
- New interviews with actress Lelia Goldoni and associate producer Seymour Cassel
- Alternate eighteen-minute opening sequence
- Audio commentary by sound recordist and composer Bo Harwood and camera operator Mike Ferris
- New interview program featuring actor Ben Gazzara and producer Al Ruban
- New conversation between actors Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara
- Poster gallery for Cassavetes’ Faces, Shadows, A Woman Under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and Opening Night
- Silent footage from the Cassavetes-Lane Drama Workshop, from which Shadows emerged
- Episode of the French television series Cinéastes de notre temps from 1968, dedicated to director John Cassavetes
- New video conversation between actors Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk
- Audio interview with John Cassavetes from the 1970s
- New interview with producer and director of photography Al Ruban
- Biographical sketches of the actors Cassavetes used in many of his films, written by Tom Charity (John Cassavetes: Lifeworks)
- Restoration demonstration
- Making “Faces”, a 2004 documentary featuring interviews with actors Seymour Cassel, Lynn Carlin, and Gena Rowlands and director of photography Al Ruban
- Audio interview with director John Cassavetes from 1975
- Stills gallery
- Audio interview with director John Cassavetes from the 1970s
- Stills and poster galleries
- Lighting & Shooting the Film, a study of the techniques and equipment used on Faces by Al Ruban
- Stills gallery
- Trailer
- Trailers
- Trailer