There are a bunch of punk filmmakers John Waters, Pasolini, De Palma, Cassavetes, Harmony Korine, even Orson Welles was pretty punk for his times. I would say every great director is kinda punk in a way.
_"John Cassavetes, who was more or less my age - now he was a great director. I can't imagine myself as his equal in cinema. For me he represents a certain cinema that's way up above."_ Jean-Luc Godard, director of Breathless
His wife Gena always wanted him to concentrate on acting. But John himself said that he turned to directing films, because he felt so constricted by acting in the industry. He was obviously an artist who hated and couldn't stand compromise or faking it. His films are pure raw uncompromising personal expression with no commercial angle to them. That's what he wanted in his art. He's one of the few geniuses in film, a true visionary, who moulded the medium of film entirely to his vision.
I knew him. Used to see him up at he and Gena’s home in the Hollywood Hills off Laurel Canyon. Such a cool guy who had a vibrancy and positivity even when he was obviously very ill.
I agree love is the basis for all expression, no matter. Emotion expressed as an art, theatre, music, creation. Back in the seventies I was introduced to the work of Leo Buscaglia which professed how love is important in relationships, in our attitude and also appreciation.
I'm yet to cross a filmmaker who understood people better than Cassevettes and Altman. I come out of everyone of their film's a little more compassionate for myself and others. And that is just pure fucking magic.
@@untitled8005 "Le Rayon Vert" (The Green Ray) is a great introduction to Rohmer's incredible filmography. It's EXTREMELY intimate, all his films feel very personal.
Totally charismatic artist. If wish he only acted more. I was always interested in his independent films as director, and even when I did not like one of them, I remained interested. But the world and filmgoing preferences changed. I would imagine his audience, sadly, would be even smaller today.
Respectfully, I think quite the opposite would be true. I think there is a growing number of people who have tired of the unimaginative schlock that comes out of Hollywood, and would gravitate towards John’s films.
The hepatitis got him. He also thought that if he ever went to the hospital he'd never make it out alive. Maybe rewatch 'Rosemary's Baby' this Halloween.
@@YoukonFluxJBM Funny that you mentioned Rosemary´s Baby and watching it again, because that was exactly my first thought after writing my comment 😀. I don´t want to be disrespectful to him, but I think it is fair to say that the alcohol killed him. He was a heavy drinker and (as far as I know) died from cirrhosis of the liver - which in 9 out of 10 cases is caused by excessive drinking of alcohol. I would have loved to see him as an actor in more roles, he certainly is in my personal top 5 of best actors
I only found out recently that he was a serious director and auteur. Of course serious directors cease to exist once they embrace the alure and gaudiness of Hollywood. Which is why we're still talking about Spielberg and Cameron and not Bergman, Truffaut and Cassavetes. It's even harder for an actor like Casavettes to get proper praise because his films were not making the kind of money to finance further projects. It seems he was never going to make it big and he knew it. I think in a hundred years time historians and artists are going to look back at the 20th century to try to get a pulse on the type of culture and people we were. Hollywood films will tell them fuck all about the human experience of living in such complex/ individualistic times but they may look to artists like Herzog, Tarkovsky, Altman, Lumet, to get a handle on what us normal people were going through at the time. Unless of course the human race just gets more and more stupid and hedonistic as we rely on technology to solve everything or the opposite, and we move away from artistic expression entirely and movies may even lose their cultural meaning altogether.
Well said. Great thing about filmmaking, if they're honest it can still influence people many years down the road. I'm not able to be speilberg and be a production assistant on the set of Faces, but I can watch Cassevetes work and listen to interviews. im greatful these guys spoke openly and honestly about their work .
Without John I'd have been a bum, a nobody. He took the lens cover off my Bolex and used it as an eye patch in The Fury. He gave me £100,000 and ordered me to make Mean Streets. Martin Scorsese
@@fernandoguevara5227 Thank you!! They used to make movies that an intellect higher than a child could find some interest. No more. Now the adults go see these .
@REGGIE JOHNSON the way the world was in his time and today too, it doesn't need and doesn't deserve legends like Cassavetes. A world like deserves to rot. He was too cultured and too enlightened for this world.
