Faces [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Faces is right: this definitive John Cassavetes film consists almost exclusively of tight, uncomfortable close-ups. It takes place in the fourteenth year of the marriage of Richard (John Marley) and Maria (Lynn Carlin). Neither husband nor wife is content with the conditions that prevail; Maria joins her friends looking for romantic satisfaction elsewhere, while Richard secures the services of a prostitute (Gena Rowlands). Maria herself has a one-night stand with a hippie (Seymour Cassel), but this is no more satisfying than her dead-end marriage. If you think that Faces is an exhausting experience in its current 130-minute length, imagine what it looked like in Cassavetes' original six-hour cut. Alternately clumsy and profound, it is nonetheless a work of deep sincerity, as recognized by the Venice Film Festival, which bestowed no fewer than five awards on the film, and it perfectly exemplifies Cassavetes' improvisational, cinema verite style and searching explorations of modern relationships. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Number of Discs: 2
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 (Vistavision)
• Features:
  • Seventeen-minute alternate opening sequence from an early edit of the film
  • Episode of the French television series Cineastes de notre temps from 1968, dedicated to Cassavetes, featuring rare interviews and behind-the-scenes footage
  • Making "Faces," a 2004 documentary including interviews with actors Lynn Carlin, Seymour Cassel, and Gena Rowlands and director of photography AL Ruban
  • Lighting & Shooting the film, a short documentary from 2004 in which Ruban explains how he and the crew achieved the distinct look of Faces
  • A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Stuart Klawans

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Original Screenplay - 1968 (John Cassavetes)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actor - 1968 (Seymour Cassel)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actress - 1968 (Lynn Carlin)

• Venice International Film Festival

•     Won Volpi Cup for Best Actor - 1968 (John Marley)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       John Marley - Richard Forst
       Gena Rowlands - Jeannie Rapp
       Lynn Carlin - Maria Forst
       Seymour Cassel - Chet
       Frederick Draper - Freddie
       Val Avery - McCarthy
       Dorothy Gulliver - Florence
       Joanne Jordan - Louise
       Darlene Conley - Billy Mae
       Elizabeth Deering - Stella
       Christina Crawford

• Director:

  John Cassavetes

• Producer:

  Al Ruban, Maurice McEndree

• Screenwriter:

  John Cassavetes

• Cinematographer:

  Al Ruban

• Composer (Music Score):

  Jack Ackerman

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Jack Ackerman

• Songwriter:

  Charlie Smalls

• Editor:

  Al Ruban, John Cassavetes, Maurice McEndree

• Art Director:

  Phedon Papamichael

• Associate Producer:

  Al Ruban

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Don Pike

REVIEW:

• The maturation of his maverick "home movie" ethos, John Cassavetes's Faces (1968) incisively explores the disintegration of an upper middle-class marriage. Shot in 16mm black-and-white, Cassavetes's mobile long takes capture the shifting character dynamics as John Marley's Richard walks out on Lynn Carlin's Maria for a night with Gena Rowlands's prostitute Jeanie, leaving Maria to find temporary solace with Seymour Cassel's young swinger Chet. Punctuating those long takes with extreme close-ups, the actors' brief moments of silent emotional revelation allude to the feelings masked by the jokes, songs, and dances that constitute their interactions. Filmed over eight months and edited over several years, the final form of Faces is hardly off-the-cuff, yet Cassavetes's cinema verite style and reliance on improvised performances of scripted lines created a feeling of spontaneous intimacy to match the "realistic," mundane truth of marital boredom. Independently produced by Cassavetes after two frustrating Hollywood experiences, Faces became a critical hit. Along with prizes from the Venice Film Festival and the New York Film Critics Circle, Faces received Oscar nominations for Cassavetes's script and Cassel's and Carlin's supporting performances, confirming Cassavetes's place as one of the most innovative and influential American filmmakers of the 1960s. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi