Reviews (10)

Perfect introduction to the world of Cassavetes
A little-seen treasure. I believe that this is the first official release on video, so this wonderful film can finally be seen other than on the late night movie or the occasional film festival. A charming, offbeat love story of the unlikely romance between a WASPy, middle class museum curator (Rowlands) and a slightly wacky hippie parking lot attendant (Cassel), this is one of Cassavetes' most satisfying works. Rowlands is terrific as usual, and Cassel is also great. He's one of the most underappreciated actors of the late twentieth century. The two are an odd combination, but somehow it works. Some scenes are hilarious, particularly an early date scene between Rowlands and the great Val Avery as an overzealous potential suitor. It's been said that Cassavetes couldn't do comedy, but you can't tell it from watching this movie. Minnie and Moskowitz is a great introduction to Cassavetes. It manages to be light hearted and comedic, while retaining the strong characterizations, dramatic depth, and offbeat feel of his more serious films. Four and 1/2 stars (rounded up to five). Highly recommended.

Finally, the release of this offbeat, funny, sensitive film
Many consider Cassavetes to be the father of American Independent Film. So, it's about time more of his film's are released to video. Minnie and Moskowitz is one of my favorites. Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel are uniquely genuine actors and their chemistry is exciting. It's a fun comic film yet still insightful. It is lighter than most of Cassavetes work. Therefore, it should appeal to a wider audience than, perhaps, Love Streams, which, I feel, is his best film. Unfortunately, Love Streams is currently unavailable.

Make it stop, dear Gods, please make it stop!
I think most of the reviews for this movie are positive simply because the sample of opinions is rather skewed. The reviewers are self-selected, perhaps consisting mostly of Cassavetes fans who are likely to buy DVD's of obscure 1970's independent films. I was subjected to this monstrosity in film class. It was like being in a waiting room in a hospital or somewhere, and some weirdo sits down next to you and starts spouting idiotic nonsense, and you can't get up and leave for almost two hours. I found myself frequently wondering if I could fatally puncture a major blood vessel with a ball point pen. I tried to give this film no stars but the server would not let me.

Love on the Rocks
I love Cassavetes, but I had a hard time getting into this one. Seymour Cassel yells and punches his way through a part that needed more hippie sweetness to win me over. He comes off more like a stalker than a passionate lover--in the end, Gena Rowlands doesn't seem to fall in love so much as cave in. Maybe it's the moustache--I liked him better when he cut it, too! The scenes with Cassavetes as her married lover are electrifying and I wanted to see more of him. This looks like a polished studio picture compared to most Cassavetes films. It's like he was trying to make a screwball romantic comedy in the Hollywood tradition but couldn't help being his explosive, passionate self. Still, some touching scenes (Rowlands drinking with her older friend, Cassavetes coming home to the kids) makes it well worth checking out.

All time classic
I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and think it's one of Cassavetes best. It's been cast perfectly with Rowlands and Cassel and they both give moving, funny and electric performances. The exterior shots are amazing and the colours are great too. I laughed out loud many times at this shockingly real film and was deeply moved in parts like I am with most of his work. Seymour Cassel is a very underated actor and if you like him in this then you should watch In The Soup in which he is hilarious and very intriuging. I also recommend Cassavetes's Husbands which is just as good as the wonderful Minnie and Moskowitz. Check it out. ... Read more

Description

Gena Rowlands plays a nervous actress on the brink of a breakdown as she prepares for the opening night of her Broadway play. The entire movie takes place in the few days prior to the opening and shows the backstage turmoil of a doomed production. Rowlands begins to fall apart when an adoring fan dies in an accident and she is forced to look hard at her life. Starring: Gena Rowlands, John Cassavetes, Joan Blondell, Ben Gazzara. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Anyone expecting The Killing of a Chinese Bookie to be an action-packed film about a gangland murder is going to be sorely disappointed--the title is the only commercial element in this fascinating character study by writer-director John Cassavetes, who once again finds his cinematic soulmate in actor Ben Gazzara. Doing for sleazy Hollywood strip-joints and underworld bullies what Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets did for the denizens of New York's Little Italy, the film uses verité technique to tell the story of Cosmo Vitelli (Gazzara), astrip-club owner whose growing debt to a local gangster (the chilling Morgan Woodward) can only be erased if he agrees to kill a rival Chinese gangster. Reluctantly, Cosmo carries out the job with startling efficiency.

