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Shadows (1959) [Re-UP]

Posted By: Someonelse
Shadows (1959) [Re-UP]

Shadows (1959)
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | PAL 4:3 | 01:18:54 | 5,50 Gb
Audio: English AC3 2.0 @ 224 Kbps | Subs: English SDH
Genre: Drama

Director: John Cassavetes
Stars: Ben Carruthers, Lelia Goldoni, Hugh Hurd

Set amongst the lively milieu of artists and jazz musicians in bohemian 1950s New York, John Cassavetes' directorial debut follows the doomed relationship between a young mixed-race woman Lelia (Lelia Goldoni) and Tony (Anthony Ray), a white man who betrays his prejudice when he meets Lelia's brother, a struggling jazz singer. Shot on location with a cast and crew largely made up of amateurs and featuring a swinging, improvised score by Charles Mingus and Shafi Hadi, Shadows gave birth to a radical new film language grounded in authenticity, and is widely considered the first truly independent American film.


“Hollywood is not failing. Hollywood has failed,” John Cassavetes famously wrote in Film Comment in 1959. Following and extending Jean-Luc Godard’s proclamation that the best way to critique a film is to make another one, Cassavetes critiqued the entire U.S. film industry by creating his own body of film work completely outside the studio system. Privately funded, intensely personal, and focused on themes that were often outside the bounds of what Hollywood was willing to face, Cassavetes’ films were completely different and wholly original.

Cassavetes’ directorial debut was Shadows, shot on 16mm black and white over a two-year period. The film was largely improvisational in nature and was not initially intended as a commercially distributed film. Rather, it was an amateur’s first stab at filmmaking—learning by doing, so to speak, and it is testament to Cassavetes’ instinctual understanding of the power of the medium that he made such an emotionally stirring debut when he didn’t even know exactly what he was doing.

Shadows (1959) [Re-UP]

Shadows tells the story of an interracial love affair, something that had been dealt with in Hollywood’s “social problem” films of the 1950s, but never with the kind of naked emotion and gritty realism that Cassavetes brought to the subject. The main character is Lelia (Lelia Goldini), a light-skinned African American women who falls in love with Tony (Anthony Ray), an aspiring jazz musician. Lelia lives with her two brothers, Hugh (Hugh Hurd) and Benny (Ben Carruthers), both of whom are also musicians.

Cassavetes focuses first on the emotional aspect of Lelia and Tony’s relationship before delving into the social ramifications of their respective races. The film’s best scene takes place immediately after Lelia and Tony have made love for the first time. For her, it is literally her introduction to sex, and it has clearly been an awful experience, a truthful admonition that goes against the culture’s natural tendency to romanticize lovemaking, particularly the fabled “first time.” Cassavetes shoots the scene in a mixture of tight close-ups and medium shots that emphasize the intensity of the emotions and also the awkwardness as the two lovers attempt to address the fragile issue of what to do next.

However, more so than the love story and its social ramifications, Shadows’ depiction of New York City and the marginalized characters who try to eek out a living in its shadows is central to the film’s effect. Unlike the romanticized grandeur of Hollywood filmmaking, Cassavetes preferred to train his camera on the back corners and dark alleyways of modern life. His characters struggle and work, frequently finding their dreams at odds with the reality of their lives.

Shadows (1959) [Re-UP]

Cassevetes evokes this theme in both work and love. Hugh, who struggles to assert himself as a singer but is constantly being relegated to second-class status in the seedy nightclubs where he can find work, can be seen as an obvious metaphor for the role of the artist in modern America – full of hopes and dreams, but constantly subverted by the money men. Similarly, Lelia’s dreams of romance and passion are undermined by the realities of bigotry and class divides, and the effect is devastating.

Shadows is not by any means a perfect film. Although it is often rough and crude, its very amateurishness underscores the vitality of its characterizations. Unfortunately, the unknown actors give uneven performances, particularly Lelia Goldini, whose delivery of lines is often stiff and unconvincing, but whose eyes and body language communicates a sea of emotion. Set to jazz riffs by the great Charles Mingus, Shadows is uneven, but intoxicating, perhaps the greatest first film ever made by a self-proclaimed “amateur director.”
Shadows (1959) [Re-UP]

While on a radio talk show during the late 1950s, actor John Cassavetes casually mentioned his desire to film an improvisatory project and was soon surprised to receive public donations totaling nearly $20,000. Inspired, Cassavetes scraped together additional funds and, armed with a 16mm camera, he shot the powerful and moving SHADOWS, heralding a vital new era in independent American filmmaking.

Based on a series of improvisations created by members of the Variety Arts Studio, of which Cassavetes was the director, the film depicts the struggle of three black siblings to survive in the mean streets of Manhattan. Hugh (Hugh Hurd), the oldest and a would-be jazz musician, watches over Ben (Ben Carruthers) and Lelia (Lelia Goldoni), both of whom can, and do, pass for white. Darker-skinned than his younger siblings, Hugh has grown increasingly embittered due to the limited opportunities open to him; his artistic potential is being wasted in the dives and strip joints he's forced to play trumpet in just to survive.

Meanwhile, Lelia hooks up with the pretentious New York art crowd and moves among them, teasing and flirting. She has an affair with Tony (Anthony Ray), a young white man, and loses her virginity to him. However, when Tony learns that Lelia is a mulatto, he leaves her. Ben leads a carefree life, hanging out with his friends Tom (Tom Allen) and Dennis (Dennis Sallas), drinking, carousing and getting into trouble. One night the three young men become involved in a vicious street fight. By the film's end, Hugh grows more determined to win over one of the catatonic strip joint audiences, Lelia has taken refuge with friends, and Ben is abandoned by his buddies and left alone to lick his wounds.

Shadows (1959) [Re-UP]

Failing to interest American distributors–who, in addition to the obvious issue of content, were put off by the fact that the film was technically spotty and directed by a man heretofore known only as an actor–Cassavetes took SHADOWS to the 1960 Venice Film Festival, where it won the prestigious Critics Award. Shortly thereafter, the film was picked up for British distribution by Lion International. Finally, it made its way to the States and, to Hollywood's surprise, created a minor sensation.

Cassavetes was promptly hailed as a genius by critics and in no time began receiving offers to direct from major studios. The new director accepted Hollywood's embrace, but after making only two films (TOO LATE BLUES and A CHILD IS WAITING) he became frustrated by the limitations imposed on him by producers and returned to independent filmmaking, which allowed him complete control over his art.

While SHADOWS has become somewhat dated over the years and Cassavetes went on to greater heights as a filmmaker, its importance in the development of the American independent movement cannot be overstated, nor can the unique power it still retains. The film perfectly captured a specific time and place, illuminating simple truths regarding the human condition, while unveiling an important, powerful, and visionary new force in the American cinema.
Shadows (1959) [Re-UP]

Special Features:
- Audio commentary with Cassavetes collaborator Seymour Cassel and film critic Tom Charity
- Falk on Cassavetes: the early years (13 mins)
- 16mm footage of John Cassavetes and Burt Lane's acting workshop (4 mins)
- Theatrical trailer (4 mins)

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