Shadows (1959)

When you consider that the big movies of 1960 were films such as Elmer Gantry and The Alamo, it's hard to imagine what people made of this, John Cassavetes's first independent feature. Improvised by the cast, shot in black and white, it looked like no other film of its time. Cassavetes, seeking to both deal with social issues and create a new kind of cinema, told a story about a family of black siblings in Manhattan trying to make ends meet. But one brother falls in with bad company, while the sister, who is trying to pass for white, gets involved in an interracial romance that ultimately crumbles when the white man she falls for discovers her true identity. Though it meanders at times, it features the kind of spontaneous emotion Cassavetes most wanted to elicit in his films. --Marshall Fine Amazon.com

A breakthrough in American cinema...

The remarkable, sometimes infuriating, often brilliant films of John Cassavetes occupy a unique position in American cinema... Low-budget, partly improvised, inspired by cinéma verité documentary, and related to underground film, they have nevertheless frequently managed to reach a wide and profoundly appreciative audience...

After drama studies, the young Cassavetes quickly made his name as an unusually unrefined, intense actor, often appearing in films about disaffected, rebellious youth such as "Crime in the Streets" and "Edge of the City."

Setting up an actors' workshop, he worked to transform an improvisational experiment into his feature debut... The result, "Shadows," taking three years to complete and partly financed by his performances in TV's Johnny Staccato, was a breakthrough in American cinema... About the effect of racism on an already fraught relationship between two black men and their sister, two of whom pass for white, the film is impressive for its irregular, seemingly formless style and naturalistic performances... Plot was minimal, mood and emotional apparent truth were everything...

January 13, 2007

Behind-the-scenes for Cass buffs

For a fascinating behind-the-scenes info about Shadows and a list of books about Cassavetes' work, go to Ray Carney's website dedicated to John Cassavetes (found through any search engine).
January 26, 2005

Out from the Shadows

Cassavetes was just warming up when he made this in the late '50s, but what a debut! He'd have better actors and more focused scenes in future movies, but the willingness to tackle intense subjects in unexpected ways is already here in full force. Race isn't so much the issue in "Shadows" as it is an occasion for exploring a whole range of folks uncomfortable in their own skins, from the 'racist' lover who wants Lelia back to the goofy hoods in Ben's gang. Cassavetes is especially sensitive to the way that people who are forced to conform to any of society's ideas--about the artist, the intellectual or the racial outsider--can be violent in turn towards others. A great taste of the films to come! November 16, 2002

AWEsome Film

This is a great movie. Like it was made yeserday. Punk, beat in sensibility. About young people struggling on the fringes.

Also the review that follows mine is right. A guy named Ray Carney just wrote an amazing book about the movie that has incredible behind the scenes details that no one ever knew before. Cassavetes revealed them to Carney before he died in a Rosebud conversation. Check out the book titled Shadows and another titled Cassavetes on Cassavetes along with the film. It's available here if you type in Cassavetes' name under books. Also Carney has a web site that you should check out with lots of other Cassavetes material.

I love this movie! And the books about it. February 3, 2002

FILM GOGGLES

This intense, hysterical, loud, sweet and sour film was NOT an IMPROVISATION despite the end title! Neither were Cassavetes other films, in the classic sense of IMPROV. Improv was sparringly used in the writing of the scripts, but Cassavetes was a WRITER who knew what he was doing more than people give him credit for. This is a major crime against one of the greatest artists of the last 100 years (wha? no, seriously). To get the real scoop, and an exhaustive, loving take on this important first film by an American original, check out the BFI Film Series edition on SHADOWS, which just came out. It breaks it down and builds it back up, in a way you won't believe. December 21, 2001

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