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--the film's tone is one of keen desperation, as if we've been invited to witness Cosmo's dark night of the soul. Anyone who's unfamiliar with Cassavetes's style may find this film grating and impenetrable, but those in tune with the director's defiant independence will surely appreciate his emphasis on character, psychology, and revealing flashes of human behavior, captured on film as only Cassavetes could capture them. Watching this film, you can readily understand why Cassavetes has had such a steady influence on Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, and a host of like-minded independent filmmakers. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Description

Cassavetes' first independent feature depicts the struggle of three African-American siblings to survive in the mean streets of Manhattan. Hugh, a would-be jazz musician, looks after younger siblings Ben and Leila, who are light-skinned enough to pass for white. This seems to give them an advantage and more opportunities while Hugh must struggle by playing the trumpet in dive bars and strip joints. Shadows was made from a script entirely improvised by the cast, and heralded a vital new era in independent filmmaking. Starring: Hugh Hurd, Leila Goldoni, Ben Carruthers. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Out from the Shadows
Cassavetes was just warming up when he made this in the late '50s, but what a debut! He'd have better actors and more focused scenes in future movies, but the willingness to tackle intense subjects in unexpected ways is already here in full force. Race isn't so much the issue in "Shadows" as it is an occasion for exploring a whole range of folks uncomfortable in their own skins, from the 'racist' lover who wants Lelia back to the goofy hoods in Ben's gang. Cassavetes is especially sensitive to the way that people who are forced to conform to any of society's ideas--about the artist, the intellectual or the racial outsider--can be violent in turn towards others. A great taste of the films to come!

AWEsome Film
This is a great movie. Like it was made yeserday. Punk, beat in sensibility. About young people struggling on the fringes.

Also the review that follows mine is right. A guy named Ray Carney just wrote an amazing book about the movie that has incredible behind the scenes details that no one ever knew before. Cassavetes revealed them to Carney before he died in a Rosebud conversation. Check out the book titled Shadows and another titled Cassavetes on Cassavetes along with the film. It's available here if you type in Cassavetes' name under books. Also Carney has a web site that you should check out with lots of other Cassavetes material.

I love this movie! And the books about it.

FILM GOGGLES
This intense, hysterical, loud, sweet and sour film was NOT an IMPROVISATION despite the end title! Neither were Cassavetes other films, in the classic sense of IMPROV. Improv was sparringly used in the writing of the scripts, but Cassavetes was a WRITER who knew what he was doing more than people give him credit for. This is a major crime against one of the greatest artists of the last 100 years (wha? no, seriously). To get the real scoop, and an exhaustive, loving take on this important first film by an American original, check out the BFI Film Series edition on SHADOWS, which just came out. It breaks it down and builds it back up, in a way you won't believe.

Director Cassavetes in Top Form
In constrast to the sanitized images of 1950s television and motion pictures, SHADOWS is like a breath of fresh air. It's independent filmmaking at its best. You'll find no silly "Leave it to Beaver" and "Father Knows Best" plots here. Instead, you have characters that respond and speak like regular people. This is in large part because Cassavetes allowed the actors to improvise their dialog. This is particularly true for the black characters in the film, because they aren't constrained by an outsider's view of them.

There are several stories in the film, but perhaps the most interesting is that of Lelia (played by Lelia Goldoni). Living in a Manhattan apartment with her two brothers, she's somewhat naive of the world. At a party she meets Tony and they soon hit it off. Just as quickly, things start to sour between them. If it already isn't bad enough, all hell breaks loose, when Tony is unable to conceal his shock when he discovers that the olive complexioned Lelia is actually black.

In a Hollywood film, this scenario would have been thrown under the rug or handled in a stiff and artificial manner (like ISLAND IN THE SUN). Fortunately, we get a much more interesting and realistic view of the situation. Granted some of the dialog might be a bit on the nose at times, but when the improv works, it works fabulously.

One of the best scenes in the film involves Lelia on a date. Without revealing too much, her dialog is a killer. John Sayles couldn't have written it any crisper.

As the whole, the cast is very good. All of the major players have the same first names as their respective characters. Rupert Crosse (who later received an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Reivers) is very funny in this film. Hugh Hurd (father of Michelle Hurd on Showtime's "Leap Years") is very believable as a frustrated vocalist who is also the caring older brother of Lelia. Also look out for Lynn Hamilton (perhaps best known for her recurring role on "Sanford & Son") in a small role.

