Love Streams

Note: this review is a contribution to the 1984 A-Thon hosted by the great folks over at Forgotten Films. The films Big Brother was watching.

Love Streams (John Cassavetes, 1984)

Two closely bound, emotionally wounded siblings reunite after years apart.

Of the many things I want in a movie to be satisfied with I need an interesting plot about human beings that I can believe in. Also, I need a story that involves unpredictable events and it doesn’t have to be mind blowing things. It must like it is the first time it is happening in front of my eyes and I want to believe in its characters. The later don’t have to be perfect they can be strong but at the same time have weaknesses and do things they not always understand or control.

With John Cassavetes and his films, things often get to places you never could have guessed. His masterpiece, A Woman Under the Influence, delivers samples of life. With Love Streams, John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands portray unique characters that love too much, live intensely and are not the typical lead roles Hollywood would put on a thirty foot poster.
Cassavetes made Love Streams right after receiving a diagnosis that he would only live for six months. For that, it is considered as his last film even if he directed Big Trouble in 1986 after writer Andrew Bergman declined directing, Love Streams is the last genuine Cassavetes film.

As mentioned before, John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands give tremendous performances and the couple who impersonate siblings in Love Streams have the same frailty and depth and all the spotlight is used to highlight the complex human beings they portray. The natural realism of the mise en scène leaves much to the story and the characters. It doesn’t feel like a film that was made in the 1980’s or anytime span. It just feels like a bit of life that could be from any family in any era.

Even before knowing that Cassavetes was ill while making Love Streams, I learned that fact after viewing it, this is pretty clear that he was not at the top of his physical form. There’s a sadness and an urgency in Love Streams for Cassavetes but also for Rowlands. Their characters seem to be incapable of fulfilling their emptiness of love and affection. Just like artists that create, perform, and act to gain the love of the public and get the recognition they need just like fuel or food.
As the audience, we want them to be happy and fill the void they have while making, most of the time, fools of themselves.

As a final note, this review was a contribution to the aforementioned 1984-a-thon and was a pleasure to be a part of. However, Love Streams is a film that doesn’t feel 1984ish and even if it’s a very rewarding film to watch I don’t think that it can be well catgorized as a 1980’s film.
Much like other Cassavetes films, Love Streams can only be categorized as a Cassavetes film and nothing else.

Gloria (1980)

Gloria (John Cassavetes, 1980)

It tells the story of a gangster's girlfriend who goes on the run with a young boy who is being hunted by the mob for information he may or may not have.

As much as director John Cassavetes hit a home run with his film A Woman Under the Influence starring his wife Gena Rowlands, he would have been average with his Gloria. At first, Cassavetes didn’t wanted to direct the movie and sold the script to Columbia Pictures. But when Rowlands was linked to the title character she asked for him to direct it. Mixing Cassavetes’ use of Cinéma Vérité and the big studio means, Gloria is on the limit between the independent picture that characterized the director’s fruitful career and the conventional mob movies.

A Woman Under the Influence

A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974)

For Roger Ebert and many other serious film critics, A Woman Under the Influence is its director’s (John Cassavetes) masterpiece. The later, considered as the pioneer of American Independent movies and the father of Cinéma vérité has directed a daring piece about American sociology and human behaviors. Starring Cassavetes’ wife Gena Rowlands as Mabel Longhetti and one of the director’s closest friend Peter Falk as Mabel’s spouse Nick, it represents a dysfunctional family where the mother and the father are mentally ill.

Husbands

Husbands (John Cassavetes, 1970)


It’s been a while since I wanted to catch a John Cassavetes film and I choose Husbands first because it was one of the few I could put my hand on and second because it was starring the late Peter Falk that I miss a lot. Beforehand, I knew that it was going to be some sort of improvised acting without specific story lines.

The plot is about the loss of a friend in a group of four men that were friends since childhood and now in their adulthood they are having troubles dealing with their lost and their common lives. The many scenes of this film are long and make those moments like true moments. It is shot almost like if Cassavetes wanted to document the lives of men who have difficulties to handle the passage from boyhood to manhood. However, this “passage” isn’t a metamorphosis, it is more like the gain of maturity and the case of letting things go. For example, the passions you have while you are a teenager slowly fade away and those nights drinking and hanging with your friends are part of that “passage” to maturity and the evolution as men and adults. The average man will always have to struggle between his responsibilities and his envy to go back to his days of lust. Husbands demonstrates how these men with responsibilities are struggling to pass over their best friend’s death by trying to rememorized their time with him when they were partying and “free”. It resumes an old saying that goes like that: “Life sucks! You’re gonna love it!”.

In some way, this is a sad movie that feels true and also nostalgic because it is the mourning of a lost friend that starts it all. Husbands, is a study of the modern day man alienated by his work and the world of today. Even if sometimes the portrayals are overly exaggerated it’s the magic of the moment that counts when you are watching a Cassavetes’ picture. Moreover, it is the wonderful acting that does it all. The photography is pretty subtle and there is a certain restraint in the technique, its purpose: let the acting talk and carry the film. This is why the presence of Falk, Cassavetes, and Ben Gazzara is the center of Husbands and the major reason why this is a highly regarded picture.

This is a raw film that feels true and down to earth. It’s like watching something without a filter. Far from being a perfect film or a life changing picture, Husbands defines how men can be weak and how they’ll always have to face live and death.

#25 John Cassavetes

Cinephiles who voted for John Cassavetes:
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