John Cassavetes
An intimate portrait of the superb actress Gena Rowlands, icon of independent cinema. Together with her husband, legendary director John Cassavetes (1929-1989), she lived an unusual life beyond the dream factory, a life in which reality and fiction were so perfectly intertwined that it made possible films that still today seem incredibly real.
One of the great mavericks of cinema, John Cassavetes has earned a reputation as the godfather of American independent movies. The actor-turned-filmmaker invented a realist style of unadorned narrative films heavily influenced by documentaries. This in-depth analysis of Cassavetes' life and work features interviews with key collaborators and ensemble regulars, and explores the making of classics like "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie," "Opening Night" and "A Woman Under the Influence."
Maureen is pregnant and her husband Eddie is missing. Nervous, Maureen shares a couple of drinks with neighbor Kiefer, who tries to rape her and then beats her. When Eddie returns and finds his wife bruised, he goes ballistic, shoots a paramedic and is put in a psychiatric institution. Ten years later, Eddie is released and finds that Maureen has divorced him and is remarried with three children, one of whom is his little girl Jeanie. Eddie goes to reclaim his wife
An intimate portrait of actor-writer-director John Cassavetes and a loving tribute to his genius for studying and depicting the human character. In-depth, candid interviews with his wife and muse Gena Rowlands as well as his most trusted friends and co-workers like Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara, Seymour Cassel, etc. Clips from Cassavetes' greatest films, and many rare photos illustrate this touching documentary.
Since his death in 1989, John Cassavetes has become increasingly renowned as a cinematic hero--a renegade loner who fought the Hollywood system, steering his own creative course in a career spanning thirty years. Having already established himself as an actor, he struck out as a filmmaker in 1959 with Shadows, and proceeded to build a formidable body of work, including such classics as Faces, Woman Under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and Gloria. In Cassavetes on Cassavetes, Ray Carney presents the great director in his own words--frank, uncompromising, humane, and passionate about life and art.
Tribute to actor and director John Cassavetes who died in February 1989. Friends, associates and fellow directors remember the man and his work.
Leonard Hoffman is an insurance salesman struggling to make ends meet. The fact that he has triplet sons who all want to go to Yale isn't making things any easier. Blanche Rickey is also worried about money; her husband is a millionaire with a weak heart, and she worries that he'll blow through all his cash before he finally dies. When Blanche meets Leonard, she devises a murderous plan that she claims will fix both their problems.
Marvin, a heavy-drinking widower meets Tige, an 11-year-old orphan. With nowhere else to go, Tige moves in with Marvin and they develop a close friendship. Marvin wants to adopt Tige but knows that he is too poor to give him a good home. Then he discovers who Tige's father is a rich suburbanite who doesn't even know Tige exists. Should Marvin, and can he, give up the boy he loves, and who loves him, in favor of a stranger with the right genes and bank balance?
Berlin Underground-star Ulrike S. went to the Toronto-Filmfestival and then to New York - to find out something about the film business and also about her own desires, daydreams and nightmares.
Filmmaker Michael Ventura follows Cassavetes around as the actor/director labors on his final film, Love Streams.
In the small New England town of Galen, a young teenage boy claims he has dreams of young women being brutally raped and murdered. A doctor and the local sheriff discover that the boy's dreams are real and that a sinister occult might be behind the brutal murders. They must track down the vicious killer, who may be the indestructible incarnation of a demon spawned from hell.
A sobering mid-life crisis fuels dissatisfaction in Philip Dimitrius, to the extent where the successful architect trades his marriage and career in for a spiritual exile on a remote Greek island where he hopes to conjure meaning into his life - trying the patience of his new girlfriend and angst-ridden teenage daughter.
Ken Harrison is an artist that lives to make sculptures. One day he is involved in a car accident, and is paralyzed from his neck down. All he can do is talk and move his head, and he wants to die. Whilst he is in hospital he makes friends with some of the staff, and they support him when he goes to trial to be allowed to die.
A convict takes up boxing in prison and this brings a new meaning to his life. Once out, his trainer motivates him to become a professional boxer. He cares about only two other things, his uncomfortably close mother and absent father.
