Customer Reviews

John Cassavetes: Lifeworks

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

...
Far from being a rush job, Charity's book boasts considerable new research and interviews with most of the important figures in Cassavetes' life (though, sadly not Gena Rowlands, his widow). I spotted a handful of errors, generally minor cultural lapses you might expect from a foreign critic - but, let me emphasise, these are few and far between. Packed with great, sometimes hilarious anecdotes (Cassavetes really rocked!) Charity's book brings JC to life - and the same can be said about Cassavetes' notoriously difficult films, which have rarely been explored with such vivid insight and penetration. As a major bonus, the book comes with fascinating tributes from the likes of Gary Oldman, John Sayles, Jim Jarmusch and Pedro Almodovar, to name but a few. It would be worth buying for these alone - but then it would be worth buying without them too...

A terrific introduction to one of the most important American film-makers of all time, whose influence extends around the globe (there'd be no dogme without him) and whose films are testaments to being true to artistic vision, to oneself and to others. I say 'introduction' because that's what all books on film should aspire to - to introduce the reader to the movies but not replace the experience of watching them. Charity, who writes with tremendous affection laced with a touch of hard-boiled cynicism that is perfect for his subject, is an ideal guide. His brisk and authoritative text is laced with anecdotes (many of them told in the first person by an astounding range of interviewees who knew, loved and worked with Cassavetes) and it includes testaments from a variety of film-makers who testify gladly to the effect that Cassavetes had on their work, from Almodovar to Gary Oldman and Jim Jarmusch. There are few biographies of film-makers that can make you feel like you know the subject - even Frayling's massive work on Sergio Leone is cold and distant compared to this. Reading Lifeworks was like watching Cassavetes films. I can't think of any higher recommendation. Except to say that this book also made me want to watch them all again. And again.
Mr Charity, sir, I salute you.

I've long been a fan of John Cassavetes, the actor. But after
reading this book, I realize that the man's gift to film wasn't
in the acting he did for others, but rather his amazing body of
work as a writer and director. This book provides a thorough
account of each of his movies and insight into his many
collaborators. Not a coldly analytical critique, but an honest
and detailed look at the career and character of an American
original, warts and all.

I bought this book with great hopes. John Cassavetes is an important filmmaker
whose work is still inexplicably neglected by mainstream film critics,
historians, and teachers. But I'm sorry to say that the book was a major league
disappointment. Tom Charity is a reviewer for Time Out magazine and the book
shows all the flaws of what I might call "the reviewer's syndrome." It is all
too obviously a quickie project thrown together in a few weeks or months to cash
in on Cassavetes' increasing popularity. Omnibus Press, the publisher of the
book, has in the past specialized in precisely this sort of book and Charity's
volume unfortunately takes its place alongside their previous biographies of
Madonna, New Kids on the Block, and other pop culture flashes in the pan. It is
shallow, glib, and (worst of all) mistake-ridden.

The first problem is that Charity's "research" (such as it is) shows every sign
of being rushed, slipshod, and superficial. The book is riddled with
errors--hundreds and hundreds of them--from scores of factual mistakes, wrong
names, and dates to a a whole series of interpretive gaffes, when Charity a
journalist who has previously attempted nothing more ambitious that a volume on
the astronaut movie, The Right Stuff, attempts to produce high-brow
interpretations of Cassavetes' challenging works of art. The second problem is
the organization of the book, or more precisely, complete lack of organization.
Clearly at a loss to fill the space available to him, Charity throws in bits of
this and that helter-skelter to fill up the pages: a given chapter might begin
with vacuous "celebrity" quotes from a contemporary director about Cassavetes,
which leads into a sketchy (and, as I noted, mistake-ridden) production history;
followed by a series of excerpts based on fawning, sycophantic!
, and completely unrevealing interviews with actors who knew Cassavetes, and end
with a wool-spinning series of generalizations by Charity about the meaning of
the film. Charity doesn't even make a half-hearted attempt to bring it all
together. It's just thrown out there, one thing after another, a little of this
and a little of that separated by rows of asterisks, for what you can make of
it. No vision of Cassavetes the man or Cassavetes the artist emerges. It's a
method that might be described as "back up and dump"--one (all too often
mistaken) fact or event after another, with no rhyme or reason to hold it
together, and no insights or revelations at the end.

The best parts of Charity's book are the sections where he quotes extensively
from another critic who not only knew Cassavetes personally, but has written far
better books about him: Ray Carney. That fact alone should tell you something.
If you want to know the real truth about Cassavetes' life and work, check out
Carney's newly published Cassavetes on Cassavetes or any of his other books on
the filmmaker. Or check out his web site which has extensive information about
all of the films. Carney's work is the opposite of Charity's quickie make-a-buck
volume: It is deep, searching, thoughtful, carefully researched and presented,
and impeccable in its accuracy. It is an attempt to probe the soul of the man
and the artist. Do yourself a favor and skip Charity and read the critic Charity
borrows his few decent points from.