Main Cast: John Marley, Gena Rowlands, Lynn Carlin, Seymour Cassel, Frederick Draper
Release Year: 1968
Country: US
Run Time: 129 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
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, cinéma vérité style and searching explorations of modern relationships. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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 cinéma vérité 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, All Movie Guide
Frederick Draper - Freddie; Val Avery - McCarthy; Dorothy Gulliver - Florence; Joanne Jordan - Louise; Darlene Conley - Billy Mae; Gene Darfler - Jackson; Elizabeth Deering - Stella; Christina Crawford; O.G. Dunn - Comedian; Laurie Mock; John Neilson; David Rowlands; George Sims - Bartender; Midge Ware; James Bridges - Extra; John Hale
Credit
Phedon Papamichael - Art Director, Al Ruban - Associate Producer, John Cassavetes - Director, Al Ruban - Editor, John Cassavetes - Editor, Maurice McEndree - Editor, Jack Ackerman - Composer (Music Score), Jack Ackerman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Charlie Smalls - Songwriter, Al Ruban - Cinematographer, Al Ruban - Producer, Maurice McEndree - Producer, Don Pike - Sound/Sound Designer, John Cassavetes - Screenwriter