General George S. Patton died in a car accident in 1945. However, now speculates that his death was actually a murder carefully prepared by his staff to cover a large theft of gold.
Actress Myrtle Gordon is a functioning alcoholic actress who is a few days from the opening night of her latest play, concerning a woman distraught about aging. One night a car kills one of Myrtle's fans who is chasing her limousine in an attempt to get the star's attention. Myrtle internalizes the accident and goes on a spiritual quest, but fails to finds the answers she is after. As opening night inches closer and closer, fragile Myrtle must find a way to make the show go on.
Cosmo Vittelli, the proprietor of a sleazy, low-rent Hollywood cabaret, has a real affection for the women who strip in his peepshows and the staff who keep up his dingy establishment. He also has a major gambling problem that has gotten him in trouble before. When Cosmo loses big-time at an underground casino run by mobster Mort, he isn't able to pay up. Mort then offers Cosmo the chance to pay back his debt by knocking off a pesky, Mafia-protected bookie.
A psychotic sniper plans a massive killing spree in a Los Angeles football stadium during a major championship game. The police, led by Captain Peter Holly (Charlton Heston) and SWAT commander Sergeant Button (John Cassavetes), learn of the plot and rush to the scene. Still, they may be too late, as an all-star cast finds itself lined up in the sights of a gun-toting madman.
In Philadelphia, a small-time bookie who stole mob money is in hiding and he begs a childhood friend to help him evade the hit-man who's on his trail.
Mabel Longhetti, desperate and lonely, is married to a Los Angeles municipal construction worker, Nick. Increasingly unstable, especially in the company of others, she craves happiness, but her extremely volatile behavior convinces Nick that she poses a danger to their family and decides to commit her to an institution for six months. Alone with a trio of kids to raise on his own, he awaits her return, which holds more than a few surprises.
Depressed and jaded after being dumped by her married boyfriend, aging beauty Minnie Moore wonders if she'll ever find love. After shaggy-haired parking lot attendant Seymour Moskowitz comes to her defense from an angry and rebuffed blind date, he falls hopelessly in love with her despite their myriad differences. Minnie reluctantly agrees to a date with Moskowitz, and, slowly but surely, an unlikely romance blossoms between the two.
After serving 12 years behind bars for armed robbery, tough guy Hank McCain finds himself the pawn of a ruthless mob runt's rebellion against a high level don. When McCain discovers that he's been betrayed and abandoned by his new employer, he retaliates with a high stakes Las Vegas casino heist that erupts into all-out war on the streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. Not blood, nor lust, nor wedding vows can come between McCain and his money...or his machine gun.
This is a 1968 French documentary that was probably shot just after or during the making of his great marriage disaster film, ‘Faces.’
A young couple moves into an infamous New York apartment building to start a family. Things become frightening as Rosemary begins to suspect her unborn baby isn’t safe around their strange neighbors.
After professional stickup man Mario Corda is jailed, his young, ambitious partner -- who covets both Corda's life and his wife -- cuts loose, leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake.
Middle-aged suburban husband Richard abruptly tells his wife, Maria, that he wants a divorce. As Richard takes up with a younger woman, Maria enjoys a night on the town with her friends and meets a younger man. As the couple and those around them confront a seemingly futile search for what they've lost -- love, excitement, passion -- this classic American independent film explores themes of aging and alienation.
An historical film that follows the life of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian king that united all ancient Greek tribes and led them against the vast Persian Empire. Alexander conquered most of the then-known world and created a Greek empire that spanned all the way from the Balkans to India.
An exiled band of Hell's Angels strike a bargain with the Sheriff of a local town, let them stay and the town is safe. But a local girl strays into their lair and sparks off a full scale Angel war.
A short film looking behind the scenes at the making of The Dirty Dozen. Showing many scenes being filmed just north of London, the short focuses mostly on star Lee Marvin enjoying his pursuits on his one day off a week.
