Faces | 
 enlarge | Director: John Cassavetes
Actors: John Marley, Gena Rowlands, Lynn Carlin, Fred Draper, Seymour Cassel
Studio: Geneon [Pioneer]
Category: DVD
List Price: $24.98
Buy Used: $19.90
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Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 95098
Format: Black & White, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 129
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Picture Format: Academy Ratio
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
UPC: 013023018099
EAN: 0013023018099
ASIN: B00000IC1I
Theatrical Release Date: November 24, 1968
Release Date: April 6, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
A sensation when it was released in 1968, this John Cassavetes film earned Oscar nominations for actors Seymour Cassel and Lynn Carlin. Improvised and shot in an edgy, hand-held fashion, the film examines the disintegration of the marriage of a couple in mid-life doldrums. Each seeks solace elsewhere: husband John Marley with prostitute Gena Rowlands, wife Carlin with a free spirit played by Cassel. But neither finds anything approaching the fulfillment they feel is missing from the marriage. Indeed, in Cassavetes's probe of raw emotions, these people discover that, just maybe, the problem lies not with their spouse but with themselves. You need to be a fan of Cassavetes's loose, actor-friendly style to appreciate this intriguing but sometimes rambling drama. --Marshall Fine
Description
John Cassavetes' probing, relentless study of a middle-class married couple is regarded as the first American independent film to cross over to mainstream audiences. The film examines a seminal 36 hours in the life of Richard and Maria Frost, during which their 14-year relationship finally falls completely apart. John Marley, Gena Rowlands
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Excellent September 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Faces, by John Cassavetes, is a 1968 film generally credited as being the first popular independent film in America to make an impact in the public consciousness. But, it is more than that. It is a film that totally subverted the dominant themes and forms of Hollywood cinema, at the time, showed that `adult' films, truly adult, not a euphemism for pornography, could have mass appeal, and paved the way for the great auteur decade of American filmmaking that was the 1970s. That things have regressed severely, since then, only shows how much a young Cassavetes is needed these days.
But, it was totally different from the European auteur films of the 1960s, in that it eschewed symbolism, framing, and Post-Modern techniques of storytelling. Faces is a raw film that is laced with searing, realistic dialogue, and gives the impression that the viewer is truly eavesdropping on the private lives of people who could be them, for there are no Hollywood goddesses nor buff Adonises to be found in any scenes. And, unlike a master like Ingmar Bergman, who also focused on the inner emotional and psychological lives of individuals, Cassavetes' characters are not philosophizing nor posing in neatly framed boxes. This is not so much a criticism of the European poetic approach to film, merely to state that Cassavetes' style was far more revolutionary, and felt like actual cinema verite. In that sense, while one can argue ceaselessly over the relative excellence of certain directors, it is impossible to deny Cassavetes' importance in the pantheon of film's first century.
Nor can one deny Faces' importance, at least as a landmark, if not having lasting influence in Hollywood's Lowest Common Denominator output. The film follows the demise of the fourteen year marriage of Richard and Maria Forst (John Marley and Lynn Carlin), two LA suburban children of the post-World War Two boom, at the height of American affluence, just before Vietnam, Watergate, and the 1970s allowed the Conservative movement of the 1980s send standards of living into a spiral that has yet to stem. Why are they breaking up? We are never directly told. He's the head of a large company, and she a bored housewife, and while they still have things in common, and enjoy each other- as shown in a terrific scene of the couple in bed, laughing their heads off over lame jokes Richard tells, their marriage has just died. Neither could probably pinpoint where, much less why. But, the fact that they are still chuckling over the most inane jokes, just to please one another, says it all about most relationships- that they almost all end up as zombies. That's what makes this film so real, potent, and discomfiting. Contrast this to the Hollywood paradigm of the mid-1960s, Doris Day comedies, when the film was first started, and the difference is stark....But, the real stars of this film are the writing and acting. Cassavetes reaches Chekhovian heights of drama, admixed with Tennessee Williams' poetic realism, in his Oscar nominated Best Original Screenplay. It is truly among the greatest screenplays ever written, even if, as rumored, there was much improvisation in the dialogue. Here, for one of the few times on screen or stage, one gets to see the actor as creator, not merely collaborator. Lynn Carlin, in her first film role, is authentic as the clueless abandoned wife, and got an Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actress. Seymour Cassel, as he lover, is also fantastic, as a gigolo with a soft side, and also got a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Gena Rowlands, as the prostitute, is neither victim nor saint, just a real person struggling with real problems, and gives her usual great performance, as one of the great actresses of all time in film. But, this film is dominated, from start to finish, by the towering performance of John Marley. How many of us have worked for a son of a bitch like him? How many women know a bastard like him? How many men reading this are a Richard Forst? The supporting actors- Fred Draper as Richard's drunken pal Freddie, Val Avery as the drunken Jim McCarthy, Dorothy Gulliver as Florence, the old lady Chet deigns to kiss, when she drunkenly pleads for affection- are uniformly terrific, as well.
The title of the film is based upon the notion that we all act in ways that are mere role playing for others, mere faces, and this has never been more true than in this film. A more apt title, though, might have been Personae, but since Bergman's singular Persona had recently been released, to great acclaim, this title suffices. No scene better and more aptly depicts why it suffices than in the terrific, nearly twenty minute opening scene, after the title sequence, which hints at the fact that, as Bergman was doing in that era, this film may all be a film some of the characters are watching, as a presentation to Forst as `the Dolce Vita of the commercial field.' That this meta-narrative aspect has not been commented on by many critics I find curious, but understandable, since no more than two or three minutes into the nearly twenty minutes that follow, we are given a bravura performance of drunkenness never before equaled, for its realism, onscreen. The strengths of this film are so many and so potent that things that in other films that would be weaknesses, such as fashions and dated slang, become strengths for this film has not dated. Its characters are as fresh as they were four decades ago, even if the film, itself, serves as a time capsule of the 1960s, yet one that is timeless.
