A middle-aged man leaves his wife for another woman. Shortly after, his ex-wife also begins a relationship with a younger partner. The film follows their struggles to find love amongst each other.

2.18GB | 2h 10mn | 956×576 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/4185200BBD081BF/Faces.1968.576p.BluRay.x264.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English

The post John Cassavetes – Faces (1968) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
The killing of a Chinese Bookie was released in 1976 after what Cassavetes
described as a very rushed editing period. The film was a commercial failure
and was pulled from the theaters after seven days. Two years later after the
completion of Opening Night, Cassavets re-edited the film-cutting nearly
thirty minutes-and re-released it in the version presented here.

True to Cassavetes’ form, the 108-minute version is not just a simple edit of the 135-minute version. The order of several scenes has been changed, there are different edits of a few scenes, and there are a few segments unique to the 108-minute version. The bulk of the cutting in the 1978 version removed many of the nightclub routines that were in the 1976 version.

2.86GB | 1h 48m | 1024×554 | mkv

https://nitroflare.com/view/D277DDD0ED079EA/The.Killing.of.a.Chinese.Bookie.1976.(1978.cut).576p.BDRip.x264.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English HOH

The post John Cassavetes – The Killing of a Chinese Bookie [108 minute cut] (1976) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE is a love story of a troubled marriage between a working class man, Nick (played movingly by Peter Falk), and his wife Mabel (played with brilliant attention to emotional nuance by Gena Rowlands). Mabel appears to be experiencing a breakdown, though there is not much difference between her normal and abnormal behaviour. The film explores the impact of her fragility, neediness, and shifts of feeling on Nick, their three children, relatives, and friends.

3.79GB | 2h 27mn | 1024×554 | mkv

https://nitroflare.com/view/9114C260876D829/A_Woman_Under_the_Influence__(1974)_-_BluRay_576p.mkv

Language(s):English+commentary
Subtitles:English

The post John Cassavetes – A Woman Under the Influence (1974) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Dr. Matthew Clark is the head of a state institution for mentally retarded children. Jean Hansen, a former music teacher anxious to give her life some meaning, joins the staff of the hospital. Jean, who tries to shelter the children with her love, suspiciously regards Clark’s stern training methods. She becomes emotionally involved with 12-year-old Reuben Widdicombe, who has been abandoned by his divorced parents.

2.53GB | 1 h 44 min | 960×576 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/D48AEB8B5917EBE/A_Child_Is_Waiting_(1963)_-_BluRay_576p.mkv

https://rapidgator.net/file/80e5228e25c54ee0b0725b73d8e1358d/A_Child_Is_Waiting_(1963)_-_BluRay_576p.mkv

Language(s):English+commentary
Subtitles:None

The post John Cassavetes – A Child Is Waiting (1963) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Independence is a crucial part of the legend of John Cassavetes, the original Method actor turned DIY filmmaker. For that reason his early forays into studio directing — he made 1961’s “Too Late Blues” for Paramount and 1963’s Stanley Kramer-produced “A Child Is Waiting” for United Artists — are usually thought of as footnotes at best, or compromised failures at worst (a view that has been ascribed to Cassavetes himself).

But even in these minor works, the Cassavetes touch — the delicate way of handling emotional messiness, the tough but ultimately generous view of human behavior — is unmistakable. The rarely seen “Too Late Blues,” new to DVD from Olive Films, is an especially resonant work, a parable about the price of artistic independence and the conflicts of ego and idealism — in other words, something like a confessional manifesto from the emerging director, 31 when he made it.

Cassavetes’ first film, “Shadows” (1959), was groundbreaking, and not just for being the story of an interracial romance, shot on location in the bohemian quarters of New York City with a largely nonprofessional cast — few other films have so completely changed the face of American cinema. Unlike its French counterpart,Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless,” “Shadows” did not launch a new wave, but its urgency and freshness became synonymous with the spirit of American independent film, manifest in era-defining works over the years from “Mean Streets” to “Stranger Than Paradise.”

Like “Shadows” (available in Criterion’s five-film Cassavetes boxed set) and “Johnny Staccato,” the short-lived private-eye TV series (1959-’60) that starred Cassavetes, “Too Late Blues” is set in the nocturnal jazz-music world. Cassavetes co-wrote the screenplay of this second directorial effort, with Richard Carr, a writer on “Johnny Staccato.”

The anguished hero, John “Ghost”Wakefield (Bobby Darin), is the pianist leader of a jazz ensemble whose members pride themselves on playing “what we want to play,” even if that also means playing in empty parks and old folks homes. Things begin to look up when a producer shows interest, and when Ghost starts dating Jess (Stella Stevens), a fragile aspiring singer whom he pries away from the sleazy clutches of his agent (Everett Chambers, a producer of “Johnny Staccato” and later “Columbo,” in an indelible, cold-eyed performance).

