Product: Faces [VHS] (1968)
Rating: 4.0
MASKS
Faces. The ones we put on for loved ones, for business associates, for friends, to impress, to hide ourselves behind, the ugly ones, maybe the real ones.John Cassavetes' films are personal explorations. They don't ignore conventions of film or theater but instead refuse to adhere to them.The actors in Faces are exploring their characters from the inside out using improvised type methods (but writer/director Cassavetes created and adhered to real scripts prior to filming).There's a rawness and vitality to the film that had almost never been captured on film before. At times the actors are trying too hard to dance on the edge of what an audience would be able to watch and accept. They are being characters, not presenting them to us, and they are not trying to be likeable or clever.At times, the film sets up what is supposed to be an authentic and 'real' moment and then insists on selling it so hard as a real moment it becomes difficult and almost embarassing to watch because it's missed it mark. The truly awful Bennett Cerf style riddles and jokes husband (John Marley) tells his wife and then cackles on and on about as if they are truly funny is a truly annoying scene to watch. Were they meant to comment on how phony attempting to find and film a real moment truly is?There's the long first scene of the film where one of the actors doesn't quite have the skill to shift tones convincingly. The idea of that is a great one though.All of the ideas which challenge what a film and acting is are good ones. They don't always work, but through it the culture of American life is examined in a raw, honest way.Here it's the marriage of an upper middle class couple which is under examination. The roles of men and women. The meaning perhaps of love, communication, and marriage.Faces is a raw experimental film where actors are allowed to be both natural and ...well method actors. Some moments work so well, you wonder why these heights aren't regularly strived for... but then some moments don't work at all and you realize, this is film-making without a net. It's risky, it's not pretty, and it's messy - - For the performers particularly.It's a masterpiece, though like many of J.C.'s film difficult to watch. You might be annoyed, bored, bothered, and/or disgusted by the film. At the end you might not quite understand what it all was about.But, you'll remember it.Christopher J. Jarmick Author of The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder Available February 2001.