This time-lapse film -chronicling the day in the life of a harbour taken from one vantage point- is characteristic of Jonas Mekas' usual diaristic work. We forget that in his longer, more personal pictures, like REMINISCES OF A JOURNEY TO LITHUANIA and HE STANDS IN THE DESERT COUNTING THE SECONDS OF HIS LIFE, they evidence a radical cutting technique, in which images pass fleetingly by, as quick as a thought. Thus, CASSIS is less a chance document than a disciplined rendition of that document. Chiefly, ships in the harbour disappear before we see them leave the frame to go out to sea, or before they dock. Thus CASSIS throws its subject matter into a sort of limbo; one is made to think that nothing else in the world exists but this port. Within its scant running time, CASSIS is certainly exciting to watch, as images come and go like thoughts in a stream of consciousness.
