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Generic greeting! Hyperbole regarding current life. Overly dramatic statement regarding future endeavors.
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This single shot from Five Easy Pieces may actually be my favorite. DP Laszlo Kovacs is able to achieve exposure on the door camera left and the stationary car in the back ground camera right and remain in deep focus. Symbolic of the dual nature of our main character?
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A shot that really sums up the character of Robert Dupea (played by the amazing Jack Nicholson). Alienation. Loneliness. Surrounded by a world of rigid machines. Or maybe those machines are actually more akin to our protagonist?
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Get ready for a week of media related to one of my favorite movies. Five Easy Pieces.
Here’s the title card from Five Easy Pieces to kick things off.
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On the set of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Oh lord. What I wouldn’t do to be on that set…
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I love American cinema. And John Cassavetes’ directorial debut is one of those gems of the American independent “new wave” that I love.
Stylistically, it’s raw and inventive. Look back on typical Hollywood fare pre-1959. The lens is so focused on the star of the picture that eventually the entire film begins to lose its meaning. Shadows, however, is is about multiple people. They interact and intersect into each others’ lives.
The film is cited as being about interracial relations, which it certainly is, but I see that as more of an intriguing backdrop that bolsters and boosts the fact that each player is going through some existential crisis. Each character feels they are better than the situations they are in. They’re all in a struggle to overcome obstacles and circumstances. It feels human and distinctly American.
This is the first Cassavetes film I have seen and I cannot get it out of my head. It’s like the Italian Neorealist (Bicycle Thieves and Rome Open City) French New Wave films I love (Breathless and Shoot the Piano Player), shot on location, borrowing from the Italians by using non-actors. The real backdrop of Manhattan gives the film authenticity. It’s gritty 16mm. It’s not quite cinema verite. But it is not flashy. The beauty of the film is its simplicity which when combined with the Manhattan skyline, creates a feeling of reality that the cinema has always been aiming for.
Plus, the jazzy soundtrack gives the film some brevity. It’s easy to see how this impacted Martin Scorsese and his directorial debut, Who’s That Knocking At My Door?
