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John Cassavetes
John Nicholas Cassavetes (December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989) was an American filmmaker and actor. He began as an actor in film and television before helping to pioneer modern American independent cinema as a writer and director, often self-financing, producing, and distributing his own films. He received nominations for three Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and an Emmy Award. After studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Cassavetes started his career in television acting in numerous network dramas. From 1959 to 1960 he played the title role in the NBC detective series '' Johnny Staccato''. He acted in notable films, such as Martin Ritt's film noir '' Edge of the City'' (1957), Robert Aldrich's war film '' The Dirty Dozen'' (1967), Roman Polanski's horror film '' Rosemary's Baby'' (1968) and Elaine May's crime drama '' Mikey and Nicky'' (1976). For ''The Dirty Dozen'', he earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Staccato
''Johnny Staccato'' is an American private detective television series starring John Cassavetes that ran on NBC from September 10, 1959, through March 24, 1960. The program was initially titled ''Staccato''. Synopsis Titular character Johnny Staccato, played by John Cassavetes, is a jazz pianist and private detective. The setting for many episodes is a Greenwich Village jazz club belonging to his friend, Waldo, played by Eduardo Ciannelli. The show featured many musicians, such as Barney Kessel, Shelly Manne, Red Mitchell, Red Norvo, and Johnny Williams. (Although the show was set in New York City, all of these men were closely identified with the West Coast jazz scene, and it was filmed largely in Los Angeles.) Elmer Bernstein composed both of the main theme tunes, and Stanley Wilson was music supervisor. Cassavetes also directed five episodes. After its initial airing on NBC, ABC presented reruns of the series from March 27 to September 25, 1960.Alex McNeil, '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Polanski
Raymond Roman Thierry Polański (; born 18 August 1933) is a Polish and French filmmaker and actor. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Roman Polanski, numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three British Academy Film Awards, ten César Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, as well as the Golden Bear and a Palme d'Or. In 1977, Polanski was arrested for Roman Polanski sexual abuse case, drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl. He pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of Statutory rape, unlawful sex with a minor in exchange for a probation-only sentence. The night before his sentencing hearing in 1978, he learned that the judge would likely reject the proffered plea bargain, so he fled the U.S. to Europe, where he continued his career. He remains a fugitive from the U.S. justice system. Further allegations of abuse have been made by other women. Polanski's parents moved the family from his birthplace in Paris back to Kraków in 1937.Paul Werner, ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Carney
Raymond Carney (born February 28, 1947) is an American scholar and critic, primarily known for his work as a film theorist, although he writes extensively on American art and literature as well. He is known for his study of the works of actor and director John Cassavetes. He teaches in the Film and Television department of the Boston University College of Communication at Boston University and has published several books on American art and film. Background Carney was educated at Harvard (''magna cum laude'') and Rutgers University. Professor Carney taught literature at Middlebury College and Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas. He was also a William Rice Kimball Fellow at Stanford University, working on a study of performance art, particularly the stand-up comedy of Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce. Viewpoints Carney is highly critical of Hollywood filmmaking, and the way it is approached from an academic standpoint. He is well known for the controversial stridency wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cinéma Vérité
Cinéma vérité (, , ) is a style of documentary filmmaking developed by Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about '' Kino-Pravda''. It combines improvisation with use of the camera to unveil truth or highlight subjects hidden behind reality. It is sometimes called observational cinema, if understood as pure direct cinema: mainly without a narrator's voice-over. There are subtle, yet important, differences between terms expressing similar concepts. Direct cinema is largely concerned with the recording of events in which the subject and audience become unaware of the camera's presence: operating within what Bill Nichols, an American historian and theoretician of documentary film, calls the "observational mode", a fly on the wall. Many therefore see a paradox in drawing attention away from the presence of the camera and simultaneously interfering in the reality it registers when attempting to discover a cinematic truth. History Cinéma vérité can ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Method Acting
Method acting, known as the Method, is a range of rehearsal techniques, as formulated by a number of different theatre practitioners, that seeks to encourage sincere and expressive performances through identifying with, understanding, and experiencing a character's inner motivation and emotions. These techniques are built on Stanislavski's system, developed by the Russian and Soviet actor and director Konstantin Stanislavski and captured in his books '' An Actor Prepares'', '' Building a Character'', and '' Creating a Role''. Among those who have contributed to the development of the Method, three teachers are associated with "having set the standard of its success", each emphasizing different aspects of the approach: Lee Strasberg (the psychological aspects), Stella Adler (the sociological aspects), and Sanford Meisner (the behavioral aspects).Krasner (2000b, 129). The approach was first developed when the three of them worked together at the Group Theatre (New York City), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Love Streams (film)