The film is raw, but like sushi there is much to savour here. Just sit back, relax and pop this movie into your machine. A little patience will go a long way with this gem. Check it out.

REBELS WITH A CAUSE
If you love movies, you have to be curious. I'm well aware that it's not possible, even for the most resistant among us, to see, let's say, the whole american production of the year. So how could we find the time to admire the european, asiatic, african or south american movies presented each year ? Oh yes ! I forgot one thing. Most of us have a 50 hours working week to digest... How but how to make the right choice ? I'm pretty sure that everybody has his own answer to this question. Personally, I choose the movies I see by the name of the director. Because I'm convinced that the only movies that'll pass the test of time will be the movies shot by authors-directors.

John Cassavetes was one of these authors-directors and his movies are already classics. A few weeks ago, Pioneer has presented SHADOWS, the first movie of John Cassavetes, in the DVD standard. Shot in black and white, with unknown actors, in the streets of New-York, SHADOWS is a magistral first movie. An improvisation if we have to believe the final credits.

SHADOWS is the kind of movie which is going to make you love cinema once again and forget all the trashy images you have swallowed this year. It's not perfect but John Cassavetes was a movie lover and that's the only thing that matters. He was honest and he deserves respect.

A scene access and a two pages essay as sole bonus features. Sound and images are below average but I don't care. I'm curious.

A DVD dedicated to the independent ones. ... Read more

Description

A tough-minded, moving film about a working-class housewife's mental breakdown caused by imposed social rules. This insightful study of sexual politics earned both Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes an Oscar nomination. Gena Rowlands, Peter Falk, and Matthew Cassel. ... Read more

Reviews (27)

Out of the Park
This movie isn't watched so much as lived through. Gena Rowlands is brilliant as an L.A. housewife knuckling under to schizophrenia, with Peter Falk as her equally befuddled husband. Cassavetes refuses to play heroes and victims--the movie treats Mabel's madness as an extreme case of the pressures we all face in trying to conform to our social roles. Falk's unpredictable bouts of love and rage show how often violence polices the line of sanity, yet ultimately he's just as lost as Mabel in trying to figure out the part he's supposed to play.

The story is told through a series of long, seemingly aimless events that unfold mostly in real time--a spaghetti dinner, a trip to the beach, a family party--to track the shifting relations between the characters. Each one on its own can seem pointless, but the effect by the end is tremendous; I felt I knew these people better than a lot of my family. I can't think of a movie outside of Citizen Kane that uses the medium of film so well to tell its story. Cassavetes and Rowlands knocked this one out of the park.

Gena Rowlands is our greatest star
Any movie written and directed by John Cassavetes requires intelligence on the part of the viewer because he never made things easy for us. He was truthful and that truth sometimes manifested in high drama, and at other times in the minute details of everyday life. Gena Rowlands is the perfect actress to accomplish this range of acting demands without "acting" all over the place. She is heartbreaking as she desperately begs her children to tell them what they really think of her, and truly funny serving her husband's co-workers at an (Peter Falk) impromptu breakfast gathering. This is Cassavetes and Rowlands at their best, complimented by wonderful performances by Falk and all of the supporting players. It is the first movie you should own if you are a serious collector of films that matter. Gena is golden.

You just gotta love Gena!
Gena Rowlands is just absolutely wonderful and touching as the blue collar, suburban housewife, Mabel, steadily losing her grip on life and reality. She tries desparately to connect with the people around her, only baffling and embarrassing them and her husband, skillfully played by Peter Falk, who loves her tremendously but cannot understand her as much as he tries. The scene in the film where Falk invites his work buddies home for a spaghetti dinner best illustrates this dilemma. While viewing the video of this film I just wrote his character off as just another stupid, ethnic type, who was just too uneducated and ignorant to be sensitive to his wife increasingly erratic and needy behavior. But I now realize that such a patronizing attitude on my part is totally wrong: mental illness cuts through all ethnic, racial, and economic backgrounds. People of all levels, especially those closest, would be at a loss knowing how best to help this special person in our lives who is slipping away from us into darkness. It may be revelation to some that it is Mabel's three young children who find it the easiest to understand and relate to her plight. They just love their mother and accept her the way she is, without any judgment on their parts, and Mabel responds in kind. It is their influence that will help determine whether she recovers.

