Themes: Custody Battles, Prostitutes, Writer's Life
Main Cast: Gena Rowlands, John Cassavetes, Diahnne Abbott, Seymour Cassel, Margaret Abbott
Release Year: 1984
Country: US
Run Time: 136 minutes
Plot
In this emotional roller coaster ride, Robert Harmon (John Cassavetes) is a street-wise, sometimes obnoxious writer currently working on a book about the seamier side of buying/selling love, and Sarah Lawson (Gena Rowlands) is an emotive wife and mother struggling through a divorce and custody battle. When Sarah lands on Robert's doorstep with her suitcases, it seems at first that she has returned to her husband. Robert has several women staying at his place (research sources!), but when his real ex-wife arrives with their young son, he sends the women packing. Sarah, it turns out, is Robert's sister. As the two work out their own live's hurdles -- Robert, the unaccustomed father with his 8-year-old son, and Sarah, trying to cope with her custody battle and its results -- their way of handling adversity and personal burdens becomes the real subtext of the film. This film won the Golden Bear Award at the 1984 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Jakob Shaw - Albie Swanson; John Roselius - Ken; Michelle Conaway - Agnes Swanson; Eddy Donno - Stepfather Swanson; Doe Avedon - Mrs. Kiner; Tom Badal - Sam the Lawyer; Gregg Berger - Taxi Driver; Risa Martha Blewitt - Debbie Lawson; Tony Brubaker - Frank; Alexandra Cassavetes - Backup Singer; Dominique Davalos - Backup Singer; Raphael de Niro - Billy; Robert Fieldsteel - Dr. Williams; John Finnegan - Taxi Driver; Joan Foley - Judge Dunbar; Leslie Hope - Joanie; Jamie Horton - Porter; David Rowlands - Psychiatrist; Al Ruban - Milton Kravitz; William Thompson - Porter; C. Frank Beetson, Jr. - Cashier; Phedon Papamichael - Taxi Driver; Logan Carter - Female Impersonator; Lenny Geer - Lenny; Kelly Lawrence - Female Inpersonator; Susan Wolf - Jade Meadows Swift; Neil Bell - The Dog Man; Joan Dykman - Phyllis; Jim W. Jones - Taxi Driver; Francois Duhamel - Porter; Michael Stein - Porter; Christopher Morley - Female Impersonator
Credit
John Cassavetes - Director, George C. Villasenor - Editor, Al Ruban - Executive Producer, Bo Harwood - Composer (Music Score), Phedon Papamichael - Production Designer, Al Ruban - Cinematographer, Yoram Globus - Producer, Menahem Golan - Producer, Ted Allan - Screen Story, John Cassavetes - Screenwriter, Ted Allan - Screenwriter, Ted Allan - Play Author
The debut full-length by German duo März is a crisp and melodic electronic record built from traditional pop sources. Ekkehard Ehlers and Albrecht Kunze recorded and looped bits of guitar, banjo, piano, and xylophone, among other instruments, and mixed their material with samples (including the easily identifiable loop of Nick Drake's guitar nicked from his "From the Morning" for "Introductory") and their own voices. Tracks like "The Help Song" and "Everybody Had a Hard Year" have an innocent, naïve sensibility that seems borrowed from the golden age of '70s singer/songwriters, but the steady, machine-like beats bubbling underneath the surface gloss provide an appealing twist. The instrumental "Chelsea Boys" has an even more pronounced micro-house rhythm combined with a simple glockenspiel melody that gives it a casual lightness rarely seen in the genre. A few tracks seem closer to indie rock. "The Rain Rains" is just clumsily plucked guitar, a music-box melody on a keyboard, and the sound of, yes, rain falling in the background, but it still manages to carry some emotional weight in spite of it all. Love Streams is the sort of album that feels like a new recipe; all the base materials have been around, but they've never been put together quite like this. An unusual combination of folky pop and sharp electronic sequencing that never falters in terms of listenability. ~ Mark Richardson, All Music Guide
Love Streams is an 1984 American film by John Cassavetes that tells the story of a middle-aged brother and sister who find themselves caring for one another after the other loves in their lives abandon them. The visual style of the film is decidedly different from Cassavetes' other works, as it contains no hand-held camera work (which was a trademark of his visual style).
The film is based on the 1980 play of the same name by Ted Allen but the correlation between the screenplay and the play is minimal. In the stage production, the role of Robert Harmon was played by Jon Voight; Cassavetes took up this role for the film version.
Love Streams was originally released with a running time of 141 minutes. It was briefly available on videotape in the mid-80s, in a version cut to 122 minutes by the distributor; one scene was edited and several unusual visual effects (the insertion of black leader and jump cuts) were removed. In 2003, it was released on DVD in France (along with A Child Is Waiting) in its entirety.
Love Streams was John Cassavetes' 11th film, and is generally considered to be his last[citation needed], though he later made the more mainstream Big Trouble in an attempt to finance a subsequent unrealized project.