''Love Streams'' is a 1984 American film directed by John Cassavetes, in what would be his final independent feature and penultimate directorial project. The film tells the story of a middle-aged brother (Cassavetes) and sister (Gena Rowlands) who find themselves relying on one another after being abandoned by their loved ones. The film was entered into the 34th Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Golden Bear. Plot Undergoing a messy divorce from a husband and daughter tired of her continuously overwrought emotional states, Sarah Lawson visits her brother Robert Harmon, an alcoholic playboy and writer who is in a tenuous relationship with Susan, a professional singer, although he carefully avoids any real emotional commitment to anyone. Robert is visited by his ex-wife, who forces him to take care of their eight-year-old son, whom he has not seen since his birth, for 24 hours. Robert's son is terrified by the hedonistic, decadent, womanizing world of his father ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opening Night (1977 Film)
''Opening Night'' is a 1977 American psychological drama film written and directed by John Cassavetes, and starring Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, Joan Blondell, Paul Stewart, Zohra Lampert, and Cassavetes. Its plot follows a stage actress who, after witnessing the accidental death of a fan, struggles through a nervous breakdown while she prepares for an upcoming Broadway premiere. Though set in Connecticut and New York City, ''Opening Night'' was shot on location in Los Angeles and Pasadena, California, with the theatrical performance sequences taking place at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Plot In New Haven, Connecticut, Myrtle Gordon is a famous but troubled middle-aged actress performing out-of-town previews of a new play called ''The Second Woman'' before its Broadway run. While leaving the theatre after a performance, Myrtle signs autographs and encounters an obsessive teenaged fan, Nancy, who runs after Myrtle into the street and is struck by a car. Myrtle is unsettled ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Woman Under The Influence
''A Woman Under the Influence'' is a 1974 American drama film written and directed by John Cassavetes, and starring his wife Gena Rowlands and close friend Peter Falk. Rowlands plays a housewife whose unusual behavior leads to conflict with her blue-collar husband (Falk) and family. The film, Cassavetes' seventh as director, premiered at the 1974 New York Film Festival, before going into wide theatrical release on November 18, 1974. It received two Academy Award nominations: for Best Director and Best Actress (for Rowlands). Rowlands won a Golden Globe Award and National Board of Review Award for her performance. In 1990, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". Plot Although she is hesitant to do so, Mabel Longhetti, a Los Angeles housewife and mother who exhibits strange behavior, sends her three young children—Tony, Angelo, and Maria—to s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Husbands (film)
''Husbands'' is a 1970 American comedy-drama film written and directed by John Cassavetes. It stars Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk, and Cassavetes as three middle class men in the throes of a midlife crisis following the death of a close friend. Distributed by Columbia Pictures, ''Husbands'' polarized critics upon release. Jay Cocks of ''Time'' described it as Cassavetes's finest work, but other critics, including Vincent Canby, Pauline Kael, and Roger Ebert, lambasted it. Plot Gus (Cassavetes), Harry (Gazzara), and Archie (Falk) are three nominally happy husbands with families in suburban New York. All are professional men, driven and successful. The three of them have known each other since their school years. They have grown up together and have now had enough time to discover that their youth is disappearing and that there is nothing they can do to preserve it. They are shaken into confronting this reality when their best friend Stuart dies suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Faces (1968 Film)
''Faces'' is a 1968 American tragedy film written, produced, and directed by John Cassavetes—his fourth directorial work. It depicts, shot in '' cinéma vérité''-style, the final stages of the disintegrating marriage of a middle-aged couple, played by John Marley and newcomer Lynn Carlin. Cassavetes regulars Gena Rowlands, Seymour Cassel, Fred Draper, and Val Avery also star. At the 29th Venice International Film Festival, the film won the Pasinetti Prize and the Best Actor Award (for Marley). At the 41st Academy Awards, it received three Oscar nominations: Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (for Cassel), and Best Supporting Actress (for Carlin). Initial critical reception to the film was somewhat polarized, but it went on to gain widespread acclaim, and is now considered one of the most demonstrative and influential works of the New Hollywood movement. In 2011, ''Faces'' was added to the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shadows (1959 Film)
''Shadows'' is a 1959 American independent drama film directed by John Cassavetes about race relations during the Beat Generation years in New York City. The film stars Ben Carruthers, Lelia Goldoni, and Hugh Hurd as three black siblings, though only one of them is dark-skinned enough to be considered African American. The film was initially shot in 1957 and shown in 1958, but a poor reception prompted Cassavetes to rework it in 1959. Promoted as a completely improvisational film, it was intensively rehearsed in 1957, and in 1959 it was fully scripted. The film depicts two weeks in the lives of three siblings on the margins of society: two brothers who are struggling jazz musicians and their light-skinned younger sister who goes through three relationships, one with an older white writer, one with a shallow white lover, and finally one with a gentle young black admirer. Film scholars consider ''Shadows'' a milestone of American independent cinema. In 1960, the film won the Cri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Academy Award For Best Supporting Actor
The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It has been awarded since the 9th Academy Awards to an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a supporting role in a film released that year. The award is traditionally presented by the previous year's Best Supporting Actress winner. However, in recent years, it has shifted towards being presented by previous years’ Best Supporting Actor winners instead. In lieu of the traditional Oscar statuette, supporting acting recipients were given plaques up until the 16th Academy Awards, when statuettes were awarded to each category instead. The Best Supporting Actor award has been presented a total of 89 times, to 80 actors. The first winner was Walter Brennan for his role in '' Come and Get It'' (1936). The most recent winner is Kieran Culkin for '' A Real Pain'' (2024). The record for most wins is three, held by Brennan–who won ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
