Faces (1968) or, John Cassavetes' LA Misery circa 1968

1/30/2019

Faces (1968) or, John Cassavetes' LA Misery circa 1968

♥♥♥♥

A hype-filled poster with a strip of pictures of faces from the film, John Cassavetes' Faces

SPOILER At an overwrought drinking party of three people, a man decides to leave his wife, who goes on to have sex with a younger man - and attempts suicide.

Faces is written and directed by New-Yorker master filmmaker John Cassavetes (A Woman Under the Influence (1974)), whose 4th feature it is. It is an intense and impressive B/W drama, which feels a lot like a play. The title is highly auspicious, as the film is ripe with facial close-ups.
The cinematography (by Al Ruban (Love Streams (1984)), Maurice McEndree (Devil's Angels (1967, actor)) and Haskel Wexler (Face in the Rain (1963))) has a curious, youthful feel to it, whereas the characters are a heavy Los Angeles-set gallery of ennui, despair, quick remarks and an endless pool of unfunny jokes, which the characters themselves laugh loudly at.
Gena Rowlands (Gloria (1980)) is fantastic in Faces, but the film, which is a strong example of its time, certainly, does impress me as somewhat self-indulgent and self-centered.

Related posts:

John Cassavetes: The Fury (1978) - De Palma's telekinetic powers run amuck! (starring actor)
A Woman Under the Influence (1974) or, Family Dysfunction (writer/director)
The Dirty Dozen (1967) - Aldrich's rough WWII super-entertainment (starring actor)
Edge of the City (1957) - Poitier gleams in Ritt's idealistic debut (starring actor)

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 275k $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain (but reportedly a 'surprise box office success' - source: Jesse Ziegelstein, UCLA Film and Television Archive)
[Faces premiered in March (Beverly Hills, California) and runs 130 minutes, - a Criterion release cut runs 147 minutes, and Cassavetes' long cut ran 183 minutes and is lost. Cassavetes wrote, directed and financed the film with his wife Rowlands in the main part, shooting most of the film in their own Los Angeles home. Post production reportedly took 3 years. Info on the film's box office earnings are regrettably not available online. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to two notches better than this one. It was nominated for 3 Oscars: It lost Best Supporting Actor (Seymour Cassel (Little New York (2009))) to Jack Albertson for The Subject Was Roses, Supporting Actress (Lynn Carlin (Insight (1974-80))) to Ruth Gordon for Rosemary's Baby, and Original Screenplay to Mel Brooks for The Producers. The film won 2 awards at the Venice Film Festival. Cassavetes returned with Husbands (1970)). Rowlands returned in Nick Quarry (1968, short) and theatrically in Machine Gun McCain (1969). Faces is fresh at 85 % with a 7.2/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Faces?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

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1/30/2019

Faces (1968) or, John Cassavetes' LA Misery circa 1968

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