Cassavetes: Faces (1968) - KarazwLaimoon

Title: Faces
Director: John Cassavetes (USA)
Date: 1968
Language: English (French Subtitles)
Duration: 130 minutes

Date: Thursday 12 December 2013

Time: 6 pm
Location: Mouawad Museum (Beirut, Lebanon)

Link to IMDB: Click Here
YouTube Trailer: Click Here
Slant Magazine: Click Here

Strictly Film School: Click Here
Alt Fil Guide: Click Here
Roger Ebert: Click Here
Slate: Click Here
TIFF: Click Here

Synopsis: (From Wikipedia)
Faces is a 1968 drama film, directed by John Cassavetes and starring John Marley, Cassavetes' wife Gena Rowlands, Seymour Cassel and Lynn Carlin. Both Cassel and Carlin received Academy-Award nominations for this film. Cassavetes was nominated for the best original screenplay Academy Award for Faces. The film was shot in high contrast 16 mm black and white film stock. In 2011, it was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
The film, shot in cinéma vérité-style, depicts the final stages of the disintegrating marriage of a middle-aged couple. We are introduced to various groups and individuals the couple interacts with after the husband, Richard Forst's (John Marley), sudden statement of his desire for a divorce. Afterwards, Richard spends the night in the company of brash businessmen and prostitutes, the wife with her middle-aged female friends and an aging, free-associating playboy they've picked up at a bar. The night proceeds as a series of tense conversations and confrontations occur, illustrating where the modern American lifestyle has failed to nourish the interests, love lives, and emotional/spiritual fulfillment of these characters. Nearly everyone we meet expresses deep dissatisfaction with their lives and also a resigned attitude to this malaise. The film offers little hope, only a suggestion that in this world merely understanding that we're unhappy or dissatisfied is a revelation.