Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,
I hope you had a good day. Not much to report from me - basic Hair Salon Thursday - but I did go to the movie tonight and we saw the final Cassavetes film, called "Love Streams" (1984), the story of a reckless, womanising writer with no attachments in his life, and indeed he doesn't want any. He even ditches his 8 year old son (from a past marriage whom he doesn't even know) during a trip to Las Vegas. He has some money, and a bit of fame and lots of one night stands, but really he has nothing. All of that changes when a woman comes into his life who he has not seen in a long time. It is his sister who is a bit on the nutty side (of course played by Gena Rowlands). She is recently divorced and looking for something meaningful in her life on the advice of her shrink.
The movie plays out in typical Cassavetes fashion for the first 2/3rds, lots of dialogue, dysfunctional behavior, examination of motivation (why do people do the things they do) and so forth. But then when the sister moves in to his house, things get weird, almost like a David Lynch movie. Well okay : not that weird, but she does something that is very unusual. Thinking that her brother needs something in his life besides alcohol and a parade of women, she decides he needs a pet, or maybe two.
But because she's a bit mental, she visits a local animal rescue facility and brings home two miniature horses, a goat, several chickens and baby ducks, and a gigantic dog. He is not appreciative of this (big surprise, eh?), which causes her to suffer a nervous breakdown (typical Cassavetes) because she was only trying to bring him something he could love - pets - and he has rejected them.
The weirdness progresses from there, but it is all good natured. All of his movies were about people looking for love, and being hindered by the vagaries and frailties of human psychology. Alcohol abuse runs rampant through every Cassavetes movie, and he himself died of cirrhosis of the liver at 59, only five years after "Love Streams" was released. In the film he looks gaunt and somewhat drawn, and was no doubt already ill.
The movie was very long - 2hrs 24mins - and as always you have to have patience to sit through it. Grimsley absolutely hated it and went on a tirade as we walked back to our cars. But I really enjoyed it, and have come to appreciate John Cassavetes as a truly original director who made movies like no other. We have now completed the retrospective, and I will miss the anything-goes approach of his films and their exploration of the myriad emotions, both hidden and expressed, that his characters (and all people) experience in everyday life. He wanted to show what is internalised (which in his estimation was what people are really feeling) and what is expressed in the company of other people on a daily basis (which he felt was the "mask" that everyone puts on for the world to see).
This is perhaps true to an extent : we are all "polite" in the company of other people (generally speaking), more candid perhaps with close friends, and our deepest feelings we may internalise, and often without realising it because those feelings pass by subconsciously or in our ongoing daily stream-of-consciousness. For most of us this is no big deal or at least tolerable, or we learn to cope with it. In Cassavetes' movies, the characters suffer breakdowns, they laugh, cry and fight. They drink and smoke and talk. The camera closes in, and goes in and out of focus.....I think he thought that everybody is a little kooky, and that it is a good thing because it makes us who we are. For him, the kookiness was the avenue of exploration, although we know that the human personality and psyche is made up of much more than it's frailties, idiosyncracies or suppressed emotions. As per Freud, we have an Ego, Superego and Id for a reason; to act as a system of filters precisely to bring out our best selves, to separate our true feelings in our heart of hearts from the "stream" that is neverending in our minds. Cassavetes saw this as "wearing a mask"; I see it as a filter.
But anyhow...... :)
His films are not easy to sit through, as I have noted several times, but having seen them all now, I am glad I did sit and watch, and pay attention, because for me they have been greatly rewarding. John Cassavetes really put his heart and soul into his work and wore his heart on his sleeve, and left it out there for the world to see. Love him or hate him, his films will always be remembered and talked about. ////
As an added bonus, Professor Tim was able to get the Assistant Director from "Love Streams" to introduce the film for us, and to tell what it was like working with Cassavetes. He was a very nice man, well spoken and interesting, so that was great too.
I didn't see any posts today, but I hope you are getting good feedback on "Dream", and even beyond the FB comments. Your version is gonna get out into the world.......
I hope all other projects are going well too.
See you in the morn. I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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