Love is Dead

Thanks to the good folks at BAM, Filmbrain can now scratch one title from his "dying to see" list. Though a VHS copy of John Cassavetes' second-to-last film Love Streams could be found at better video stores, there was no way that Filmbrain was going to sit through a pan-and-scan version (though at times the temptation was great). On Sunday his dream of seeing it on the big screen came true, sweetened by the fact that it was a new print straight from the lab. Time (and an overwhelming need to see it a second time) doesn't permit for a full length review, but Filmbrain is seriously toying with the idea that Love Streams might be his greatest film. A culmination of themes explored in earlier works, Love Streams is Cassavetes in the eXtreme, and the experience while watching it is akin to being kicked in the sternum, repeatedly. The film is replete with the type of characters (and associated behaviors) you'd expect to find in a Cassavetes film -- middle-aged men behaving like impulsive children, children imitating adults by drinking and smoking, adulterous husbands and mentally unstable wives, tuxedo clad machos full of bravado and the bevy of young women who adore them, etc. There's an air of loneliness that permeates the whole film, and virtually every character suffers from a lack of love. It's interesting to note that this is one of the few films Cassavetes directed that he didn't write. You'd never guess while watching it, for the raw desperation and character interplay is so very Cassavetian. (A fair amount of the dialog is clearly improvised.) What's remarkable (and unique) about the film is the way in which it gradually progresses towards decay, stripping itself down to the barest of elements, as if Cassavetes knew this would be some sort of farewell. (It's also the only Cassavetes film to make use of elaborate dream/fantasy sequences.) After two hours of non-stop interactions with strangers, hookers, rediscovered family members, therapists, former spouses, lawyers, etc., the film ends up with John and Gena surrounded by animals (which at one point are mistaken for humans), trapped like some latter-day Noah while a storm of biblical proportions rages around them. Shot in their own Los Angeles home, much of the film's success rests with John and Gena's ability to transcend language and communicate (to each other and the audience) via their own love streams. Gena has never looked lovelier, and John never worse (the bags under his eyes are horrifying), and what the two of them shared as both artists and husband and wife is fully exposed here as never before. Love Streams is one of the most beautiful, yet painful films of all time. Love Streams is only available on a French DVD, though it comes packaged with another Cassavetes rarity, 1963's A Child is Waiting.

Comments

[the narwhal]

Speaking of Bo Harwood's score, is anyone aware of there being a separate soundtrack released for this film? As with most Cassavetes films, I'd love to have the soundtrack, but my searches for anything Harwood have always come up empty.

[Reach]

Re: Improvisation in Cassavetes' films

Yeah, I think that's a common misconception (and one that is easy to make) that a lot of dialogue is improvised in Cassavetes' films. I recently rented the Criterion edition of (the excellent) 'A Woman Under the Influence', on which there are some good extras such as an interview with Faulk and Rowlands and an audio interview with Cassavetes himself. In both of these extras it is made clear that the dialogue in 'Woman..' as well as other Cassavetes films is extremely faithful to the scripts with virtually nothing improvised. It's really amazing how natural the dialogue sounds, though.

[Alex]

"I'm Almost Not Crazy" is readily available on Amazon, that's where I got it from. But there's some guy on ebay selling THREE CASS DOCS on one bootleg VHS for 20 bucks. Worth it, considering one of the docs is on the Making of "Husbands", another one is "I'm almost Not Crazy", and I forget the last one...As for that song "I'm almost in love with you", been looking for it for 3 years, cant find it.

[Faux Hulot]

Ray Carney keeps repeating that the VHS version was cut by 20:00, but it's not true, I've verified it myself.

I've never heard of any Harwood albums of any sort (in fact the only Cassavetes soundtrack LP was for Faces), but if I ever re-start my dormant label, that's one of my dream releases...

[Alex]

REally? Faces had no extradiegetic music except that last song. or at least its what i recall.

[jfigl]

Thanks, Faux Hulot: the MGM/UA VHS version is, indeed, the full film. The source of the confusion appears to be the box and the label on the cassette, both of which read "APPROX. 2 HRS. 2 MINS."

The film runs 141 minutes from Golan Globus logo through final fade.

I watched the film again on Thanksgiving. Cassavetes' waving goodbye (waving US goodbye!) in the final shot of his final film only becomes more spine-tingling as time goes by.

[Faux Hulot]

It's been ages since I've played it, and it's in storage 1000 miles away right now so I can't even dig up a track listing for you, but the record does exist (pic at http://pages.ripco.net/~economy/images/FacesLP.jpg -- I'd post it here directly but it looks like that particular html is veboten).

[Peter Rinaldi]

i was there at the BAM screening on sunday. it was my third time seeing it on the big screen and the most moving for me. i wanted to wave back to John at the end. i think it would be nice to start that tradition - everyone in the audience wave goodbye to john/robert at the end.

[Faux Hulot]

In case anyone stumbles on this entry and is curious about that Faces LP, check this out:
http://likeatimemachinepoweredbybicycles.blogspot.com/2008/09/john-cassavetes-faces-music-from-sound.html

[Kelly]

I watched this yesterday and I'm feeling it like residual venom in my system a week after the bite of a spider. How did JC so consistently evoke that idiosyncratic disarming characteristic of his? I don't know if this is my favorite; "Killing..." really does make me weep every time I see it for its humanity, brutality and brilliance. Holy cats. His legend will continue to soar higher as time passes.

[Me]

Does anybody know the song that plays at the end, who sings it, the title, anything?