John Cassavetes Biography
John Cassavetes was born on 9 December 1929 in New York. Starting from the end of the 1950s and for the following thirty years, he created a cinema that was masterfully balanced between styles close to experimental production and Hollywood codes, working in a relationship of close collaboration with the actors. and creating a happy and singular union between cinema and theatre. In 1975 he received an Oscar nomination as best director for the film A wom-an under the influence (1974; A wife), in 1980 the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for Gloria (Gloria ‒ Una notte d' summer), in 1984 the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for Love streams (Love streams ‒ Scia d'amore), for which he also won a Silver Ribbon as best foreign actor. After studying at Mohawk College and Colgate University where he graduated in 1950, Cassavetes devoted himself to literature and theater. His passion for theater led him to work as a stage assistant on Broadway before making his debut as a film actor in 1953 in Gregory Ratoff's Taxi. In 1956, with his friend Bert Lane, he created the Drama Workshop in New York where he taught semi-professional and amateur actors. It was precisely on the basis of the work carried out there that he developed the project for his first film director, Shadows (1960; Shadows). Made in two versions ‒ one shorter in 16 mm, the other longer, inflated in 35 mm. In this, as in his other films, the camera, often very mobile, closely scrutinizes the faces and bodies of the actors, subtly recording changes in mood and expressions. Shadows can be considered the first moment of an ideal diptych, the second stage of which was the much later, but long planned and started, Faces (1968; Volti). For this film in the form of a theatrical piece, more claustrophobic and jarring than the first work (thanks to the use of backlighting and blurring effects), longer and with a strong sense of time dilation. But the work that most bears the signs of 'profession' is perhaps Gloria, a frenetic escape into the metropolitan jungle: two figures forced to the margins of society (a woman and a child) get lost and find each other again, establishing an intense relationship that takes on the connotations of a mother-child relationship. On family relationships, the most recurring theme in his cinema. During the 1950s Cassavetes was influenced by the activities of Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio. Throughout his career John Cassavetes worked in a close collaborative relationship with actors, creating a happy and singular union between cinema and theatre.
