'John Cassavetes' Cycle

“John Cassavetes, who was about my age, was a great director. I cannot imagine myself as his equal in cinema. For me, he represents a certain kind of cinema that stands head and shoulders above everything else.” — Jean-Luc Godard

“Cassavetes embodied the emergence in New York of a new school of cinema guerrillas. [...] only human relationships interested him: laughter and shame, games and tears – the great carousel of love.” — Martin Scorsese

“Ultimately, it all comes down to one person: John Cassavetes.” — Ryusuke Hamaguchi

There are three or four filmmakers in the world who are the very essence of modern cinema, but above them all stands John Cassavetes (1929–1989). It is, therefore, once again time to return to his work, which has influenced (and continues to influence) countless filmmakers across the globe, including Bogdanovich, Scorsese, Eustache, Pialat, Rivette and Hamaguchi. Together with the actress Gena Rowlands, whom he married in 1954 and with whom he lived until his untimely death at the age of 59, he formed one of the most creative partnerships in the history of cinema. It was with her that he made almost all his films, and also with friends such as Peter Falk and Ben Gazzara, imbued with the pulse of a life shared in a unique way.

As Jim Jarmusch wrote, his films “are about love, trust and mistrust, isolation, joy, sadness, ecstasy and stupidity. They are about restlessness, intoxication, resilience and desire, about humour, stubbornness, miscommunication and fear”. They are an extension of life and are, as Ray Carney [Cassavetes on Cassavetes] notes, “full of his experiences and his most personal feelings […] Cassavetes is within his films, and his impressions of life are found in characters such as Ben from Shadows, Richard from Faces, […], Mabel from A Woman Under the Influence, and Cosmo from The Death of a Chinese Gambler […]”. — Medeia Filmes