John Cassavetes

First thing I have to say

RIP Ben Gazzara
(he died on February the 3rd)

February 7, 2012
Gazzara on Cassavetes
Posted by Richard Brody

(http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2012/02/gazzara-on-cassavetes.html#ixzz1lzA7zxbn)



At his Cinoque blog on the Libération site, Edouard Waintrop reissues an interview that he did with Ben Gazzara in 1995 at a film festival in the Southern town of Alès, in which the actor’s collaborations with John Cassavetes were on the agenda. It’s a good and substantial interview, in which Gazzara explains that Cassavetes essentially rescued him from the TV series “Run for Your Life” (“I was doing episode after episode, one more predictable than the other. Routine, boredom, factory work, for three years”)—adding, about the film “Husbands,” “It saved my life.” What he said about their next film together, “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie,” gets to the core of the matter:

"That was more difficult. I didn’t really understand where John was going with it. I didn’t see right away that the film was a metaphor that meant a lot to him. That these gangsters (Timothy Carey, Seymour Cassel) represented everything that comes along that interferes with, disturbs creativity, the sensibility of an artist; that the film talks about the price to be paid for following your dreams to the end. When I understood this, I took great pleasure in acting in the film, which is less directly accessible than “Husbands.” "

It’s a fascinating revelation. “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie” seems, on the surface, to be more directly accessible than “Husbands,” because it’s a traditional and familiar kind of crime story. But what Gazzara describes as the experience of acting in it matches my own experience of viewing it. (I wrote about it in the magazine when it came out on DVD in 2008, calling it an “allegory.”) One of the things that comes through in the film is the agony of confrontation with the powerful—an inevitable aspect of the film business, or of any business, but one that must have left scars on the soul of even as fiercely driven an artist as Cassavetes was. (To what extent was his self-destructive behavior intensified by his battles—which, in turn, it embittered?)

Near the end of Cassavetes’s life, he had a new project for Gazzara and Peter Falk, “Begin the Beguine,” which Gazzara describes as “very funny,” adding, “He had Peter and me rehearse, he filmed the rehearsals; for that matter, I’d really like to see those images.” Wouldn’t we all. I wonder how many projects, such as “Begin the Beguine,” were left in the lurch with audiovisual material remaining to be discovered. (Ray Carney, in “Cassavetes on Cassavetes,” says, “He made many audio- and videotape recordings of readings and scenes that interested him—including one of Falk and Gazzara in ‘Begin the Beguine.’ ”) The vagaries of DVD distribution are keeping some of his greatest films largely out of sight—“Love Streams,” “Minnie and Moskowitz” (though they’re all essential viewing; at this level of creation, it’s like ranking Beethoven sonatas)—and the two early-sixties studio films he made, “Too Late Blues” and “A Child Is Waiting.” But Carney reports that Cassavetes turned down a lucrative home-video offer:

"You think I want to be popular? You think I want them out on video? I want millions of people to see my movies? Why would I?"

A Greek-American Kafka. Nonetheless, the video-business Max Brods who bring them out are to be commended, honored—and encouraged. If some further justification were needed, the preservation and transmission of the artistry and humanity of his actors, with Gazzara in the front line, would suffice.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2012/02/gazzara-on-cassavetes.html#ixzz1lzAQXNEM

Trailer for Opening Night

Gena Rowlands, John Cassavetes and Peter Falk