A Constant Forge

I try to find some kind

of positive way to make a world exist like a family.

Make a family-

not of us behind the camera-

not of the actors

but of the characters.

A world so that they can patrol

certain streets, patrol their house...

and know their way home.

And when they cease to know

their way home, things go wrong.

You somehow- drunk or sober,

or any other way-

you always find your way back

to where you live.

And then you get detoured.

And when you can't

find your way home...

that's when I consider

it's worth it to make a film.

'Cause that's interesting.

Mr. Sophistication...

and his De-Lovelies...

are not gonna take you to Asia.

They're not gonna take you to Europe.

They're not gonna take you

to South America.

We're gonna introduce

a new number tonight.

He's gonna take you

on a whole new trip.

And I know you're gonna enjoy it.

When I was 17,

I- I could do anything.

It was so easy. My emotions

were so close to the surface.

I'm finding it...

harder and harder

to stay in touch.

Do me a favor?

Don't be silly anymore.

Just be yourself.

But I am myself.

Who else would I be?

I'm serious.

Definition of"serious. "

Blah, blah, blah, blah.

Tell me what you want me to -

how you want me to be.

I can be that.

I can be anything.

You tell me, Nicky.

John Cassavetes thought

that love was the primary emotion...

that determined almost everything

that happens in life.

He was attracted to man's need for love.

We need it like food, water and air,

but we don't know how to get it.

But that's our struggle.

And what gets in the way-

ignorance, superstition,

greed, fear, defensiveness-

Who the hell knows what it is?

But all these things get in the way

with the one thing that we all need.

And that interested him.

All John said was, "Find out

who you are and keep looking for that. "

And the only way you can do that

is to take some chances...

and stretch yourself with people.

I don't know anyone that really

loved people as much as he did.

And with a real honest... passion

and a compassion.

As far as John was concerned,

each person was a jewel, you know.

Each person in the world, really,

that he met.

And I never saw anybody

not be a jewel around John...

because he had

this celebration going on...

with everybody that he dealt with.

He had an understanding

we were all a little crazy. He knew it.

And he was able to

get us to express it.

We should be respectful of that-

that we're all a little crazy.

We're all totally, uh, unique animals...

and full of majestic potential.

But all a little crazy.

And he showed us.

He told us that.

He had another look

at the human condition.

And not based on psychology, either.

Based on a whole other thing.

A love-A love for people.

His love oflife, his love of emotion,

his love of feeling, his love of contradiction.

He was a force.

He was excited.

He was, uh -

He loved to laugh.

He enjoyed - He enjoyed people.

He enjoyed the way they made fools

of themselves. He enjoyed their struggle.

And he enjoyed trying to capture that.

That's what he wanted.

He wanted to get that on film.

So that there was very little distinction

between his life and his making of a film.

They were combined together.

When I show his films to my students...

I want them so badly to appreciate...

that it's notjust incredible filmmaking

we're coming into contact with...

but a different mode

of experiencing life-

a mode that asks deeper questions

than traditional films do.

A mode that allows for the messy,

the complicated...

the embarrassing,

the unpredictable.

Those, to me, are values in life,

notjust in film.

In anyJohn Cassavetes movie,

I think every three or four minutes...

there's some lightning bolt of reality.

Will you let me finish!

Because you're a man

who doesn't say what you mean very well.

What you meant was this was a wonderfu evening,

and you enjoy my house and you ike me.

But like you said, you're crude.

All ofhis films, in one way or another,

are depictions of sleepwalkers...

who have to wake up.

And the film is the wake-up call.

It's about viewers who have to wake up

and encounter reality freshly.

Of course, a lot of viewers resist that,

just as a lot of characters resist it.

It's largely responsible for the neglect...

and even the downright abuse

of his work in his lifetime.

I'm sorry.

I'm a stupid woman, and I -

This is very embarrassing,

and I'm just sorry.

It's just that there's such a difference

between what you dream about...

and what's really there, isn't there?

The exploration oflife

and what you possibly are doing here...

and trying to work out...

your problems and...

your differences and, uh -

Those were the things

that are fascinating to us.

And they were too embarrassing

for some people.

Um, but not for us.

I just don't love you.

I won't call my filmmaking entertainment.

It's asking questions of people- constantly.

"How much do you feel?"

"How much do you know?"

'Are you aware of this?"

"Can you cope with this?"

"What problems do you have

that I may have?"

What part oflife are we interested

in knowing more about?

I have a need for the characters

to really analyze love-

discuss it, kill it, destroy it,

hurt each other.

Do all the stuff in that war-

in that word polemic

and film polemic of what life is.

I have a one-track mind.

That's all I'm interested in

love-and the lack of it.

My father came over to America

when he was 11 years old.

He was born in Piraeus, Greece...

and he heard about this country when

a missionary came through town one day...

saying there was

brotherhood in America.

That if you wanted to work and learn...

the American people would open

their arms and hearts to you.

My parents allowed their two sons

to be individuals.

My family was

a wild and wonderful place...

with lots of friends and neighbors

visiting and talking loud and eating loud.

And nobody telling their children

to be quiet or putting them down.

When we had money,

we went to the movies.

When we didn't, we sat around

the kitchen table and told stories.

I was a totally uninterested student

in high school.

I didn't want to

go to college because...

college in the '50s

was just a way of getting a diploma.

I hitchhiked down to Florida

for a few weeks, and when I got back home...

I bumped into some friends of mine-

funny, funny guys.

"Hey,John, wejust signed up...

"at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts

to become actors, man.

Come with us.

The school's packed with girls. "

I'd get up on stage and shout.

A couple of the teachers liked that

because it showed a lot of enthusiasm.

For a long time, that's all I thought acting

was about- to show a lot of emotion.

I attended the academy for a year

and then spent two years making the rounds.

There's something about the motivation

of fear that makes you work terribly hard.

But as an actor,you don't get the freedom

to function the way you'd like to.

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