It’s tempting, when praising Cassavetes’s films, to resort to generalizations about the director’s admirable intentions; descriptions like “original,” “raw,” and “human,” while certainly true, need to be expanded upon in order to get at what makes Cassavetes’s work special, and the film’s interview subjects sometimes fall into the trap of leaving things at the level of simplification. But for those new to the director’s films, there’s still some good material here: the commentary from Cassavetes mainstays Ben Gazzara, Gena Rowlands, Al Ruban, Seymour Cassel, and (especially) Peter Falk is predictably engaging, and the selected footage from formative early works like Shadows and Faces is revealing of a filmmaker in the process of discovering his voice.
Credits
John Cassavetes: To Risk Everything to Express It All Cast
| Name |
Character |
|
Peter Falk
He was 68, 83 years old when he died
|
as Himself |
|
Anthony Quinn
He was 80, 86 years old when he died
|
as Himself |
|
Seymour Cassel
He was 60, 84 years old when he died
|
as Himself |
|
Ben Gazzara
He was 65, 81 years old when he died
|
as Himself |
|
Gena Rowlands
She was 65, now 94 years old
|
as Himself |
John Cassavetes: To Risk Everything to Express It All Crew
