Cassevetes round 1

Now that i've already completed the blog for the second installment of the AFII John Cassevetes director study, it may be about time to go back and blog for our first movie.

The first Cassevetes movie we watched is titled "Faces"(1968).The movie was a good showcase of Cassevetes' skill with camera movements and mise en scene. The behavior of the camera man reflected to events occurring on screen. When the dialogue between characters is light hearted and social, the camera will move with the characters as if it is a part of the social gathering. During the rare moments when the fast paced dialogue slows down, the camera hardly moves at all and gives the viewer a kind of solemn, potentially even awkward perspective. The mise en scene was effective in examining the character's motives and emotions. One scene in particular stands out when one guy offends his friend, the guy disses him and before the words are spoken it cuts to an extreme close up of the guys pissed off friend. No question how he felt about the comment. To illustrate the motives of the characters, Cassevetes pays enormous attention to, and relies on mise en scene several times. For example, if a given male character is trying to impress an attractive lady, focused and taking up the central majority of the screen will be the male saying whatever, and in the extreme foreground off to the side of corner of the screen will be unfocused image of part of the ladies head. At times i think this is used to give the viewer a subjective perspective on the conversation, and its also used in more abstract ways to explain why a character is doing what they're doing. So the films starts with such appealing aspects as interesting cinematography, somewhat real life relateable characters who engage in dialogue that is changing so constantly that the mood of the scene is never stable. All these aspects got the film off to a great start but after about 30 one thing seemed to be missing completely. Plot development. Its absence was so blatant that one is left to believe it was intentional. It makes sense because the movie is merely an examination behind the scenes social life in America during the 60s. The words and actions of these characters dictate where the plot goes (if you can call that a plot). Basically everything depends on the whim of the central characters. I felt like i got the picture within 30 minutes but the movie wanted to make sure so it went on for another hour.

John Cassevetes: Round 2

Our second installment of the AFII John Cassevetes movie extravaganza, "The killing of a chinese bookie" at times made me feel like i was missing something about the plot or particularly the main character,the proud owner of Crazy Horse West strip club, and the intentions the director had with him.

Although i was, for the most part, clear on and certainly intrigued by the characters and their roles in the development of the plot, I still felt like their was a broader understanding of what it all meant that i hadnt picked up on. I even began to feel a little discouraged about my movie watching capabities. After the movie I thought it over and decided that i wasn't missing anything, but instead, i am so used to having a clear good/bad impression of everything that happens in a given film spoon fed, that a lack of a kind of unanimous guiding conscience made the entire film seem foreign. I think Cassevetes was careful to let the audience develope their own opinion of events that take place in the film, which i thought made it more fun to watch and definitely unique. I even drew some parallels between that force at work in this movie and in the previous installment of AFII JCMExtavaganza, "Faces" (Blog coming soon!!!!) that may be the first signs of a strong Cassevetes auteur style.