But one bad night in a bar — an absorbing 20-minute sequence that amply displays Cassavetes’ gift for generating scenes rife with contradictory cross-currents of emotion and psychology — brings all of Ghost’s insecurities to a head, leading to a painful break with Jess and the band. Before long he’s working the easy-listening lounge circuit and trapped in a perverse relationship as the kept boy toy of an aging socialite.

Cassavetes had to make a few compromises on “Too Late Blues,” though the experience was, by all accounts, not as traumatic as on “A Child Is Waiting,” which was taken away from him at the editing stage. His main concession, apart from a rushed schedule, was in casting — for the lead roles he had envisioned Montgomery Clift and Gena Rowlands, his wife and regular leading lady, a pair of actors who surely would have been sensational together.

But the studio’s choices were more than respectable: Darin is a surprise in his first nonsinging role, willing to appear both arrogant and weak, and Stevens, a sex symbol and underappreciated actress, proves her range and nerve. The cast also includes Cassavetes’ friend and frequent collaborator Seymour Cassel.

Much has been made of the link between jazz and Cassavetes’ modernist, seemingly free-form cinema, and the connection was obvious in the early days. “Shadows” used a Charles Mingus score and the terrific music in “Too Late Blues,” scored by David Raksin, was performed by jazz greats including Benny Carter.

All the talk in “Too Late Blues” of integrity and authenticity seems even more significant in light of the career Cassavetes went on to forge. Despite a certain mannered slickness, the film is proof of his inability, even under clear constraints, to make anything less than a deeply personal work.

After “A Child Is Waiting” he spent the next few years acting — his return to filmmaking, with”Faces”(1968), a film made completely on his own terms, marked his reinvention as an independent artist, and it kicked off a remarkable run (five more self-financed films, up until 1977’s “Opening Night”) unlike anything in American movies before or since.

http://nitroflare.com/view/FEE9BA550E63CA5/TooLateBlues.part1.rar
http://nitroflare.com/view/78BE82F519D8E37/TooLateBlues.part2.rar
http://nitroflare.com/view/C5C71F68B7CC4D6/TooLateBlues.part3.rar

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English

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The post John Cassavetes – Too Late Blues (1961) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

This is a raw-footage version of a group interview for some unspecified TV station at a restaurant from 1978 with Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, Seymour Cassell and Paul Stewart on the occasion of Opening Night being released. It starts out with some general career-spanning questions to Cassavetes and then eventually gets into Opening Night with Cassavetes exhorting people to go see it in his own inimitable way. Mostly we hear from Cassavetes, Rowlands, Gazzara and Paul Stewart, with just a few reactions from Seymour Cassell who is sitting by listening and smoking.

The audio is a bit ‘hot’ which is how it is on the copy-of-a-copy VHS I was privileged enough to get my hands on. It also notably has a ‘watermark’ text of “MacDonald CASSAVETES” across the screen, presumably this tape was the property at one point of a Mr. Macdonald. However, you can still make out most of the important facial features and expressions on the speakers. Around the 30 minute mark there’s a brief section where it seems they rolled film but no audio, so you just see Cassavetes talking without hearing him for about 20 seconds. It also ends by cutting out in the middle of an anecdote by Mr. Stewart about being directed by Cassavetes on A Child is Waiting, as it appears the film reel runs out and does not resume (presumably the press or whoever originally shot this felt they ‘had enough’ and didn’t need all of Mr. Stewart’s story). I am making it available simply out of a desire for the history of Cassavetes the man and the artist to come out in his own mostly unmediated (except by him!) words. In the face of so much smoke being blown his way, I think its important to see the man in all his unedited glory, warts and all. This interview I think shows much of what he was capable of – generosity, anger, insight, competitiveness, sweetness, combativeness, showmanship, maturity, and immaturity. Its simply a fascinating historical document for anyone interested in his work.

https://nitro.download/view/6428975FF603E3E/Cassavetes_Gazzara_Rowlands_1978_Interview.avi

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post John Cassavetes – Cassavetes Gazzara Rowlands 1978 Interview (1978) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

The first of two episodes of the Lloyd Bridges show directed by Cassavetes. Featuring familiar faces from his stable of actors – this time its John Marley and Seymour Cassel from Faces (among other films).

Quote:
Alan Shepherd visits a Civil War museum commemorating the Centennial and is attracted to one of its artifacts, a pair of old boots. He imagines what the man who wore them felt during the battle. In his vision, he becomes a Confederate sergeant for a ceasefire with Union soldiers after a bloody battle to treat their wounded and bury their dead. The truce is violated by a Confederate private who covets a pair of boots worn by a Union soldier. The rebel sneaks into enemy lines, kills the Yankee and steals the boots only to discover the footwear of huge holes in their soles. Furious over the violation, the Yankees hurl themselves against the Confederate lines resulting in massive casualties for both sides.

—David Bassler

http://nitroflare.com/view/D3254E9A63DE147/Pair_of_Boots.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:none

The post John Cassavetes – “The Lloyd Bridges Show” A Pair of Boots (1962) first appeared on Cinema of the World.