12 American military prisoners in World War II are ordered to infiltrate a well-guarded enemy château and kill the Nazi officers vacationing there. The soldiers, most of whom are facing death sentences for a variety of violent crimes, agree to the mission and the possible commuting of their sentences.
A struggling actor auditioning in London learns that his actress-girlfriend who dumped him is married to the play's backer, a rich diamond merchant. They soon rekindle their romance and plan to get her out of her marriage.
A hit man and his partner try to find out why their latest victim, a former race-car driver, did not try to get away.
Dr. Matthew Clark is the head of a state institution for mentally retarded children. Jean Hansen, a former music teacher anxious to give her life some meaning, joins the staff of the hospital. Jean, who tries to shelter the children with her love, suspiciously regards Clark's stern training methods. She becomes emotionally involved with 12-year-old Reuben Widdicombe, who has been abandoned by his divorced parents.
An aging boxing champ is challenged to a title fight by his own son whom he hates.
A gambler comes out of prison, returns to his old-flame, and finds that she has a teenage son, who begins to believe that the ex-con is his father.
Ghost is an ideological musician and leader of a jazz band who would rather play his blues in the park to the birds than compromise himself. His peripatetic performances lead him to cross paths with a singer, while his masculinity is thrown into question following a violent brawl.
John Cassavetes’s directorial debut revolves around a romance in New York City between Lelia, a light- skinned black woman, and Tony, a white man. The relationship is put in jeopardy when Tony meets Lelia’s darker-skinned jazz singer brother, Hugh, and discovers that her racial heritage is not what he thought it was. Shot on location in Manhattan with a mostly nonprofessional cast and crew, Shadows is a penetrating work that is widely considered the forerunner of the American independent film movement.
Johnny Staccato is an American private detective series which ran for 27 episodes on NBC from September 10, 1959 through March 24, 1960.
A British woman marries an American writer in spite of her family's disapproval and goes to live with him on a tropical island.
Steve Sinclair is a world a world-weary former gunslinger, now living as a peaceful farmer. Things go wrong when his wild younger brother Tony arrives on the scene with his new bride Joan Blake.
An army deserter and a black dock worker join forces against a corrupt union official.
While in Havana, a musician gets involved with a crippled man and his beautiful wife... with deadly results.
This is a special series of lost classic programs from the Golden Age of TV. The series has been restored by SabuCat Productions from the best archival film elements available in high definition, some of the programs have not been seen since they were originally broadcast. Volume One features 2 one-hour dramatic programs that feature John Cassavetes. Climax! ran for four years - This was an anthology series that presented a different story and different set of characters on each episode. It ran from 1954 to 1958 and featured Casino Royale of James Bond fame that lead to a feature film of the same titles. On August 9th, 1956 - they showed No Right to Kill directed by Buzz Kulik and starring John Cassavetes, Robert H. Harris, Joe Mantell and Terry Moore.
A social worker tries to end juvenile crime by getting involved with a street gang.
During a massive manhunt for escaped convict Sam Cobbett, Cobbett invades a house where young housewife Mary Schaffner is home alone.
A group of escaped convicts holds a household prisoner as the police close in.
Frankie Dane is the leader of a teenage gang, the Hornets. The gang makes trouble for people in the neighborhood, but Frankie carries a darker nature, one so filled with anger that murder is not beyond him. Ben Wagner, a social worker, tries to help the boys see the possibilities of a better life, but the task seems futile. When a neighborhood man turns one of the gang into the police, Frankie decides to kill him. Ben learns of the plot from Frankie's kid brother and hopes to stop it before Frankie ruins his life forever.
Young and talented concert pianist Jenifer Welles is threatening to go public with details of her affair with brilliant symphony orchestra conductor Alex Benedict. Since Alex's strong-willed mother-in-law, Lizzi Fielding, is the chairman of the symphony board, he cannot risk the scandal.
The story of three people - a press agent, a private detective and a nightclub owner - whose careers require them to spend most of the night awake and on the prowl. In the pilot episode, Carmine manages to rescue Smitty's night club from being demolition and manages to resurrect a fading star's acting career.