I've begun watching Cassavetes perhaps in the wrong place with "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie." Next I started "Opening Night" actually last night. I gotta say, I'm really having a hard time getting into Cassavetes. I don't know why. I don't think I've ever seen an aesthetic like his. He provides no escape for the viewer; there's this sense that you're not watching a movie at all. In this way, he may redefine the meaning of the suspension of disbelief. Does he somehow make that station of suspension the entire world of the film rather than a preliminary (or possibly recursive) act of the viewing audience? Does that make any sense? I don't think it makes sense to me anymore for fucks sake. What should I understand about Cassavetes' craft, his actors, themes, etc. in order to appreciate and understand the godfather of American indie film? I can see he was daring, a great story teller, and master of dialogue... LOL now I will watch this video. Thanks for reading!
'Killing of a Chinese Bookie' was my first Cassavetes film, too. I loved it. Turns out it wasn't his normal style; his directors cut of it was an attempt to be more commercial. His greatest ability as a director was his relationship with actors; he gave them a lot of freedom to interpret the part and do plenty of takes.
@@YoukonFluxJBM For sure. I was enjoying "Chinese Bookie," then in the end not so much. As simplistic and trite as it sounds, i felt the ending was very abrupt. I was left scratching my head. Incidentally I've been loving many other works of classic Italian and French cinema lately: 400 Blows, The Bicycle Thieves, and 8 1/2. All this I've loved! I have been watching others too, i.e. what film students watch. But something about Cassavetes, man, I don't know... I'm perplexed.
Which version of 'Chinese Bookie' did you watch? The director's cut is shorter and more abrupt. The original release focused more on Mr. Sophistication (great character) at the end.
Everything he "rants" about is still true today. Hollywood just keeps rehashing the same old crap over and over again. I think that the Brits and the Australians have it all over us in terms of great filmaking and acting. American cinema and acting is a huge bore! However, his wife Gena Rowlands was one of the great American actors of all time.
Possibly, but let's all be realistic. Cassavettes and his wife Gena were great, but they will never be able to eclipse the dynamic allure of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall at their finest.
Possibly, but let's all be realistic. Cassavettes and his wife Gena were great, but they will never be able to eclipse the dynamic allure of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall at their finest.
This isn't ranting, and you misspelled "independent" (oh irony). And remember, please, that Kurosawa, Bergman, AND Fellini wished they could've been half the artist he was (check out the extras on Criterion's Love Streams if you don't believe it). And show some respect for art, TY.
There, it's spelled correctly now. Cassavetes truly was an accidental genius. His material was hyper-real and actors loved to work with him. He was an actors director more than anything. He did have a bad tendency to shoot too much footage and was constantly re-editing everything; he had about 6 versions of 'Husbands'. Some of the editing changes he made were out of pure spite because he was uncomfortable with acceptance. What a hoot!
These kind of artistic people are always made fun of and never make it in the mainstream. Cassavetes was too stubborn. Today they'd call him names like communist, pretentious, arty-farty. I think the lesson I learned was if you're on fringes of the film industry like Cassavetes you'll always get burned. I wish he changed his attitude and brought art to the masses instead of expecting the masses to come to it. Great man.
@macewystan1947 sorry to say but the masses don't care. Even after having seen so many films from so many countries myself commercial and low budget, I can say with confidence that the theater going audience will always want to live through the movies they watch. The working class and even the white collar audiences don't want to see their own boring 9 to 5 lives and it's flaws or beauty deconstructed on the screen. More and more as the years pass the people have wanted to live precariously thru the big budget films. And as life gets more and more competitive in every facet, a very major portion of the population won't be able to have any kind of life changing grand experiences because they are tethered down by boring jobs required to maintain the economy and the huge population. So the studios give the audience what they really want. Personally I can't sit through these films anymore, but still find myself going back to commercial films. If I as a white collar professional can come across so much money that'll allow me to live a life of adrenaline rush like fast cars, going to the deepest depths of oceans, space travel and all the other desires then I might probably find the big budget commercial films boring and go about watching these small films. The reason why people demand these big budget circus shows is because 99% of the world's population will have unfulfilling lives tied down to a place and a family. This is the fate and future of humans.