 Important, but grating. May 30, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Faces (John Cassavettes, 1968)
I have to rank myself among those, having seen Faces, who understand its importance in the film world, but can't bring themselves to like the movie. I understand why Cassavettes did the things he did with this movie, why the film is supersaturated and the sound mix is awful and all the other little quirks that kept this so far away from Hollywood, and its subject matter is conceptually brilliant; the question one has to put to oneself is whether you're actually going to be able to sit through two hours plus of what is, essentially, boring and obnoxious cocktail-party banter, even after the cocktail party itself is long over.
The main characters in Faces are a married couple, Richard and Maria Forst (John Marley and Lynn Carlin), who have found their marriage going stale, and in response, each flirts with the idea of finding a younger lover. The results of their dalliances, however, are anything but the pleasant no-strings-attached sex each was hoping for; in fact, the consequences are potentially disastrous.
It's a great idea, and I do like the way it's carried off, most of the time. Technically, it's a brilliant approach to the subject; Cassavettes gives us washed-out characters in a washed-out film, bending every aspect of the moviemaking process to the psyches of the people he's got in front of the camera. And the script works right along with that premise; if you have washed-out characters in a washed-out film, what other sort of dialogue should they have saved washed out? Unfortunately, however, this has always been my problem with 'The Dead", that short story of James Joyce's that everyone but me seems to love. My take on it is that Joyce was subscribing to the hypothesis "if you want to write a story about boring people, write a boring story". And the story certainly succeeds beyond any reasonable bounds in that regard, which I assume is why so many people like it. Similarly Faces; Cassavettes has done a fantastic job of it here, though substituting "washed-out" (I can't imagine anyone calling these folks "boring"). And it's a deft and proficient depiction of the characters. It's the characters themselves that get on my nerves. ***
 Can't Face It July 8, 2006
I had heard about the independent films of actor/director John Cassavetes when I was a teenager. I remember his acting in "The Dirty Dozen" and various other movies but I don't think I had the chance to see his work as a director until I watched "Faces" last night. After a sceptical start, I came away impressed with this movie.
"Faces" as I saw it, is a movie about the emptiness of life in some people. The film opens with a very particular movie producer going in for a screening of a new film. Afterwards, I came to understand that Cassavetes was "putting on" the film industry by suggesting that they were the very people he was trying to portray in "Faces". The first half hour or so of the movie I found to be rather awkward and difficult to follow. We see three inebriated people joking around. I guess I felt it was a pointless look at pointless lives. I thought the movie picked up when some wives went out on the town. They were looking for a good time although they didn't seem to have a common definition of what that would be. They stumble across a good-looking young guy who is full of fun and energy and they take him home. Despite the general drunkeness of the parties involved, the young guy, named Chet, manages to reach out to each of the four ladies and try to turn them on to his upbeat look on life. Each of them gets drawn in initially and then rebels their way back into their own deadend outlook on life; the last one in a most extreme way. Chet, the little blue bird of happiness, seems to be a contrast to the depressing reality everyone else finds themselves comfortable in. A switch to a different scene with John Marley and Gena Rowlands weakened the flow of the movie but served to give us a message that happiness is always temporary in an unhappy mind. The movie ends with two of the main characters drifting back into the boredom they have accustomed themselves to.
There were a lot of innovative angles to "Faces" that film junkies might enjoy. The wandering hand-held camera (held steadier than mine) gives an intimate sense of being a part of the party. The title, I thought, came from the near-constant close-ups of all of the characters involved. Some of the acting, particularly that of Lynn Carlin and Seymour Cassel, is very good. I mentioned that the beginning was a bit tedious. I was wondering if it was going to be worth the "effort" to watch the whole movie. However, the second half left me impressed with a look at a world where the only enjoyment seems to come out of a bottle. Heaven forbid we should have to deal with one another face to face. I did not enjoy the life "Faces" showed me but I certainly came away enjoying the life I live.
Very good, a bit inaccessible October 21, 2005
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
John Cassavetes is certainly an interesting director (great actor too, but interesting director). Instead of directing films for entertainment, he directs them to present a "slice-of-life", so to speak, only one that is usually tumultuous and unkind. His movies are generally uphill battles to watch, but they're worth it.
In this film, an over-the-hill man and woman break up and persue other, younger paramours. While successful, they still have to deal with their own separate pain and fear of many things, amongst them age, loneliness, and friendship.
The writing and the acting are the most important parts. The writing is at times brilliant, the rest of the time brutal. Cassavetes tries for a more realistic, human approach, which means characters go off in tangents, talk unproductively, and are often really mean to each other. The acting complements the dialog so perfectly that one doesn't see actors on screen, but characters; only moreso than characters, one sees people, as if watching a home video with a disturbing and powerful plot.
Cassavetes was also one to specifically not care about structure. This makes the directing, editing, and cinematography rather jarring and condense. Luckily, it works with the themes of this movie well enough that the movie itself maintains a sense of entrapment and abuse.
It's a great film, though it's an uphill battle to watch. It's amazingly written but it's very inaccessible. I'd recommend it, but you must heed that it won't be something you can just sit down and escape into.
--PolarisDiB
The Greatest Independant Film, John Cassevettes is a genius. September 28, 2005
LOVE is a word that describes my affection to this wonderful film about PEOPLE being PEOPLE, John Cassevettes has produced some of the most original lines i've ever heard. A hilarious film that I can't wait to purchase and show the world, Come home girl, come home.
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