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John Cassavetes: Five Films (Shadows / Faces / A Woman Under the Influence / The Killing of a Chinese Bookie / Opening Night ) (The Criterion Collection)
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Purchase options and add-ons
Format | Anamorphic, Black & White, Box set, NTSC, Widescreen, Multiple Formats, Special Edition, Full Screen See more |
Contributor | Seymour Cassel, Peter Falk, Lelia Goldoni, Gena Rowlands, Dennis Sallas, Ben Carruthers, Hugh Hurd, John Cassavetes, John Marley, Lynn Carlin, Ben Gazzara, Anthony Ray See more |
Language | English |
Runtime | 15 hours and 45 minutes |
Studio | The Criterion Collection |
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Product Description
Product Description
This boxed set includes the following titles: Shadows (1959) 81 min. B&W. 1.33:1 aspect ratio Faces (1968) 130 min. B&W. 1.66:1 aspect ratio A Woman Under the Influence (1974) 147 min. Color. 1.85:1 aspect ratio The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) 135 min. Color. 1.85:1 aspect ratio Opening Night (1977) 144 min. Color. 1.66:1 aspect ratio A Constant Forge (2000) 200 min. Color. 1.33:1 aspect ratio John Cassavetes has been called a genius, a visionary, and the father of independent film. But all this rhetoric threatens to obscure the humanism and generosity of his art. The five films included here represent his self-financed works made outside the studio system of Hollywood, on which he was afforded complete control. While about beatniks, hippies, businessmen, actors, housewives, strippers, club owners, gangsters, and children, all of them are beautiful, emotional testaments to compassion. Cassavetes has often been called an actor's director, but this body of workastoundingly, even greater than the sum of its extraordinarily significant partsreveals him to be an audience's director. The Criterion Collection is proud to present Shadows, Faces, A Woman Under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and Opening Night in stunning new transfers. Includes Charles Kiselyak's A Constant Forge, a candid biographical documentary on the life and work of Cassavetes .
Amazon.com
Improvised by the cast, shot in black and white, John Cassavetes's first independent feature, Shadows, looked like no other film of its time. Cassavetes, seeking to both deal with social issues and create a new kind of cinema, told a story about a family of black siblings in Manhattan trying to make ends meet. Though it meanders at times, it features the kind of spontaneous emotion Cassavetes most wanted to elicit in his films.
A sensation in 1968, Faces earned Oscar nominations for actors Seymour Cassel and Lynn Carlin. Improvised and shot in an edgy, hand-held fashion, the film examines the disintegration of the marriage of a couple in mid-life doldrums. Each seeks solace elsewhere: husband John Marley with prostitute Gena Rowlands, wife Carlin with a free spirit played by Cassel. But neither finds anything approaching the fulfillment they feel is missing from the marriage. Indeed, in Cassavetes's probe of raw emotions, these people discover that, just maybe, the problem lies not with their spouse but with themselves.
The long, free-form drama A Woman Under the Influence is best appreciated as a good showcase for Rowlands, playing a woman whose sanity literally appears to be shattering as different aspects of her personality eclipse others at various times. Peter Falk plays her struggling, blue-collar husband, trying to understand the phenomenon and sometimes losing his patience. As with most of Cassavetes's works as a director, one can't help but find one's attention drifting in and out, but Rowland's performance is a key reason the film has been declared a "national treasure" by the Library of Congress.
The title of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie is the only commercial element in this fascinating character study by writer-director Cassavetes, who once again finds his cinematic soulmate in actor Ben Gazzara. The film uses verité technique to tell the story of Cosmo Vitelli (Gazzara), a Hollywood strip-club owner whose growing debt to a local gangster can only be erased if he agrees to kill a rival Chinese gangster. As usual, Cassavetes employs his favorite actors (including Seymour Cassel and the fearsome Timothy Carey) and vivid improvisation to give Chinese Bookie a tense atmosphere of emotional urgency.
Gena Rowlands stars in Opening Night, Cassavetes's drama of an aging, alcoholic stage actress in the days leading up to her latest Broadway opening. Like all of her collaborations with her writer-director husband, Rowlands is a woman on the verge of collapse, this time a lonely alcoholic whose very life is a performance. Overlong at 144 minutes, the film's long, loose scenes build through uncomfortable small talk and slow, tentative confrontations. Some of the scenes are edgy and thrilling, though many find this facet of Cassavetes pretentious and self-indulgent. Ultimately it's a matter of taste: if you like his style, you'll love this discomforting drama.