On n rn parle pas de ce grand cinéaste dommage il faudrait en prendre note et on n a pas de gens de réalisateur comme cela Qui fait capable defaire 🎲 tel films
Cassavetes never fitted into the Hollywood mould and never tried to,he despised it and yet acted in quite a few of it's product's but only to finance his independent movies which was his passion,he knew Hollywood for what it was and still is, money driven entertainment, nothing more nothing less, mind you Hollywood never claimed to be anything else in it's defence
Why did you walk out? Not asking with any intent to be critical. I bet it was a hell of a movie to just walk into the theater and be presented with in '74 when it came out. It's my favorite movie, but it's because it's very challenging and emotional.
_"John taught me everything as a filmmaker. He really made me believe that I could pick up a camera and go and shoot."_ -Martin Scorsese.
It’s a pity that Martin sucks
@@VictorLugosiNo. You suck
@@VictorLugosiBrutally true…ha ha!
This guy is the punk rocker of filmmaking.
Or Harmony Korine.
@@gregoryswift9573 I know they can't all be winners, but... Beach Bum?
@@alexowain That's a great movie, so is A Woman Under the Influence, or most of Cassavetes'
ua-cam.com/video/Ru6J-44mk9o/v-deo.html
There are a bunch of punk filmmakers John Waters, Pasolini, De Palma, Cassavetes, Harmony Korine, even Orson Welles was pretty punk for his times.
I would say every great director is kinda punk in a way.
_"John Cassavetes, who was more or less my age - now he was a great director. I can't imagine myself as his equal in cinema. For me he represents a certain cinema that's way up above."_ Jean-Luc Godard, director of Breathless
Cassavetes is a fucking inspiration to true filmmakers.
This montage should be considered a National Treasure.
Cassavetes was an interesting filmmaker, no doubt. But I always regret he never dedicated himself more to acting. He was such a charismatic performer.
I agree
I think he could of been a big star especially in the late 60s
he was absolutely brilliant in Rosemary's Baby, and my favourite character in The Dirty Dozen
His wife Gena always wanted him to concentrate on acting. But John himself said that he turned to directing films, because he felt so constricted by acting in the industry. He was obviously an artist who hated and couldn't stand compromise or faking it. His films are pure raw uncompromising personal expression with no commercial angle to them. That's what he wanted in his art. He's one of the few geniuses in film, a true visionary, who moulded the medium of film entirely to his vision.
He acted, only to get money to make his own movies.
This guy was cool. A real artist who walked to his own beat!
@REGGIE JOHNSON I'm with you!
I knew him. Used to see him up at he and Gena’s home in the Hollywood Hills off Laurel Canyon. Such a cool guy who had a vibrancy and positivity even when he was obviously very ill.
Kindness and laughter should be universal languages right now. They’re love and life in action.
I agree love is the basis for all expression, no matter. Emotion expressed as an art, theatre, music, creation. Back in the seventies I was introduced to the work of Leo Buscaglia which professed how love is important in relationships, in our attitude and also appreciation.
Bless the disciples of the Church of Cassavetes.
some good films and a GREAT guy!
I don’t see them. Where are they?
I find this really motivational
I'm yet to cross a filmmaker who understood people better than Cassevettes and Altman. I come out of everyone of their film's a little more compassionate for myself and others. And that is just pure fucking magic.
you should watch some films by Eric Rohmer!
@@user-vx1ut3dv5d will definitely look him up, any specific film you'd recommend for someone who is new to him?
@@untitled8005 "Le Rayon Vert" (The Green Ray) is a great introduction to Rohmer's incredible filmography. It's EXTREMELY intimate, all his films feel very personal.
@@user-vx1ut3dv5d done. I'm onto it. Thanks man
Paul Thomas Anderson's movie The Master brings a warmth that nothing else gives me
Totally charismatic artist. If wish he only acted more. I was always interested in his independent films as director, and even when I did not like one of them, I remained interested. But the world and filmgoing preferences changed. I would imagine his audience, sadly, would be even smaller today.
