John Cassavetes
John Cassavetes
John Nicholas Cassaveteswas an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. Cassavetes was a pioneer of American independent film, writing and directing over a dozen movies, which he partially self-financed, and pioneered the use of improvisation and a realistic cinéma vérité style. He also acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemary's Babyand The Dirty Dozen. He studied acting with Don Richardson, using an acting technique based on muscle memory. Cassavetes considered directing to be a full-timehobby and himself an amateur filmmaker...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActor
Date of Birth9 December 1929
CountryUnited States of America
The idea of love as a mysterious, undiscovered world has come to have no place in our innermost imagination.
I think I probably have the philosophy of a poor man. You know, like maybe I'd steal the pennies off a dead man's eyes.
There is no reason why a serious film, one about life, can't be enjoyable, maybe even fun. Emotions can be very entertaining, you know. I try to use them generously in my films.
I'm a great believer in spontaneity because I think planning is the most destructive thing in the world.
The most difficult thing in the world is to reveal yourself, to express what you have to.
I have a one-track mind. That's all that I'm interested in - love. And the lack of it. When it stops.
We don't take the time to be vulnerable with each other
Everyone who makes a film is at the major distributors' mercy.
My mother and father were never frightened of anything. They always felt that they should go through life happily and without fear, and they did that. And it was a great boon to my brother and myself.
I would put my pictures up against anybody's in this world. Certainly in my own day I bow to no one. I don't think there's another director in the world who works harder to make better films than I do.
I won't call my work entertainment. It's exploring. It's asking questions of people, constantly. 'How much do you feel? How much do you know? Are you aware of this? Can you cope with this?' A good movie will ask you questions you don't already know the answers to. Why would I want to make a film about something I already understand?
I think I'm probably one of the worst directors around, but I do have an interest in my fellow man.
By the age of 50, I would like to know that I'm not dead - that there's some continuity to my life.
Commercial movies have no feeling, no sensitivity. Most people tell me people won't understand films with feeling. But everyone can feel.