The eight-disc Criterion Collection set is filled out with the 2000 documentary A Constant Forge: The Life and Art of John Cassavetes, plus numerous interviews, a second version of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, a commentary track for A Woman Under the Influence, a 68-page book, and various other features.
Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 1.33:1, 1.66:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)
- Product Dimensions : 7.5 x 5.75 x 2.75 inches; 1.95 Pounds
- Director : John Cassavetes
- Media Format : Anamorphic, Black & White, Box set, NTSC, Widescreen, Multiple Formats, Special Edition, Full Screen
- Run time : 15 hours and 45 minutes
- Release date : September 21, 2004
- Actors : Ben Carruthers, Lelia Goldoni, Hugh Hurd, John Marley, Gena Rowlands
- Language : English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
- Studio : Criterion
- ASIN : B0002JP2OS
- Writers : John Cassavetes
- Number of discs : 8
- Best Sellers Rank: #65,431 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #11,057 in Drama DVDs
- Customer Reviews:
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Anyone reading this - please buy the box set and track down the other films - cherish them - there may never be another film maker like him again.
I think Love Treams became one of the greatest Movies I have ever seen
Followed with three other magnificent films a woman under the influence, Opening Night and the Killing of a Chinese Bookie.
Now this is a guy that challenged the whole Industry by going the opposite side of Hollywood mainstream and reflected his own vision.
Highly recommended
Top reviews from other countries
Noch tief in DDR-Zeiten liefen seine Filme im BRD Fernsehen. Sie faszinierten und verstörten mich zugleich, ähnlich wie Ingmar Bergmans Filme und später die dänischen Dogma-Filme. Vielleicht lieben ja diese Filmemacher den heute vielen Filmfreunden nicht bekannten Regisseur, denn auch seine Art des Erzählens ähnelt im vielen den Dogma-Prinzipien.
John Cassavetes (eigentl. Ioannis Kassavetes), Sohn griechischer Einwanderer,1919 in New York geboren, studierte an der Colgate University und an der New York Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Cassavetes hatte zunächst Erfolg als Schauspieler in "Ein Mann besiegt die Angst" (1956), "Das dreckige Dutzend" (1967), "Rosemaries Baby" (1968). Das brachte das nötige Geld für eigene Regieprojekte.
1956 eröffnete Cassavetes einen Workshop für arbeitslose Schauspieler, wo nach der Stanislawski-Methode gearbeitet wurde, bei der sich die Schauspieler ihren Rollen völlig hingeben sollen.
Daraus entstand der Film "Shadows" (1959), mit kleinstem Budget als 16-mm-Film gedreht. Auf 35-mm-Film überspielt erhielt der Film den Kritikerpreis in Venedig 1960.
Der Film "Faces" (1968) war Cassavetes Befreiung von Hollywood. Für "A Woman Under The Influence" (1974) gründete er eine eigene Produktionsgesellschaft. Von 1954 bis zu seinem Tod war John Cassavetes mit der Schauspielerin Gena Rowlands verheiratet, die ihn durch ihre Rollen in seinen Filmen maßgeblich beeinflusste. Ein Sohn und zwei Töchter sind ebenfalls in der Filmbranche als Schauspieler und Filmemacher tätig. John Cassavetes verstarb am 3. Februar 1989 an den Folgen einer Leberzirrhose.
Durch seine Arbeit als Drehbuchautor und Regisseur, gilt John Cassavetes heute als geistiger Vater des amerikanischen Independentfilms.
Die meisten seiner Darsteller waren Freunde, frühere Kollegen von der Schauspielschule, Laien und Familienangehörige wie z.B. Peter Falk, Seymour Cassel, Ben Gazzara und Gena Rowlands.
„Ich mache gern schwierige Filme, bei denen die Leute schreiend rauslaufen. Ich bin schließlich nicht in der Unterhaltungsbranche.“ – John Cassavetes
Wichtige Stilmittel sind die entfesselte, unruhige Handkamera, die ganz nah an den Gesichtern ist, sozusagen in sie hineinkriecht (wie übrigens auch in vielen Bergman-Filmen), scheinbar unlogische Schärfenverlagerungen und Unschärfen im Bild, der sparsame Umgang mit Kunstlicht, die Arbeit an Originalschauplätzen, ein schonungsloser, oft bedrückender Realismus, freie Improvisation der Schauspieler und plötzlich abbrechende Filmszenen.
Peter Falk sagte einmal, dass es in allen Filmen von John Cassavetes um dasselbe Thema gehe: Der Mensch als Gott in Ruinen. „Doch sie versagen und stürzen sich ins Unglück, weil sie unfähig sind.“