Respectfully, I think quite the opposite would be true. I think there is a growing number of people who have tired of the unimaginative schlock that comes out of Hollywood, and would gravitate towards John’s films.
@@theaterdreamer I hope so
This guy impires me to Follow My Dreams and Create Art,John Cassavetes was a Real Filmmaker
I always come to this video for inspiration
So sad that he only lived for 59 years. He was such a great actor and filmmaker
The hepatitis got him.
He also thought that if he ever went to the hospital he'd never make it out alive.
Maybe rewatch 'Rosemary's Baby' this Halloween.
@@YoukonFluxJBM Funny that you mentioned Rosemary´s Baby and watching it again, because that was exactly my first thought after writing my comment 😀. I don´t want to be disrespectful to him, but I think it is fair to say that the alcohol killed him. He was a heavy drinker and (as far as I know) died from cirrhosis of the liver - which in 9 out of 10 cases is caused by excessive drinking of alcohol. I would have loved to see him as an actor in more roles, he certainly is in my personal top 5 of best actors
@DaytraderForLife - Yes about alcoholism killing Cassavetes. I was only being polite.
@@YoukonFluxJBMListening to John he is extremely intense, the booze was probably a method of managing that intensity.
@@YoukonFluxJBM Not hepatitis. He died of cirrhosis.
The Greatest Actors in The World John Cassavetes and Nikos Kourkoulos !!
Ive seen alotta drunks in my day but ive never seen anyone as drunk as you and still be able to walk. Your fantastic.
that's what killed him.
That was a line from one of his movies..".Opening Night ", I think!
Him talking about creativity while someone's jamming on a bass in the background
What a grand idea, like Kerouac reciting over jazz. I will try!
Charles Mingus
I only found out recently that he was a serious director and auteur. Of course serious directors cease to exist once they embrace the alure and gaudiness of Hollywood. Which is why we're still talking about Spielberg and Cameron and not Bergman, Truffaut and Cassavetes. It's even harder for an actor like Casavettes to get proper praise because his films were not making the kind of money to finance further projects. It seems he was never going to make it big and he knew it.
I think in a hundred years time historians and artists are going to look back at the 20th century to try to get a pulse on the type of culture and people we were. Hollywood films will tell them fuck all about the human experience of living in such complex/ individualistic times but they may look to artists like Herzog, Tarkovsky, Altman, Lumet, to get a handle on what us normal people were going through at the time.
Unless of course the human race just gets more and more stupid and hedonistic as we rely on technology to solve everything or the opposite, and we move away from artistic expression entirely and movies may even lose their cultural meaning altogether.
I'm worried that 'Idiocracy' will prove to be more documentary.
"There was a time when people cared about who's ass was farting and why it was farting." - Idiocracy End Speech
im so afraid this is happening.
Well said. Great thing about filmmaking, if they're honest it can still influence people many years down the road. I'm not able to be speilberg and be a production assistant on the set of Faces, but I can watch Cassevetes work and listen to interviews. im greatful these guys spoke openly and honestly about their work .
how can you say we’re not still talking about bergman…
What a great man to have stuck to his guns.
today is not yesterday Why?
Let's rename this video perhaps. Here goes: The Artistic Truth Of An Independent Filmmaker.
True, but the title is a play off 'The Killing of A Chinese Bookie' and "artistic truth" doesn't rhyme with "killing", alas.
ah. brilliant. ha. i stand corrected.@@YoukonFluxJBM
“Well, I hate entertainment.” Great original.
Producers must have loved that quote ;)
Great filmmaker.
Without John I'd have been a bum, a nobody. He took the lens cover off my Bolex and used it as an eye patch in The Fury. He gave me £100,000 and ordered me to make Mean Streets.
Martin Scorsese
Great man great filmmaker great John Cassavetes
Guy is a legend calling it "ranting" is like saying Shakespeare was ranting
He's most definitely ranting (and not a bit boozy while he's doing so) through most of that; though he stops short of raving.