John Casavettes directs "A Woman Under the Influence" with a naturalness (a Casavettes hallmark) that seems as if he were making a documentary film about his own family. As many probably know, Gena Rowlands was married to Casavettes and he utilized her in many of his films, all to his and his audience's great advantage.

Emotional powerhouse
Gena Rowland's performance is flawless. That alone makes the film worth watching. I took a star off due to Peter Falk's annoying performance as the husband. He was o.k.---but got on my nerves after awhile. But back to Gena---how on earth did she lose the Academy Award that year? The Academy needs to give her an honorary Oscar for all of her amazing performances. SHE DESERVES IT!!!!!

I highly recommend this DVD!
This film is amazing! Also something not mentioned: The DVD has very smart liner notes by Ray Carney. Carney knew Cassavetes and has written many books about him. I recommend his Cassavetes on Cassavetes for more behind the scene insights. Carney also has a web site with sections devoted to this film. Highly recommended all round for background information. ... Read more

Description

John Cassavetes' probing, relentless study of a middle-class married couple is regarded as the first American independent film to cross over to mainstream audiences. The film examines a seminal 36 hours in the life of Richard and Maria Frost, during which their 14-year relationship finally falls completely apart. John Marley,Gena Rowlands ... Read more

Reviews (9)

All the Lonely People
I've never seen a movie quite like this in my life! It's technically raw, the sound's bad and half the time I had no idea what was going on, but it builds to a brilliant portrait of four lonely lives. The bad jokes and laughter that eat up so much film time connect loose, rambunctious scenes that defy strict narrative logic--after a while it feels like you're watching this movie from the inside, right in the thick of the cigarettes and booze. As usual, Cassavetes shoots the '60s from unexpected angles: his focus is on the middle-aged middle managers and their fading suburban wives, stuck on the wrong side of the Sexual Revolution but still desperate to feel young and fulfilled. The movie doesn't make fun of them but brings you into their world, where disappointment, age and the pressures of conformity are finally getting the best of their vitality. Imagine "The Graduate" told from Mrs. Robinson's point of view. The powerful last scene ends in silence after a suicide attempt--no laughs, no routines. The death of a marriage or a new beginning? Cassavetes rarely matched this level of intensity. "Faces" is one of his very best.

a favorite American film...
I first saw FACES around the time I saw SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE on videotape. Both caused explosions in my mind. "Embarrassingly good" is the phrase I might use to describe both experiences.

The behavior in FACES is classically American, modern-style. It's the essence of much American "partying" psychology, right before your eyes. A quasi-rancid mix of alternating comedy and infighting that has your head spinning: and only the most sheltered in the US have not experienced that sensation in American social and party life.

The sense of not really knowing whether people are really present to have fun or have a fight is universal when certain immature American types, young or old, get together. In Cassevettes' FACES, the shock of recognition is artfully created in the viewer, to great effect. For all but the most inexperienced and naive, or the most experienced and jaded, the overall result is quite stunning.

This isn't simply disturbing or "disgusting": it is just that it distills an essence. Truly interested in getting anything of value out of real film? Then it may behoove you, to find it important to learn how to watch and get something out of films like this.

I would avoid terms like "technically ragged " to describe Cassevettes work. Improvisational describes it best, even the film work (overexposed or otherwise.) And I would rank FACES with DOUBLE INDEMNITY and GASLIGHT as some of the best American psychology there is on film.

New Forms of Experience
I am the author of Cassavetes on Cassavetes... and of the pack-in essay that is included in this DVD, and I want to agree with Martin Doudoroff's review that is somewhere below mine. This film is one of the supreme masterworks of all of American cinema. It is absolutely essential. Yes, it is "difficult." Yes, it is "slow." But those standards are for enterainment. Cassavetes wants to take us out of our ordinary ways of viewing. He wants to deny us the escapism of "entertainment." That's the point. If you have trouble with this film--good! If you find it infuriating--good! If you find it not entertaining--good! It wants to get under your skin. It wants to shake you up.

It is a deep exploration of manhood in America, of the power games that men play with women, and of the other kinds of games women victimize themselves with. Deeper than Citizen Kane, more abrasive than Magnolia or American Beauty, Faces turns the camera on US. It is not about someone else. It does want to annoy you. And if you allow it to, without giving up or shutting your mind to it, it will profoundly enlighten you.

