Shadows (Cassavetes, 1959): Genesis Cinema, 3.30pm
Chicago Reader review:
'John Cassavetes's first feature (1959), shot in 16-millimeter, centers
on three siblings living together in Manhattan; the oldest, a third-rate
nightclub singer (Hugh Hurd), is visibly black, while the other two
(Ben Carruthers and Lelia Goldoni) are sufficiently light skinned to
pass for white. This is the only Cassavetes film made without a full
script (it grew out of acting improvs), and rarely has so much warmth,
delicacy, and raw feeling emerged so naturally and beautifully from
performances in an American film. It's contemporaneous with early
masterpieces of the French New Wave and deserves to be ranked alongside
them for the freshness and freedom of its vision; in its portrait of a
now-vanished Manhattan during the beat period, it also serves as a
poignant time capsule. With Tony Ray (son of director Nicholas Ray),
Rupert Crosse, Dennis Sallas, Tom Allen, and Davey Jones—all very
fine—and a wonderful jazz score by Charles Mingus. It's conceivable that
Cassavetes made greater films, but this is the one I cherish the most.' Jonathan Rosenabum
Here is an extract.
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