A Constant Forge Page #21

And there was a gentleness...

that I hadn't seen before...

in the relationship.

Andjust that depth of feeling

that you have for someone...

that you've gone through

a lot of things with.

That wonderful,

unspoken connection between two people...

where words are not necessary...

and where you're comfortable and content

with each other without talking.

In the course of the final sequence...

when the storms of emotion clear...

everything appears to be calm.

Nothing that has taken place

seems to have any importance...

except that Mabel has been set free...

the children accept their parents...

and Nick and Mabel have

in some way...

discovered they can accept the difference

between commitment and emotional needs.

We end with the ritual

of preparing for sleep...

reestablishing, without conversation...

the need to make room

for the dilemmas oflove.

Cosmo, I think what happened...

was wrong.

And you won't go to the doctor...

because you think you're gonna live...

with the bullet in you.

And I don't want you

in my house no more.

He's shot.

Does he die? I don't know.

Is the wound, uh -

I mean, it's here.

Why would he die? Why would he die?

Unless he's not gonna go

and get any help.

Possible that he'll bleed to death,yes.

Andjust let it go,

because he's lost the club.

Grovel for it. Grovel.

Scheme awhile

- You're sure to find

- Take it off.

Happiness

great success

All the things you always whined for

So much of Cassavetes'work is about...

stripping away the masks that we put on

for our daily interactions.

Myrtle is the most capable one

in Opening Night...

of stripping them all off...

until this raw human being...

engages the audience.

It's very scary, by the way, not just for

the performer but for the audience too.

And,yes, there is enormous courage...

on the part of Gena Rowlands...

on the part of Myrtle,

and on the part of Cassavetes.

How about

if you stand over here?

All right.

Okay, then I'm

standing over here, right?

- Now, could you do me a favor?

- Certainly.

- I didn't know he was gonna do that.

- Could you raise your right leg?

I had no idea. That whole last scene

is heavily improvised.

He said,

"Put your leg in the air. "

Whatever I did with it,

it was not what I knew he expected.

No, seriously-

He said, "Put it back. "

And this was all on camera.

I had no idea.

We will walk to each other...

- we will try to clasp hands...

- Yes?

and we will grab each other's leg

as we pass.

- Oh, that's wonderful.!

- This is an athlete's trick.

- Okay.

- Instead of doing, "Hey, baby! Damn!"

Now?

Whenever you say. Ready?

Hey, baby! What do you say!

Ohh! Ohh!

Yo! Yes! Ohh!

Okay!

But it was all just

happening just as it happened.

We'd have to know each other

for those physical moves.

You'd have to know someone

so very, very, very well...

that you would do that.

It's wonderful how, after moving

through so many dark, emotional realms...

in Opening Night, Cassavetes does end

with that glimmer ofhope.

It's the possibility that a man

and a woman can have fun again.

I'm interested

in how people fool themselves...

not how they fool others.

My films strip characters

of some of their illusions...

break down their defenses,

bring them to a little bit of self-realization.

I don't know why we do this, man.

- I mean, go around, try to pick up girls.

- Stupid broads.

You'd think we'd have girls of our own

like every normal type guy.

So?

So I'm not gonna do it anymore.

Want me to be corny and say

this has taught me a lesson?

- Well, it's taught me a lesson.

- Aw,just forget about it.

Okay, forget about it.

If you take his films seriously...

you have to think a lot differently

about human beings afterwards.

Why do men act like babies?

Why do women seem to go crazy?

Why do people try to kill themselves?

What is it about the mechanics...

of both acting in

a stage performance situation...

and the way we act in daily life?

What are those mechanics about?

And these are some

of the really good questions...

that his films pose

without ever giving us easy answers.

There is a kind of emotional death

when you stop asking questions.

And the questions are always better

than the answers.

I won't make shorthand films...

because I don't want

to manipulate audiences...

into assuming quick, manufactured truths.

Other films depend on a shorthand,

a shorthand for living...

and people understand that shorthand.

Other films are still predicated

on incidents. Incidents are exciting.

You recognize certain incidents,

and you go with them.

I get bored seeing two people

that are supposed to be in love...

who kiss, screw,

or whatever they do.

I get bored by that because they're

only supposed to do those things.

I don't really believe

that they're doing that.

And I couldn't care less.

At the core ofJohn's work...

is some sense

that most of the social ceremonies...

and rituals we go through in life...

are absolute hypocrisy...

or certainly evasions

of what we really are.

And that he repeatedly pushes

his characters to a place...

more primitive,

more raw, more intense...

more distraught, more emotional...

than any social situation can contain.

In those extreme moments...

when all the little polite

rituals are left behind...

I'm certain that he saw...

the truest expressions of what we are.

What he liked to do, I think...

was to scratch away

at the complacencies...

so that each of us does

have to examine her own life.

The way we make pictures is we make pictures

for people that are interested in specifics.

They're not gonna be

interested in everything.

They're gonna be interested

in that scene. "I love that scene!"

Somebody else will say,

"I hate that scene!"

Because it has something

to do with their life.

And in that sense,

it's not like a movie.

It's, uh -A movie tries to pacify people...

by keeping it going for them

so that it's sheer entertainment.

Well, I hate entertainment.

We were walking one day...

and we went to a preview

of Opening Night.

And the audience were laughing,

they loved it...

and he walked out

and he said to me, "I failed.

"They got all the surface...

"and they didn't get

any of the other stuff.

And that's why I failed. "

And he went back

into the editing room and fixed it up.

He was gonna do it his way.

Studios spend millions of dollars in research.

They test.

They do everything they can...

because this is

a very, very big expense-

to market a film,

to get the audience to like it.

John didn't like the audience to like it.

He wouldn't stand for that.

Whether it was Husbands

or Opening night...

film would screen,

audience would get excited as hell in previews.

He would go back and say,

"Damn it, this is not right.

"This is too easy.

I'm not making a shallow film.

I will not have an audience

enjoying themselves this much. "

Now, you know, you think

that might be perverse.

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