A Constant Forge Page #20

what life's about, sweetheart. Go ahead.

Dressed in khaki suits

Gee, we looked swell

We hummed that

yankee doodle dee dum

And a half a million boots

went slugging through hell

And I

I was a kid with a drum

Oh, say, say

don't you remember

They called me Al

Then it was Al all the time

Say, don't you remember

I'm your pal

But when I saw it again,

10 or 12 years later...

Brother, can you spare a dime

Turns out, I was wrong.

I had grown up to understand the picture.

Cassavetes makes adult films, uh,

with the subtlety and complexity...

and multivalence of adult emotions...

films about people and relationships...

that won't be reduced down

to the teenage immaturity...

these adolescent simplicities

of Hollywood films.

I somehow -

I seem to have lost

the, uh, the reality of-

of the, uh -

reality.

People feel very isolated

and very frightened...

and the idea of going to see one of

John's films is, like, even more frightening.

And -And they just want to -

And it's never been -

People just don't learn

that by going through something...

you do feel a peace

and an integrity afterwards.

And it just doesn't seem like

it's part of the culture at all.

In this country, people die at 21.

They die emotionally at 21,

maybe even younger now.

For those of us who are lucky

not to die at 20, we keep on going.

And my responsibility as an artist...

is to help people get over 21.

The films are a road map through

emotional and intellectual terrains...

that provide a solution

to how one can save pain.

As people, we know

that we are petty, vicious...

violent and horrible.

But my films make an effort

to contain the depression within us...

and to limit the depression

to those areas that we can actually solve.

The resolution of the films...

is the assertion of a human spirit.

You are told from the very first shot...

that you can't settle back into your seat

andjust have an easy time...

that movies can also be

to energize you...

to stimulate you, to provoke you...

into something beyond

what you were prepared...

to feel before the film began.

That's good.

It's a shake-up kind of American cinema.

Nick!

No, uh, Garson. Garson Cross.

I'm the one that

brought you home last night.

I'm interested in shaking people up...

not making them happy

by soothing them.

I don't care if people

like our films or not.

To dig deeply

into the way things are...

through people is what I like...

and what the people

who work with me like also.

To find out the delicate balance

between living and dying.

I mean, I think that's

the only subject there is.

Are you in there?

John had his office right above

the theater where Woman was playing.

And he'd say,

"Come here. Want to see our audience?"

And I'd say, "Sure. " And we'd look down,

and the people would be lining up.

It was very personal with us.

Sometimes we'd be up there,

and we'd be talking about something...

and the picture would be playing,

and you'd the hear the doors go 'poom.!"

Open. And somebody would come out

really mad, really mad.

And then they'd stay there

a few minutes.

And then sometimes

they'd like - light a cigarette -

Sometimes they'd walk.

Most often, they would just

take a breather and then go, "Okay. "

They'd go back in.

And I'd - "Well -"

If you're not watching

and listening carefully, you miss it all.

And people would come out and say,

"I don't know what the f*** that was about. "

You know.

"It's confusing, and it's idiotic and -"

But the French understood it.

I mean, they just, "Yeah!"

He was, you know,

he was hot in France.

But then, so was Joan of Arc.

When things are original...

obviously they're a little more difficult.

That's why the viewers

usually come out angry.

When they're angry, I don't get angry.

I kind oflike it. It's never easy.

I think that it's only

in the movies that it's easy.

I don't think that people

want their lives to be easy.

I think it's a United States sickness.

In the end, it becomes more difficult.

I like things to be difficult

so that my life will be easier.

To be able to have that pressure...

and have that control

and having integrity in his movies-

- This is ridiculous.

- Is- Is not easy to do.

John was a really great

technical filmmaker...

and I don't think people

give him credit for that.

I think they think he's just this kind of maverick

wild man who shot whatever happened.

I don't think you can do that

and end up with the movies like he made.

He was really talented and very skilled...

and had spent years and years

learning how to write and edit and shoot.

I mean, it wasn't like he just -

You can't just turn a camera on

and let people go crazy. It doesn't work.

His work is structurally, maybe,

you know, all over the place.

But there's some -

someplace he's getting...

that nobody else can get to.

People who imitated John

don't know how to do it.

Because he had

a rigorous editorial mind.

And there's no fat in those pictures.

It just seems to be...

because it meanders in comparison to

the average commercial, slick Hollywood movie.

He's not like that.

He's watching people.

And you watch people,

it takes time to see what they're like.

He took middle-class life,

he put it on the screen...

and he said,

"Here. Become involved.

"Because if you're not involved,

you won't like these films.

"You can't sit there

as a passive audience.

You got to experience what we're going through.

That's why we're doing t this way. "

There were several times

in the course of the films where I'd say...

"Boy. That's enough. "

And he'd say to me,

'Al, no. That's not enough. "

His work inspires us

to take chances, to take risks...

to not be afraid

to push the envelope...

whether it's a character

or a situation...

or even a shot,your filmmaking technique,

your editing.

Cassavetes cuts out of a scene

in the middle of a sentence.

I have a piece of paper here that says -

A traditional motion picture

completes the sentence...

before you start the next scene.

He starts scenes before

the thought is - is completed.

He cuts away from music

in the middle of a phrase.

And, uh -And that's life.

Just the same way one

is interrupted in - in real life.

His films didn't end.

They weren't tied up at the end.

Theyjust stopped.

It was never neat.

And-And that's the way it is in life.

What you doin'

standin'way over there

- Excuse me.

- I want you to come stand over here

But that's life.

That's what he- That was again...

so breathtaking, for him to finish

on that note, because that's how it is.

You don't go out with a bang,

you go out with a whimper.

They just -

And they just went on.

- You know, I'm really nuts.

- Oh.

Tell me about it.

I don't even know

how this whole thing got started.

Don't worry about it. Let me see that hand.

They'd gone through...

probably as bad as it's gonna get...

and they were still together.

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