Asked if filming went smoothly as this movie was in production, writer-director John Cassavetes answered, âWho wants it to go smoothly?â Cassavetes did nothing more or less than invent the American independent film, with Shadows in the 1950s, Faces in the â60s and Husbands and A Woman Under the Influence in the â70sâfinancing them through acting jobs in mainstream ventures like The Dirty Dozen, Rosemaryâs Baby, and The Fury, charting cinematic territory that no one else could see let alone map. Their lives spiraling downward, a man and woman we learn only belatedly are brother and sister have no choice but to turn to each other; made with Cassavetesâs favorite actress (and wife), the brilliant Gene Rowlands, shot in the shadow of a fateful prognosis that gave the director only five months to live (that turned into five years), Love Streams was the most audacious expression of the filmmakerâs heedless art: more fractured and surreal than anything he had done before, but every bit the same kamikaze plunge into the human heart.
In the documentary Iâm Almost Not Crazy made by novelist and critic Michael Ventura (included with last monthâs typically stellar Criterion DVD/Blu-ray release, to which Ventura also adds the sort of riveting and revelatory commentary that opens up not just a movie but an artistâs universe), a longtime associate recounts a screening of a Cassavetes film where the audience reaction was so positive that the shaken filmmaker radically recut the last half hour. He figured that if everyone liked the picture that much, there must be something wrong with it. Determining whether such an attitude was crackpottery, pathological iconoclasm, or an unyielding integrity may be pointless, a wallowing among distinctions without differences; complaints as to the apparent mess of his movies undoubtedly would be regarded by Cassavetes as a compliment, and any grounds for criticism, some of which are valid, finally are overwhelmed by the directorâs courage. âEvery Cassavetes film,â said his friend and frequent collaborator Peter Falk, âis about the same thing. Somebody said, Man is God in ruinsâand John saw the ruins with a clarity that you and I couldnât tolerate.â