Faces

We're hearing the word "maverick" quite a bit lately. Well, I have one for you. John Cassavettes. After watching his 1968 stunner, FACES, which he wrote and directed, I can say unequivocally that the moniker fits. Only a true free spirit could've dreamt up/produced/concocted such a one-of-a-kind strand of cinema. Watching this movie, it became apparent how conditioned we can become as consumers of mainstream fare. We expect scenes to resolve in an A-B fashion. We like smooth transitions. Hollyood slickery has presented decades of vehicles that foist their formuleic pap on us like the most nauseating syrup. That's why FACES seems all the more unusual, and at times, exhilirating. Also, painful.

Unbearable. Raw. No gloss, no sheen. Cassevettes strips cinema to its absolute most primal origins. To be able to create such a discomforting movie is truly a unique achievement.

And discomforting it is. It has been some time since a film has made me squirm in my seat. Not squirm because the film was so inept, but squirm because the naked truths being unspooled are so vivid that it is impossible to retreat, to deny what you are experiencing. FACES is not mere passive film viewing; it is akin to a 2 + hour therapy session. Whether or not you are worse for wear afterwards depends on your own baggage.

The Forsts seem to be your garden variety surburbanites. Richard (John Marley) is the chairman of an insurance company. His vocation has provided a picturesque domicile for himself and his delicate bride, Maria (Lynn Carlin). Cassavettes does not spend time with exposition; we learn these details through their speech with each other and other faces. We are thrust into their lives immediately, meeting also Jeannie (Gena Rowlands, nee Mrs. Cassavettes), a prostitute for whom Richard falls. There are conversations, role plays. There are friendly exchanges which, on a dime, become tearful rages. Each of these characters (and several others) do all manner of violence to each other.

What fuels such vitriol? Alcohol is consumed by everyone in FACES. It is as much a character as anyone. But, the real catalyst is restlessness. Disappointment. Life did not deliver on its promises. There was some serious deviance from the blueprint, and no one seems to know why or how to handle it. Richard and the other men in this film all struggle with their roles as the allegedly dominant sex. Feeling emasculated at every turn, they attempt to empower themselves with booze. Needless to say, it only exercerbates their dilemma. What it also does is allow us to hear confessions that may have been hidden otherwise. To act on their id with a vengeance.

 

That goes for the women as well. After Richard announces he wants a divorce ("isn't that the way it works?") and visits Jeannie, Maria and her sewing circle of dissatisfied housewives meet up with a young hippie gigolo stud (Seymour Cassell, and how alarming to see him as a young buck after all those Wes Anderson pics!). Cassevettes spends significant amounts of time cutting between Richard and Maria's eventual infidelities, and the painful hours leading up to them. The next morning, we see the fallout. The final scene of this movie, comprised mainly of two characters changing their postures, is one of the most quietly shattering I've seen.

As I said, the director takes his time with each scene. Sequences go on for agonizingly long periods. Long past the time we would occupy the same space with these characters in real life. The walls close in on them (and us). With each bit of dialogue, with each unpredictable action, the vise tightens. At times it was so intense, it seemed as if the actors were breathing down my neck. I wanted escape. I wanted to stop the movie. But I couldn't. It was just as hard to look away or cover my ears, even as I felt like I wanted to exit my own skin. MAGNOLIA made me feel that way, as did certain parts of CARNAL KNOWLEDGE and WHAT HAPPENED WAS.... too.

I agree with many writers that Cassavettes' influence on filmmakers like Altman, Rudolph, Scorsese, Jaglom, and many others is undeniable. The high personal and individualized point of view and claustrophobic style employed in FACES will seem familiar to seasoned viewers, yet there just isn't anything else quite like it.