Faces

Rating:
Summary: All the Lonely People
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Cassavetes film is brutally honest and realistic
Review: The state of independent film today, it is safe to say, would be radically different if it weren't for the pioneering art of John Cassavetes. His unapologetically realist style, coupled with intimate cooperation with his actors and his understanding of the emotional power of improvisation, has earned him the oft-applied title: Father of Independent Film. In Faces, the most mainstream-appreciated of his work, John Marley and Lynn Carlin are a middle-aged couple of swingers, trying to fill the gaps in their emotional relationship by having spontaneous trysts with socially peripheral characters--Marley with Gena Rowlands (a prostitute) and Carlin with Seymour Cassel (a beatnik). However, they find that they cannot be as casual as they wish, and end up tangled in all new romantic involvements with their lovers, which only serves to augment the emptiness they feel in their marriage. Cassavetes' ultra-realist camera style, alternatingly far-off/detached and then extremely close to the actors' faces (hence the title) reflects the characters' emotional states and yet, at the same time, is objectively distant--a style that has been aped recently in many indie features. John Cassavetes' son Nicholas has begun making his own movies (Unhook The Stars and She's So Lovely--written by his late father) and seems to be on the road to his own well-deserved success.

Rating:
Summary: Good but Could be Better
Review: The trademark of John Cassavetes films is emotions laid bare. You might call this an emotion strip tease without the tease. This film is no exception. However, it is not as focused as his later Woman Under the Influence or Opening Night. Some scenes loose their effectiveness by their length. A tighter editing would have worked wonders. Nevertheless, the film has a strong emotional impact, a harbinger of his later films, and arresting structural innovations; well worth watching.

Rating:
Summary: Difficult Viewing
Review: 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.]