John Cassavetes, American film director and actor: biography, films

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

John Cassavetes is an American film actor, screenwriter and director. He is the owner of the "Golden Lion" and "Golden Bear" awards. He was also nominated for an Oscar in 1974 for directing the film Woman Under the Influence (and more). How the actor became known to the general public after starring in the films "Rosemary's Baby" directed by Roman Polanski and "Fury" directed by Brian de Palma.

Biography of John Cassavetes

The director was born on December 9, 1929 in New York, in a family of immigrants from Greece - Nicholas and Katherine Cassavetes. John's childhood was spent on Long Island. After graduating from school, the future cinematographer entered the Academy of Dramatic Arts. After receiving a director's degree in 1950, John Cassavetes played in theatrical performances and appeared on television for a while, and in 1956 he took up teaching.

Students saw their teacher as a peer - and nothing more. There was no question of passing tests to a young professor. And Cassavetes himself did not feel himselfin the role of a teacher. After working in the audience for about a year, he decided to leave the university. From the first attempt to do this, he failed - there was no successor to such a troublesome position. I had to stay for a while.

Fortunately, workshops and lectures on acting left enough free time for their own creativity. In 1957, John Cassavetes wrote the screenplay for the film Shadows, which became his directorial debut. The motion picture became a prime example of independent American cinema and was filmed in the genre of complete improvisation, not entirely clear to the viewer. The film, shot in 1957, was dubbed by John Cassavetes two years later. The 1959 version was significantly different from the previous one, but the director was not satisfied with either one or the other.

Manifesto for New Solutions

"Shadows" was not allowed to be released, but nevertheless the film won a prize at the Venice Film Festival. After long approvals, the film nevertheless came out on the big screen, but the box office was miserable, in fact, the film failed. Nevertheless, the film was called "a manifesto of new solutions in American cinema".

Further John Cassavetes created two films, "Baby Waiting" and "Late Blues", which confirmed his reputation as a new wave director.

First nominations

In 1968, the director opened a new film project called Faces, in which he invited his wife Gena Rowlands, John Marley and Seymour Cassell. The motion picture made a splash and wasIt was nominated for an Oscar in three categories at once: Best Actress, Best Actor and Best Screenplay. The film tells how modern marriages fall apart, slowly and inevitably.

In almost every of his films, John Cassavetes conducts deep psychological research, analyzing events from the point of view of an outside observer. He was the first director to discover the syndrome of American neurasthenia as a fundamental dominant in the development of society and society. His thought-provoking philosophy made John Cassavetes the most elite director in post-war American cinema history.

Director's comments

Some famous people are distinguished by their ability to express their innermost thoughts in a few words. Their well-aimed aphorisms become popular expressions. So is John Cassavetes, whose quotes are figurative and accurate. His expressions are somehow related to filmmaking, but carry the opinion of the artist.

• "Most of all I'm interested in stories about love. Its birth or death, or its absence. The pain of loss or the joy of the appearance…"
• "My attitude towards the death pen alty to which we are all sentenced? I think life and death is always an interesting topic for a script."
• "Where there is no life or death, there is comedy."

Last movie

In 1986, Cassavetes made a film called "The BigTrouble" based on the script by playwright Andrew Bergman. The director invited the famous Hollywood actor Peter Falk to play the main role.

In the center of the plot is the insurance agent Leonard Hoffman, who has achieved nothing in his life, neither position nor money. And since his three sons have to go to university, it needs money. Hoffman's patron has no intention of helping his employee.

Desperate Leonard colludes with one of his clients, Blanche Ricky. He offers to arrange an accident that allegedly happened to her husband Steve in order to receive a large amount of insurance money.

Filmography

During his career, John Cassavetes participated in more than ten films as an actor. As a director, he performed about twelve times. In addition, he wrote about twenty scripts. The following is a list of some of Cassavetes' acting credits:

• "Killers" (1964), character Johnny North;
• "The Dirty Dozen" (1967), the role of Viktor Franko;
• "Rosemary's Baby" (1968), character Guy Woodhouse;
• "Husbands" (1970), the role of Gus;
• "Moskowitz and Minnie" (1971), character Jim;
• "Premiere" (1977), the role of Maurice Aarons;
• "Fury" (1978), character Ben Childress;
• "After all, whose life is this?" (1981), character Dr. Michael Emerson;
• "Haircut" (1982), the role of a client of a barbershop;
• "Streams of Love"(1983), character Robert Harmon.

List of films directed by Cassavetes: Shadows (1959), Late Blues (1961), Faces (1968), Baby Waiting (1963), Husbands (1970), Moskowitz and Minnie (1971), Woman Under the Influence (1974), Premiere (1977), Bookie Murder (1976), Gloria (1980), Big Trouble (1986), Flows love (1984).

Scripts written by John Cassavetes: Shadows, Streams of Love, Late Blues, Gloria, Faces, Husbands, Premiere, Moskowitz & Minnie, Murder of the Bookie ", "Woman under the influence".

The influence of the director's work on contemporaries

John Cassavetes was one of the most consistent supporters of American independent cinema. Many of his contemporaries - directors, screenwriters and actors - tried to follow the style of Cassavetes. The innovative director had a noticeable influence on the work of Martin Scorsese and Jean-Luc Godard, Nanni Moretti and Jacques Rivette.

Death of director

John Cassavetes died on February 3, 1989 of cirrhosis of the liver and was buried in Westwood Cemetery. He is survived by three children, Nick, Zoe and Alexandra. All of them followed in the footsteps of their father and are currently working in the cinema.