John Cassavetes: Five Films

John Cassavetes was arguably one of the key American independent filmmakers and this box set, an overview of his most important movies, was long overdue...but well worth the wait. The "usual suspects" are present and correct from his bravura debut Shadows to the heart-wrenching Faces, the stunning A Woman under the Influence, the patchy Killing of a Chinese Bookie and the underrated Opening Night. Content-wise, this set includes pretty much what you'd expect it to and many of this movies (Faces in particular) are still exceptional to this day. The added bonus here though is the sheer wealth of extras - there are lots and lots of interviews both with Cassavetes and a number of his collaborators which give an interesting insight into his working methods. Not only that but the set itself is extremely attractive; the striking cover is rendered in a smooth, matt cardboard with each disk in its own matt, pastel-coloured sleeve. There's also a weighty booklet with much information about the man and his movies. In all this is an excellent introduction to one of cinema's true mavericks, attractively presented with some splendid extras.

Brilliant item - amazingly fast service. Top marks all round.

For any viewers of real cinema, social reality, this is not to be missed. I have only watched the documentary as yet',constant forge, which is very interesting but as I have seen all the other films in the collection except the the unabridged version of 'the death of a Chinese bookie I am sure not to be disappointed. john tippett

This is still unopened, but I know I will enjoy it

Very impressed. Excellent customer service and prompt delivery. Highly recommended!

I will strongly defend John Cassavetes as nearly excellent filmmaker who could have become even one of the greats if the system would not oppress him all his life. Jean-Luc Godard (since another reviewer used him as an example) is somewhat overrated as well. While he directed several excellent films early on, some of his middle age and, especially, later films are quite sub par. One should not choose a single filmmaker and put him/her as a "benchmark". Film-making is so complex and dynamic process and this is why it is so much fun to have so many different film styles, film presentations, film "languages", film cultures. Every time when someone authoritatively tries to single-out the "benchmark" freedom suffers. If one watched first couple of Fassbinder films (for example) at the time of release and dismissed these (with 1-2 "stars") and should that one had enough influence to oppress (like in former socialist countries), Fassbinder would has never been able to realize himself as one of the greats later on. While Cassavetes is not one of handful of the greats he came close enough with some of his films and deserves at least 4 stars using current Amazon rating system, which, by the way, is quite poorly designed as rating should have been from 1 to 10. Solid ****.

Questionable filmmaking? To be frank, it is. Leaving aside and respecting his breakthrough the Hollywood system he does not quite reach the status everybody is praising him for. His first film is quite nice and good in terms of script, acting and directing. The rest of the films are of low quality especially because of Gena Rowland's acting, but not only. The movies are filmed with a handheld camera and the style is quite rough in terms of cinematography. Peter Falk is very good in a Woman under the influence, but that is between the few good parts of this collection. Don't get me wrong the package is very nice including a booklet and everything, but...the films are not that good. The Killing of a Chinease Bookie which is considered a post noir movie is especially bad in every possible way: it lacks actions, cinematography, script, acting, etc...almost unpossible to watch. Update 03.06.2010 to answer the comment posted br R. Furze: my benchmark for independent filmmaking will add up to Jean Luc Goddard, who probably still sounds great even to this day after 51 years of filmmaking. Don't get me wrong, I respect John Cassavetes, the films are different, but not that good as everybody sees them. The handheld camera that moves chaoticly creates an anxious feeling of unprofessionalism. If you want to compare this movement of camera in Kinji Fukasaku's films, please do. The films are really interesting Japanese post noir thrillers. It is only my opinion and as every individual opinion it is subjective...

Lets get down to brass tacks here, Cassavettes obbsession with authenticity of emotion make his films smack of theatre workshops with scenes running far beyond their natural length. This Cassavetes collection is good but it contains two poor movies. His early efforts 'Faces' and 'Shadows' are rubbish and mind numbing running at over 2.5 hours each. The other three movies are excellent. All of these 3 films have something special and unique about them, and they are beautifully rendered in this exceptional collection. My personal favorite is "A Woman Under the Influence" and especially the unforgettable performance of Gena Rowlands as a woman who is easily classifiable as mentally unstable. What is so remarkable about the film apart from her performance is the way in which it is structured so as to challenge the ease with which we categorise her.