Cassavetes allegedly choked Stanley Kramer over the edit of 'A Child Is Waiting' so ranting is absolutely in character for Cassavetes.
Genious! I love Cassavetes!
@2:40 Amen Mr. Cassavetes.
Man, only one like him... No one else comes close...
Cassavetes is as brilliant as his films.
I love Cassavetes' work.
you're terrific!
Thanks for uploading this, the inventor of American independent films... John Cassavetes was great!!!!
I wonder what he would think of the superhero movie trend, probably make him sick.
It certainly as an adult makes me sick,and I"m suprised at how many adults love these movies-these people and their low expectations.
Actually i think he would enjoy thm. He wasn't a snob about film
@@rebeccasabet2802 Surely he'd hate this gloss glitter CGI. He seemed to think the human face was the most exciting sight that could be captured.
@@fernandoguevara5227 Thank you!! They used to make movies that an intellect higher than a child could find some interest. No more. Now the adults go see these .
@REGGIE JOHNSON the way the world was in his time and today too, it doesn't need and doesn't deserve legends like Cassavetes. A world like deserves to rot. He was too cultured and too enlightened for this world.
I have most of his movies on DVDs and like them.He used family in movies and friends.They were not always a hit.
All the directors use their family and their girlfriends in their films, all of them from Hitchcock to Coppola.
*musings, not ranting
Can he still change the title?
Scorsese would label Cassavetes's movies as 'cinema'.
I've begun watching Cassavetes perhaps in the wrong place with "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie." Next I started "Opening Night" actually last night. I gotta say, I'm really having a hard time getting into Cassavetes. I don't know why. I don't think I've ever seen an aesthetic like his. He provides no escape for the viewer; there's this sense that you're not watching a movie at all. In this way, he may redefine the meaning of the suspension of disbelief. Does he somehow make that station of suspension the entire world of the film rather than a preliminary (or possibly recursive) act of the viewing audience? Does that make any sense? I don't think it makes sense to me anymore for fucks sake.
What should I understand about Cassavetes' craft, his actors, themes, etc. in order to appreciate and understand the godfather of American indie film? I can see he was daring, a great story teller, and master of dialogue... LOL now I will watch this video. Thanks for reading!
'Killing of a Chinese Bookie' was my first Cassavetes film, too. I loved it. Turns out it wasn't his normal style; his directors cut of it was an attempt to be more commercial.
His greatest ability as a director was his relationship with actors; he gave them a lot of freedom to interpret the part and do plenty of takes.
@@YoukonFluxJBM For sure. I was enjoying "Chinese Bookie," then in the end not so much. As simplistic and trite as it sounds, i felt the ending was very abrupt. I was left scratching my head.
Incidentally I've been loving many other works of classic Italian and French cinema lately: 400 Blows, The Bicycle Thieves, and 8 1/2. All this I've loved! I have been watching others too, i.e. what film students watch. But something about Cassavetes, man, I don't know... I'm perplexed.
Which version of 'Chinese Bookie' did you watch? The director's cut is shorter and more abrupt. The original release focused more on Mr. Sophistication (great character) at the end.
@@YoukonFluxJBM I don't know. The one I watched did end with focus on mr. Sophistication and the latter's closing monologue though
Now I have seen "a woman under the influence" and is one of the best movies I've ever seen, unreal
“They help us..destroy them”
Love these clips but who was Macdonald Cassavetes to John? He looks very like John but I can’t find any reference to a brother of that name.
I always got the impression that even his own family didn't get what he was about.I mean look what Nick did to She's DeLovely..
Everything he "rants" about is still true today. Hollywood just keeps rehashing the same old crap over and over again. I think that the Brits and the Australians have it all over us in terms of great filmaking and acting. American cinema and acting is a huge bore! However, his wife Gena Rowlands was one of the great American actors of all time.
They got their Peter Rabbits and Paddington bears over in England too, let's not glorify the limeys too much
@@roarbertbearatheon8565 We're just as bad as America when it comes to films, but a bit smaller, so we have less of them.
Possibly, but let's all be realistic. Cassavettes and his wife Gena were great, but they will never be able to eclipse the dynamic allure of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall at their finest.
