Introducing Faces (1968) Cassavetes and Independent Film Narrative Cassavetes Directs Hollywood TV/Film ✤Episodes of Johnny Staccato (1959-1960), TV series on which he starred

✤Too Late Blues (Paramount 1961)

✤A Child is Waiting (Stanley Kramer Productions 1962)

Image of Cassavetes shooting Shadows courtesy of World Wide Angle Cassavetes’ Discontent with Hollywood

❖ Critiqued Johnny Staccato shows sponsors and production company when episode tackling drug addiction was shot but never aired .

❖ Angered Stanley Kramer over editing of A Child is Waiting; Kramer spreads characterization of Cassavetes’ as “difficult” Image of Cassavetes and Rowlands at 1975 Oscars courtesy of Life Cassavetes Evaluates His Work “I looked back at my accomplishments [while working as a low-level TV producer in 1964-65] and . . . could find only two that I considered worthwhile—Shadows and Edge of the City. All the rest of my time had been spent playing games— painful and stupid, falsely satisfying and economically rewarding” (Introduction to published Faces screenplay, 1970. Reprinted in John Cassavetes: Five Films book supplement. Criterion Collection). Faces Production ❖ Cassavetes wrote script (originally as play) and used rehearsal/shooting process to experiment with material and understand characters ❖ Film shot January-June 1965, Filming confined to evenings and weekends, often in Cassavetes’ or his mother-in-law’s houses. ❖ Faces shot on 16 mm in script order, for most part ❖ Non-hierarchical production method, with unpaid cast and crew working on both sides of the camera ❖ Initial budget of $10,000, then Cassavetes spends $200,000 on postproduction ❖ Film completed and screened in 1968 Narrative Elements: Mainstream vs. Art Independent Cinema

Element Mainstream Art/Independent

Introduces main characters, story Introduces characters, story world and conflict/lack/problem world, and crisis that “may be that requires resolution subjective or internal, rather than Beginning something that involves physical feats or external actions in relation to other characters” (Nichols 143). Narrative Elements: Mainstream vs. Art Independent Cinema

Element Mainstream Art/Independent

Main character(s) deal with “The middle may be . . . devoted challenges that thwart resolution to exploring the ramifications and of initial problem, with other complexities of a given characters or events hindering or situation” (Nichols 143). As we Middle assisting main character. Middle characterized by “ascending and noted with Shadows, we may see descending action” that comes to repetition of a particular type of climax, or point of limited choices event, with variation in characters’ actions or responses Narrative Elements: Mainstream vs. Art Independent Cinema

Element Mainstream Art/Independent

Situation precipitated by conflict/ Crisis/problems introduced at lack/problem resolved; narrative beginning of film and new crises/ resolution underscored by visual problems that arise remain sense of closure unresolved or only partially resolved. Film may feature visual echo of earlier moment to Ending emphasize lack of closure.

Cassavetes on characters of Faces: “No matter what attempts they make to rectify their lives, they cannot.” Moments of “Unmasking” (S. Klawans)

❖ Scenes in which tone of drunken partying shifts to darker emotions

❖ Dickie’s return home to his wife, their conversation and his angry demand for a divorce

❖ Chet’s interaction with Maria and her friends, where in the midst of a party, he notes that they are making fools of themselves. Issues to Consider During Screening

❖ How does Faces reflect, expand upon or complicate the distinction Nichols draws between mainstream and art cinema?

❖ Can you identify distinct elements of Cassavetes’ style?

❖ Bright lighting

❖ Confined frame, with tight close-up shots, sometimes of multiple characters

❖ Moving, handheld camera that generates documentary sense of life unfolding before our eyes

❖ Emphasis on performance: performance of the actors that physically registers emotions rather than stating feelings, performance of identity

❖ Editing: does camera cut among characters within a physical space or do we see long takes without cuts?

❖ Social context: Suburban middle class encounters youth; issues of masculinity