I can't say more in the space available. Maybe the Cassavetes on Cassavetes book or my web site devoted to Cassavetes can throw more light on the subject. But trust me, this film can change your life. It is one of the greatest works of art in all of film. And the resistance it meets with is proof of that.

MASKS
Faces. The ones we put on for loved ones, for business associates, for friends, to impress, to hide ourselves behind, the ugly ones, maybe the real ones.

John Cassavetes' films are personal explorations. They don't ignore conventions of film or theater but instead refuse to adhere to them.

The actors in Faces are exploring their characters from the inside out using improvised type methods (but writer/director Cassavetes created and adhered to real scripts prior to filming).

There's a rawness and vitality to the film that had almost never been captured on film before. At times the actors are trying too hard to dance on the edge of what an audience would be able to watch and accept. They are being characters, not presenting them to us, and they are not trying to be likeable or clever.

At times, the film sets up what is supposed to be an authentic and 'real' moment and then insists on selling it so hard as a real moment it becomes difficult and almost embarassing to watch because it's missed it mark. The truly awful Bennett Cerf style riddles and jokes husband (John Marley) tells his wife and then cackles on and on about as if they are truly funny is a truly annoying scene to watch. Were they meant to comment on how phony attempting to find and film a real moment truly is?

There's the long first scene of the film where one of the actors doesn't quite have the skill to shift tones convincingly. The idea of that is a great one though.

All of the ideas which challenge what a film and acting is are good ones. They don't always work, but through it the culture of American life is examined in a raw, honest way.

Here it's the marriage of an upper middle class couple which is under examination. The roles of men and women. The meaning perhaps of love, communication, and marriage.

Faces is a raw experimental film where actors are allowed to be both natural and ...well method actors. Some moments work so well, you wonder why these heights aren't regularly strived for... but then some moments don't work at all and you realize, this is film-making without a net. It's risky, it's not pretty, and it's messy - - For the performers particularly.

It's a masterpiece, though like many of J.C.'s film difficult to watch. You might be annoyed, bored, bothered, and/or disgusted by the film. At the end you might not quite understand what it all was about.

But, you'll remember it.

Christopher J. Jarmick Author of The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder Available February 2001.

Difficult Viewing
This film is difficult to watch for many reasons. It is below average both artistically and technically. The film is a classic of its genre but for me HUSBANDS and WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE are much better as films. [Note how the excessive laughter in FACES is annoying and unrealistic whilst in HUSBANDS it is natural and enjoyable.] ... Read more

Description

Alan Arkin and Peter Falk star in John Cassavetes’ comedic homage to Double Indemnity. When lovely Beverly D'Angelo convinces insurance man Arkin (who is desperate to send his triplet sons to Yale) to kill off her husband, things get progressively stranger ... and funnier. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Falk and Arkin Can't Miss. Be Prepared to Laugh
The In-Laws is the standard, but there are scenes in this one that I still can't get through without choking laughter 15 years later. This movie goes beyond off the wall in some spots, and the cast gets it done. It's all about Arkin, Falk, and of course, Richard Libertini in an "In-Laws" like wacky role. No cerebral stuff going on here, but you'll laugh throughout. Find this movie somehow. You won't be sorry

Cassavetes fans, don't bother.
This film, as far as I know, is the "real" last film Cassavetes directed -- not LOVE STREAMS, alas, though that makes a much more fitting final movie. Cassavetes was probably trying to generate funding for a film biography of Django Rheinhardt he was preparing to make (which, of course, he never did get to); either that or he was doing a favor for his friend Peter Falk. In any case, the film has NO bearing on Cassavetes other work. You'll see no sign of his touch at any point, and little sign that he particularly cared about the project. It plays through as a mediocre commercial comedy, poorly written and not very funny. It's professionally done -- but that's about it. Don't even be curious.

hilarious...on the order of "The In-Laws". Falk/Arkin great!
A follow up (but not a sequel) to the comedy "The In-Laws", Peter Falk and Alan Arkin pick up where they left off. A lighthearted comedy about an insurance salesman (Arkin) who unwittingly gets caught up in a scheme by Falk and his wife, played by Beverly D'Angelo. Many twists and turns in this classic! You will long remember the highway scene, the nose reconstruction, the drink, the kidnapping, the drugstore, the train, the homeless man, the adjuster. 4.9 stars ... Read more