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RE: "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie"

Posted by afilado on March 19, 2009 at 11:54:13:
Ben Gazzara, yes. A real actor. Able to suspend his own personality and willfully disappear into character. Cassavetes seemed the opposite; he wanted to escape himself and was always self-consciously unsuccessful in that process.

He always seemed to be in tortured, unsatisfied defiance against his own impression of himself. Therefore, his film art lacked compassion, humor. Any humility seemed forced. His public statements about his work were ambitiously generous. I think he was unable to imbue his work with the same spirit toward the other.

I've read that Cassavetes himself was disappointed in the original release, resulting in the "director's cut" short years later. I've never seen the second release and I don't know the full reasoning behind it. Do you recommend seeing that for the difference?

He is a polarizing figure. One of those whom it seems we're supposed to like because of some mystical, intangible combination of characteristics that escapes my understanding.

I grant he is an interesting, even compelling, visual presence, a hard worker, apparently a good friend and husband. And he did produce.

He seemed a walking bruise. A sympathetic figure.

I see his work as a process of self-analysis, a public ministering to his own existential position. I suppose all artists do it to various degrees. If he were alive maybe he'd have a reality TV show.

Of his ilk, I even prefer Abel Ferrara. What do I know? I'm just a person who has progressed enough in my own analysis to be able to quit Cassavetes. Nothing much more there for me to learn or enjoy.