Faces

I have only recently become acquainted with Cassavetes films and I am continually impressed. This film was made on a shoestring budget filming primarily at night because the actors had day jobs. The working title, I understand, was "Dinosaurs" which sums up things up nicely. This is an important film since it shows flawed human beings especially in a time that was truly in upheaval - the late `60's. But Cassavetes was already anticipating the attempt at overthrowing the status-quo. This is a hard but fascinating film to watch. The masks, the self-loathing, the fear, the confusion of intimacy, the now tired slogan of the war between the sexes with entertainment all driven by prescription pills, alcohol and cigarettes...it's all here. Is it "real" or is it "contrived"? Even a well acted scripted play still can penetrate us. The people and conversation "inane"? You bet. Go to work or a club and listen closely -- we live lives that should never be filmed. Cassavetes films as if he's eavesdropping. Lastly - I could not imagine this film or 'Shadows' in anything but b/w....even if he COULD have afforded color stock. Excellent film.

An old married man leaves his wife for a younger 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.

This was one of the most influential films of the 1960s, if you consider how it inspired Robert Altman and Woody Allen, as well as employing Steven Spielberg as a production assistant while he was still making short films and had not yet broken into feature films.

How well the film has aged is debatable. While its influence is clear, the film itself is not necessarily the most fun. Some have called it "meandering", and it is hard to believe that at one point Cassavetes had a six-hour cut (allegedly).

When I began watching Faces, I realized that I never knew just when the present scene was going to end. I then realized that I wished that it would last forever. I found myself so engrossed in the scene that I was fascinated with it by itself. Then the next scene began, and the next scene, and within each one, there is a whole single movie with characters and a story arch. Faces is a film that does not allow any given scene to simply be a communication of plot information. Cassavetes created an entire universe for his actors in every scene. Each scene is a million years of passion spliced together, each demonstrating brazenly his brilliant recognition of human exchange and in conversation and conflict what is exchanged and what is left to be desired.

The film has moments of great pain because miniature struggles are so real and they tend to be vocalizations of a person's deeper fears in social interactions and in the structure of life. The film has scenes of furious drama because characters will experience blind unleashing of their ids as middle-aged people. Faces also delivers highly during moments of happiness and fun because, the situation's comfort level gracefully allowing, the characters will show the fieriest, grandiose, extroverted parts of themselves.

The movie's message, ironically, is not about the inner self and the unleashing of it but about the naiveté with which people carry out their normal married lives and don't care to face their flaws and problems and, though they gradually strip their personalities down bare throughout interactions, they continue not knowing themselves or each other. Faces is now among my favorite films of all time and places John Cassavetes on a pedestal as an idol of mine. The movie is a supreme demonstration of powerhouse acting, wherein each performance can be cherished by the performer with a feeling of ownership. There is a bit of real actor in each character played, and that can be seen in each and every powerhouse scene in a row.

Faces is one of the first American films to reach to the >core of people's relationships. It provides wonderful insight into a lifestyle that is distinctly American. The detached way that the characters interact most of the time is only a logical conclusion of the commerce-driven world we live in. The film is personal in a way that many European films of the 1950's and 1960's were. Even the title suggests the intimacy of the film and its treatment of its characters.

Cassavettes must have been repulsed by the insincerity of the people who were surrounding him when he wrote Faces. Few films have so many moments where characters are together but not talking to each other. They are merely talking, or laughing, or singing, doing anything they can to avoid having to confront the other person. Only once, when the young lover boy talks about the mechanical nature of people in America, do we even get any hint that the filmmaker is put off by the behavior of his characters. The rest of the time he merely films them and shows us what they do. This unsentimental approach can leave the viewer feeling a bit odd, but it works very well in the end. By seeing these character's shortcomings without any hint of disapproval from the filmmaker, the viewer is forced to consider their own lives and the people around them. It allows for an honesty not found in any, I repeat ANY other American film of the 1960's. Even Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf has some indications of Nichols' attitude towards the material. Faces is just the facts.

I can only imagine the excitement that people interested in film must have felt upon the release of this film. Here was a personal, Bergman-esque film made about American people living American lives. (Note: Bergman is referenced during the film.) The quiet desperation of the housewife, the empty feeling inside the businessman, the false nature of each and every relationship speak volumes about the reality of American family life. How refreshing it must have been to see these topics approached in an American film.

The film's style is notable as well. It is independent in every sense of the word. It uses a fluid camera, freeform acting, and natural lighting. In many ways, it paved the way for a lot of the young filmmakers of the 1970's by providing them with a stylistic freedom that Hollywood had previously ignored. Today, it appears as a fairly standard film in terms of style, but at the time it was groundbreaking and exciting. In fact, it retains that excitement today, although the real revelation is how much has been taken from the film and used by others.

Faces is a great movie experience. Anyone frustrated with the lack of real connection in their lives should see it, if only to realize that many others are suffering from the same fate.

I see movies hoping that they're different. I've seen so many films that were exactly the same and that's really just a waste of time. Well, Faces is certainly different. It's hard to get through. It actually took me a week. That's because there is little action and it is hard to get interested in it. The reason why it's so original is because it is practcially a documentary on social life in this time period. It's as low budget as you get. Characters just hang around houses drinking and enjoying themselves. So I guess there isn't much of a plot, but on the good side this might be the most realistic movie I've ever seen. I really felt like nothing was unrealistic, not even a single one of the conversations. That's different. Most movies try to impress, but Faces tries to be natural. That doesn't make much sense because "natural" means you're not trying to do anything, you're just existing as you always do. Maybe that was how Faces was filmed. It definately feels natural and that's a big achievment.