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Remembering Cassavetes
| Article
# : |
16628 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1989 |
2,460 Words |
| Author
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David D''Arcy
David D'Arcy broadcasts on cultural matters on National Public
Radio. |
At a Saturday afternoon screening of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, part of the Museum of Modern Art's John Cassavetes retrospective last summer, there wasn't a seat left in the museum's large theater. It was a surprise, even a delight, to see such a turnout for a rarely screened film by Cassavetes, one of the first American independent filmmakers, always considered a "difficult" director by general audiences. In the course of the two-hour film, however, even the air conditioning couldn't hold the large percentage of audience members who seemed to have come simply to escape the fierce heat outside, or those who had come for entertainment, a concept Cassavetes despised. By the end, a third of the audience had left, many uttering groans as they exited. Even as tributes to him mount in the year following his death, it may still be a while before Cassavetes' personal, emotionally demanding work develops a broad following in this country.
Cassavetes, who died last February at the age of 59, was not the kind of director for whom press agents toured around the country prepping reviewers and audiences for his newest release. Even if he had had the money to promote his films, Cassavetes was not inclined to make watching those films easy for audiences. He didn't talk publicly about his work very much, and even his friends and acquaintances say he generally resisted interpreting them. But, according to Raymond Carney, author of the only comprehensive English language study of Cassavetes as a director, Cassavetes wanted his movies to cover the vast human territories that he thought Hollywood had left unexplored.
Agonizing Interaction
"For him,
... (1996 of 14730 Characters)
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