A Constant Forge Page #5

- Hey, Nick. What's with you and Mabel? What happened?

It is very embarrassing to him

to display emotion.

He doesn't want to display

that emotion to the world.

He doesn't want to have

that closeness and rapport with people.

He wants distance in his public life.

And the only thing

that can throw him off is this woman.

Lots of people!

Come on, darling. Come on.

Come on there.

There we go.

Go right in. Go on.

How are ya?

Who would think

that if your wife, whom you love...

is coming back from the nuthouse, that you're

gonna invite a hundred people to the house?

Like it's some celebration

of I don't know what.

Like she's just won something.

And you gotta have

everybody over there to greet her.

You think this is all right?

All these people here?

- Yes.

- You don't think it's too much?

You really want to know what I think?

You're a sh*t.

You sent her away.

You could have picked her up.

It is too much.

But that concept, that idea that he...

wanted everything to be normal...

he wanted it to be the way

he thought it should be-

People should have a good time.

You have food and drinks.

That's really accurate, I think.

I think that's really accurate for a guy that is

dealing with something that's way over his head.

But there's something funny about it.

Okay, Tony. That's enough.

Can I have some, Pop?

All right. Just a sip.

Not like your brother.

Can I have some, Dad?

All right.

He loved his fallible,

ridiculous characters-male and female.

But the deeper sympathy, I think,

was always with the female ones.

- We love you.

- I like that very much.

You think we're kidding you?

We love you.

- No, I -

- We love you.

- Sing it to you - to us like you love us.

- I forgot the words now.

- Good.

- It was just

Just a little love affair

I never thought you'd grow to care

That's good.

We were such pals

- I wonder how

- You're beautiful.

He seemed more interested

in celebrating them...

and critiquing the worst parts

of the male nature that he was aware of.

You're not gonna drink this?

Too bad.

Look how wonderful he did women.

Breathtaking, the things he's done...

parts he's written for Gena

that really got inside 'em.

Into the crazy side of'em.

The deep, dark inside of'em.

He felt that a woman's mystery was...

very important and had to be

respected and nurtured and...

um, have the proper setting.

I'm very concerned about

the depiction of women on the screen.

It has gotten worse than ever.

It's related to their being

either high- or low-class concubines.

And the only question is

when or where they will go to bed...

and with whom or how many.

There's nothing to do with

the dreams of women...

or of woman as the dream-

nothing to do with the quirky part ofher...

the wonder ofher.

Many of the parts that I played

were women who loved too much.

This is what I call

a really handsome face.

- That's enough.

- Okay. Come on. Let's dance.

All of them are expressing love...

and sometimes making a very...

big mess of things because of their love.

Come on. Let's dance, Aldo. Come on.

That's, to me, the basis of everything he does.

- Vito Grimaldi.

- Get your ass down.!

He found the humor in insanity.

He found the saneness in insanity.

Almost as though the insane person...

was more valuable, or valid,

than the sane ones.

It was the sane ones

that had a difficulty with sensitivity.

The insane one had a difficulty

because she had too much of it.

I love anybody

you bring in the house, Nick.

- I know that!

- I want 'em to feel comfortable.

I want 'em to feel -They just sit there like

a bunch of- I want to -

What the hell are you talking about?

You didn't do anything wrong.

- It was just the way he was lookin'-

- "Sit down, Mabel!"

- "Sit down!"

- Billy was looking at you this way.

He don't know you don't do any harm.

Women, they really try to be perfect.

Somehow -

I don't know if it's 'cause guys

play sports earlier or something.

They find out sooner than we do

that you can't be perfect.

And they seem to be easier with it.

But women keep throwing themselves

on this wall of perfection.

And I think Mabel tried... very hard...

to be a perfect wife,

a perfect mother and a perfect lover.

Hey, Tony, bring another sweater too.

A heavier sweater.

- Maria, have you got your pajamas?

- I've got the pajamas.

Okay. Oh, Tony, get Angelo's bicycle

from in back too, will ya?

- I don't think he heard ya.

- Okay. I'll get it.

John has an extraordinary

understanding of women.

What happens now?

The scene after the loss

of their virginity is extraordinary.

What do you mean,

"What happens now"?

"Do I stay with you?

"I mean, now that I've done this, am I -

What am I supposed to do?

I really don't know. "

And this is - I mean, it's a time of,

you know, incredible amount of confusion.

How does he know that?

"I didn't know it could be so awful, "

is the opening line of dialogue.

Really, if I'd known

this was the first time for you...

I wouldn't have touched you.

I didn't know it could be so awful.

Well, that is completely contrary...

to any piece of film-

not that you ever saw

that kind of scene of intimacy...

and exchange of some kind of truth

in films prior to that.

But that was simply...

unheard of.

I'm sorry if I disappointed you.

The idea oflove

as a mysterious, undiscovered world...

has come to have no place

in our innermost imagination.

Men seem to be the real victims.

Confusion keeps 'em goin

Dashing around, the business lunch,

a little hanky-panky with a prostitute...

getting drunk with some buddies.

Adventurous, daring, huh?

Meaningless. Empty, meaningless

little actions that fill up a day.

With a woman it's simpler.

She can exist if there's some order

and ifher fantasies are at least partially fulfilled.

If you know what a woman's emotional

needs are,you're half the way home.

The first time that I had a Cassavetes epiphany...

was when I was a college student

in the 1970s...

and saw Faces for the first time.

There was a particular scene in that film...

that presented something

I had never before seen on film...

and have never since experienced

in a motion picture.

And that is the raw need...

of an older woman

for sexual attention.

It was a very embarrassing scene

that really marked me.

And it's the least traditionally attractive

of the four women, Florence-

the oldest of them,

the dumpiest in a certain sense-

who asks him to dance with her

and to kiss her.

I sat there devastated...

because the notion that even a grandmother

might need to be touched in a sexual way-

I had never before seen that in life

or on-screen.

He's a guy in his late 20s.

He doesn't have to go to war yet.

He doesn't even care about that.

He loves women,

and he loves life.

And he can look at

somebody like Florence.

She's fun.

Why can't she be fun?

Chettie...

would you kiss me?

Before we did that scene, we rehearsed it...

and John just whispered one thing to me.

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