John Cassavetes - Schon mal gehört? Wenn nicht, kennen sie einen der besten Filmregisseure nicht. Noch tief in DDR-Zeiten liefen seine Filme im BRD Fernsehen. Sie faszinierten und verstörten mich zugleich, ähnlich wie Ingmar Bergmans Filme und später die dänischen Dogma-Filme. Vielleicht lieben ja diese Filmemacher den heute vielen Filmfreunden nicht bekannten Regisseur, denn auch seine Art des Erzählens ähnelt im vielen den Dogma-Prinzipien. John Cassavetes (eigentl. Ioannis Kassavetes), Sohn griechischer Einwanderer,1919 in New York geboren, studierte an der Colgate University und an der New York Academy of Dramatic Arts. Cassavetes hatte zunächst Erfolg als Schauspieler in "Ein Mann besiegt die Angst" (1956), "Das dreckige Dutzend" (1967), "Rosemaries Baby" (1968). Das brachte das nötige Geld für eigene Regieprojekte. 1956 eröffnete Cassavetes einen Workshop für arbeitslose Schauspieler, wo nach der Stanislawski-Methode gearbeitet wurde, bei der sich die Schauspieler ihren Rollen völlig hingeben sollen. Daraus entstand der Film "Shadows" (1959), mit kleinstem Budget als 16-mm-Film gedreht. Auf 35-mm-Film überspielt erhielt der Film den Kritikerpreis in Venedig 1960. Der Film "Faces" (1968) war Cassavetes Befreiung von Hollywood. Für "A Woman Under The Influence" (1974) gründete er eine eigene Produktionsgesellschaft. Von 1954 bis zu seinem Tod war John Cassavetes mit der Schauspielerin Gena Rowlands verheiratet, die ihn durch ihre Rollen in seinen Filmen maßgeblich beeinflusste. Ein Sohn und zwei Töchter sind ebenfalls in der Filmbranche als Schauspieler und Filmemacher tätig. John Cassavetes verstarb am 3. Februar 1989 an den Folgen einer Leberzirrhose. Durch seine Arbeit als Drehbuchautor und Regisseur, gilt John Cassavetes heute als geistiger Vater des amerikanischen Independentfilms. Die meisten seiner Darsteller waren Freunde, frühere Kollegen von der Schauspielschule, Laien und Familienangehörige wie z.B. Peter Falk, Seymour Cassel, Ben Gazzara und Gena Rowlands. „Ich mache gern schwierige Filme, bei denen die Leute schreiend rauslaufen. Ich bin schließlich nicht in der Unterhaltungsbranche.“ – John Cassavetes Wichtige Stilmittel sind die entfesselte, unruhige Handkamera, die ganz nah an den Gesichtern ist, sozusagen in sie hineinkriecht (wie übrigens auch in vielen Bergman-Filmen), scheinbar unlogische Schärfenverlagerungen und Unschärfen im Bild, der sparsame Umgang mit Kunstlicht, die Arbeit an Originalschauplätzen, ein schonungsloser, oft bedrückender Realismus, freie Improvisation der Schauspieler und plötzlich abbrechende Filmszenen. Peter Falk sagte einmal, dass es in allen Filmen von John Cassavetes um dasselbe Thema gehe: Der Mensch als Gott in Ruinen. „Doch sie versagen und stürzen sich ins Unglück, weil sie unfähig sind.“

I remember seeing John Cassavetes in The Tempest, which I enjoyed. And Sight and Sound's 2012 critics poll put 3 of these 5 films in the top 100 films of all time., so I gave the set a whirl. As with many Criterion collections, considerable effort is put into the supplements and many of them are interesting. I especially enjoyed the discussions between Gena Rowlands and the male actor who was the lead in the particular film. They all revere Cassavetes, that is for sure. Cassavetes is touted as the independent filmmaker who financed his own films and featured the use of improvisation and a realistic cinéma vérité style. The films certainly are gritty, but part of that is the very low budget and lack of sophisticated filming. He had a reputation for being an actor's director, and to me, many of the scenes don't feel particularly realistic - the actors really look as if they are acting up a storm, not being real characters. They all had their moments, but the films also dragged at times, scenes are allowed to keep going.. My favourite of the bunch was Opening Night, about an aging stage actress who may or may not have seen a young fan killed in a car accident, and the drastic affect it has on her as she and the cast are trying to get a play ready for Broadway. The more famous A Woman Under The Influence provides very meaty roles for Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk, acting with a capital A. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie had some interesting aspects for sure, such as the actual killing of the bookie scenes, but the story seemed really far-fetched for what is supposed a realistic gritty style film. I'm glad I bought the set to see these movies, but none of them will land among my favourites, or even films I really like. I still prefer the Tempest over any of these.

Le lecture Blue Ray à qui j'ai offert le coffret ne parvient pas à lire ces DVD, pourtant clairement identifié Blue Ray. Des tentatives de lectures ont été fait par plusieurs lecteurs DVD Blue Ray, même en magasin en vue d’acheter un nouveau lecteur, rien n'y fait. Un professionnel et comme le confirme le message erreur, les DVD ne sont pas compatible pour la zone Europe. Ils ne devraient pas être proposé à la vente dans cette partie du monde ! La période de retour étant le 31 janvier, ces DVD et les 130€ sont pour la poubelle. Je demande à Amazon de réactiver et prolonger la période de retour et de surtout ne plus proposer cet article à la vente. Merci pour votre retour et bienveillance.

No hay manera de darle mala calificación. Tanto la calidad del diseño de las cajas como el contenido es de 10.

Gave as a gift, but I already had the box. 3 of the 5 movies are Cassavetes classic films. If you have a chance to pick it up during the 50 % off sale this should be in your criterion collection. They are just releasing A Woman Under the Influence but it’s not getting a 4k release. Owning these 5 films are a good start with the great John Cassavetes.