I'm Almost Not Crazy: John Cassavetes - the Man and His Work

I had been searching for this film for a while before finally getting hold of a bootleg copy. After seeing it, I have to say that any fan of Cassavetes the director must see it at any cost. There have been other Cassavetes documentaries, but most are posthumous and feature Cass. only in old filmclips. "I'm Almost Not Crazy..." was shot during the filming of the director's final masterpiece, "Love Streams", giving the viewer a first-hand account of the filmmaker's directorial style. Also very valuable are candid interviews with Cassavetes himself. This documentary, more than any other, proves that he was one of the most original, honest, creative geniuses of our time.

On the set of "Love Streams", we see the real John Cassavetes, a director who is also an actor, who believes "only the actor will know what to do" for a particular scene. This makes sense as an explanation for his films, as the actors do tend to have free rein in many scenes.

With the "make me laugh" game, we see the human side of Cassavetes, not the director or actor but the man. There is also an extensive interview with Gena Rowlands while on set, and she is about as open and candid as anyone could expect.

Perhaps best of all, producer Menahem Golan appears, which is a special treat. We need to know more about this man who has (for better or worse) gone on to be known for 1980s B-films. Unfortunately, he passed on just before Criterion released the Blu-ray of "Love Streams".

If you want honest insight into John Cassavetes and how he works watch this instead of A Constant Forgery. This one doesn't sugar coat it and even Gena Rowlands is honest in this one about her thoughts on John. The other one is filled with a bunch of fairy dust designed to present John as some crazy genius everyone loved to work for. In this one the people are asked what it's like working for John Cassavetes and their answers are true and honest. SO if you get a chance and want to know John as real as you can then watch this film and avoid the other one and afterwards watch Love Streams the movie they're filming about.

This is a must see for any serious Cassavetes fan. It makes a fascinating companion to Ray Carney's excellent new biography "Cassavetes On Cassavetes". Ray Carney is not in favor with the John Cassavetes estate at the moment, but don't let that dissuade you from reading his excellent book, if you are interested. It's really an autobiography by Cassavetes since it is almost all material that was edited down from endless hours of interviews Carney tape recorded of Cassavettes discussing the circumstances and story of his own life, along with his own insightful and very candid comments on his own work in film and in acting and directing and writing. But this is not, I know, supposed to be a review of a book. "I'm Almost Not Crazy" shows Cassavetes at work on "Love Streams, his last important work because it was the last one he wrote as well as directed. Ignore that last mob film or whatever the hell it was; he didn't write it and it shows. He's clearly not committed to the material there and he did it to raise money for a next film of his own that he didn't make because of his death. And this is a truly convincing documentary (to me) because I believe Cassavettes felt he had nothing to loose by discussing his very own truths. The only problem is trying to track this one down. Very hard to find. Try very hard.

-bobby cormier