![]() ![]() When things are original, obviously they are a little more difficult. You must be willing to risk everything to really express it all. As an artist, I feel that we must try many things-but above all we must dare to fail. The most difficult thing in the world is to reveal yourself, to express what you have to. I believe in improvising on the basis of the written word, and not on undisciplined creativity. There’s a difference between ad-libbing and improvising, and there’s a difference between not knowing what to do and just saying something. But once they choose their way, then I’m extremely disciplined-and they must also be extremely disciplined about their own interpretations. I write a very tight script, and from there on in I allow the actors to interpret it the way they wish. Improvisation to me means that there is a characteristic spontaneity in the work which makes it appear not to have been planned. ![]() I think you have to define what improvisation does-not what it is. There is nothing left for the actor to bring to it since there is no sense, meaning, or understanding of people. ![]() Say, let’s use a hand-held camera for this shot.” You end up making a film that is all tricks, with no people in it, no knowledge of life. You’re doing a bad job if all you’re paying attention to is camera angles: “All right, how can we photograph it? We’ll get the lab to do some special effects there. A movie is a lot more than a series of shots. We have to move beyond the current obsession with technique or angles. I feel like vomiting when some director says to me, “I got the most gorgeous shot today.” That is not what’s important. The technical quality of a film doesn’t have much to do with whether it’s a good film. People who are making films today are too concerned with mechanics-technical things instead of feeling. When they’re sure that it’s not a mistake, and when they’re sure that you’re not going to double-cross them mid-way in the picture and go streaking back to plot, I think they’ll watch with great fascination. I believe that if you put it out there truly-frustration, fear, love, inner-life-people are capable of understanding and wanting to understand feelings. I’m a gangster! If I want something, I’ll grab it. You can fail in films because you don’t have talent, or you have too much humility, or you lack ferociousness. If we can capture a feeling of a people, of a way of life, then we made a good picture.Īs an artist I feel that we must try different things-but above all we must dare to fail. I want to put those inner desires on the screen so we can all look and think and feel and marvel at them.Īrt films aren’t necessarily photography. And I think those inner desires, whether they’re ugly or beautiful, are pertinent to each of us and are probably the only things worth a damn. I believe in the validity of a person’s inner desires. For their creative inspiration and profound insight, A-BitterSweet-Life presents a collection of inspiring quotes on the art of cinema from John Cassavetes.įilmmaking to me is an investigation of what is in someone’s mind. In addition, he was a filmmaker who took on the making of films at all costs, shedding light on the independent filmmaking path for all with the aspirations to express themselves cinematically. All of Cassavetes’ films, they were all epics of the human soul.Ĭertainly, the human soul was at the center of John Cassavetes’ works, but even more so, as Martin Scorsese suggests, they were monumental explorations into it, of the kind that cherished truthfulness over entertainment and commercial success, that cherished the artistic and revelatory potential of filmmaking. ![]()
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