USA,
1968, 130 min
Shown in 1968
CREDITS
- dir
-
John Cassavetes
- prod
-
Maurice McEndree
- scr
-
John Cassavetes
- cam
-
Al Ruban
- editor
-
Maurice McEndree, Al Ruban, John Cassavetes
- cast
-
John Marley, Gena Rowlands, Lynn Carlin, Fred Draper, Seymour Cassell, Dorothy Gulliver, Val Avery, Elizabeth Deering
- source
-
Castle Hill Productions, 1414 Avenue of the Americas, I 5th Floor, New York, NY 10019. FAX: 212-644-0956
-
COMMENTS
John Marley attended showing in 1968. Shown as part of the Indelible Images series, selected by Robin Wright Penn in 1999.
OTHER
Often called one of the most important American films of the ’60s, Faces is a cruel, moving work of primitive art that observes the adulterous escapades of a well-to-do couple as they systematically lacerate their emotions to the point of destruction—self and other. An intense and intimate perusal of the lives of a group of Los Angeles night people, the film was shot entirely on 16mm over a period of three years and used, for the most part, little-known actors. Surprisingly, the acting and photography give everything the immediacy of a boudoir news exposé handled by a social philosopher. The camera is always microscopically close, so that there is, finally, an overwhelming sadness about these grinning faces. Cassavetes wants to catch the chance phrase and the revelation that are often camouflaged by an averted glance; he is a seer, staring into the future and shedding its merciless glow over the futile present. Faces tells things exactly as they are, with much compassion, some sentiment and a great deal of truth. The original cut ran nearly six hours, making it an inevitable victim of the editing room; unfortunately, that version exists now only as a published script. Spending almost two years cutting the film and battling synchronization problems, Cassavetes finally released it in 1968, roughly five years after beginning. Its critical acceptance helped him gain the artistic freedom necessary to move further into his searing, improvisation explorations of American life.
—Albert Johnson
FACTOID #28
A print of Tonight and Every Night, to be shown at the Rita Hayworth tribute in 1972, was stolen out of a truck on its way to the theater.