Possibly, but let's all be realistic. Cassavettes and his wife Gena were great, but they will never be able to eclipse the dynamic allure of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall at their finest.
what a guy.
The clip that starts at 1:35 - anyone know where I can find the full video?
Cue Guy Woodhouse 01:34
haha! Cool! It's like seeing old friend
"I got that shirt that was in the New Yorker!"
His comments say it all in terms of the human condition.
Anybody know where the b/w clip that starts at 03:18 is from?
Jake JakeJake its from a French interview, if you look up john cassavetes interviews it will come up
It looks like it's from the rehearsals for the movie Faces
This isn't ranting, and you misspelled "independent" (oh irony). And remember, please, that Kurosawa, Bergman, AND Fellini wished they could've been half the artist he was (check out the extras on Criterion's Love Streams if you don't believe it). And show some respect for art, TY.
I think he means ranting in a good way dude... you know, like the rantings of a crazy genius!
Yes, I mean ranting in a good way. And yes, I misspelled independent. I suppose I was subconsciously thinking of the indie film.
There, it's spelled correctly now.
Cassavetes truly was an accidental genius. His material was hyper-real and actors loved to work with him. He was an actors director more than anything. He did have a bad tendency to shoot too much footage and was constantly re-editing everything; he had about 6 versions of 'Husbands'. Some of the editing changes he made were out of pure spite because he was uncomfortable with acceptance. What a hoot!
Man I must've had an a-hole moment, and I certainly misread what you wrote. TY, and my bad. All agreed!!
I don't care what people allegedly said, saying Cassavetes is at the level of Bergman is just being deluded.
These kind of artistic people are always made fun of and never make it in the mainstream. Cassavetes was too stubborn. Today they'd call him names like communist, pretentious, arty-farty. I think the lesson I learned was if you're on fringes of the film industry like Cassavetes you'll always get burned. I wish he changed his attitude and brought art to the masses instead of expecting the masses to come to it. Great man.
@macewystan1947 sorry to say but the masses don't care. Even after having seen so many films from so many countries myself commercial and low budget, I can say with confidence that the theater going audience will always want to live through the movies they watch. The working class and even the white collar audiences don't want to see their own boring 9 to 5 lives and it's flaws or beauty deconstructed on the screen. More and more as the years pass the people have wanted to live precariously thru the big budget films. And as life gets more and more competitive in every facet, a very major portion of the population won't be able to have any kind of life changing grand experiences because they are tethered down by boring jobs required to maintain the economy and the huge population. So the studios give the audience what they really want. Personally I can't sit through these films anymore, but still find myself going back to commercial films. If I as a white collar professional can come across so much money that'll allow me to live a life of adrenaline rush like fast cars, going to the deepest depths of oceans, space travel and all the other desires then I might probably find the big budget commercial films boring and go about watching these small films. The reason why people demand these big budget circus shows is because 99% of the world's population will have unfulfilling lives tied down to a place and a family. This is the fate and future of humans.
"Ranting"??
On n rn parle pas de ce grand cinéaste dommage il faudrait en prendre note et on n a pas de gens de réalisateur comme cela
Qui fait capable defaire 🎲 tel films
Cassavetes never fitted into the Hollywood mould and never tried to,he despised it and yet acted in quite a few of it's product's but only to finance his independent movies which was his passion,he knew Hollywood for what it was and still is, money driven entertainment, nothing more nothing less, mind you Hollywood never claimed to be anything else in it's defence
Isn't this the bloke that had a baby with Rosemary?
He played in Rosemary's baby.
No. I think that was the devil.
I left an improv class in NYC and went to see "a women under the influence ".....first film I ever walked out of.
and returned to your improv class?
Why did you walk out? Not asking with any intent to be critical. I bet it was a hell of a movie to just walk into the theater and be presented with in '74 when it came out. It's my favorite movie, but it's because it's very challenging and emotional.
what have you been doing for the last 44 years?
I followed you
Roman Polanski was a superior director, that’s why John disliked him..
Blimey -- always the dummy for adults in his mouth.
He'd get cancelled today for saying sissy :P