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April 10, 2009
Love Streams in LA
I was thrilled upon my arrival in town the other day to see that the New Beverly's most imminent double feature would be of two of the John Cassavetes films I'd never seen. Along with Husbands, Minnie And Moskowitz and Love Streams remain unavailable in the US, and so the chance to see them for the first time on the big screen was just about the best welcome I could have hoped for.
I'm chagrined to say that I wound up missing Minnie And Moskowitz due to a meeting that ran late (with good reason, I promise), but I like to think that Love Streams, in its utter emotional immensity, more than made up for it. The print was immaculate, and then there was that opening scene, in which Cassavetes grills his too-young paramour on what really makes her happy. "Cooking," she finally tells him, before quickly changing her mind to dreaming. "What do you dream?" he asks her - and then he answers his own question with a hard cut to the next scene. It sent me reeling.
Two hours and twenty minutes later, as the antedeluvian credits began to roll and Bo Harwood's score rolled gently and tenderly from the soundtrack, a voice rang out from the back of the theater. Seymour Cassel had stood up in the audience, and now he was slowly walking down the aisle, talking about the film; about how hard it was for him to watch, and how he truly felt it was Cassavetes' best work. About how lucky he was to have known him. He kept talking through the credits - we could only half hear him, but that's what made it magical - and he kept talking after the film ended and the lights came up, a Q&A turned monologue, full of tangents and repetition and bittersweet jokes. He rambled on (admitting at one point that he'd had quite a few glasses of wine prior), and everyone could hear him now, but it didn't entirely matter. After a while he said he'd answer any questions any of us happened to have, and as arms shot up a I got up and slipped out. It was the most perfect ending to the movie imaginable.
Posted by David Lowery at April 10, 2009 6:58 PM
Comments
Man oh man. What a dream.
Posted by: James M. Johnston at April 11, 2009 5:16 PM
Jealous! One of the only Cassavetes films I haven't seen.
Posted by: Bryan P at April 13, 2009 2:20 PM
I haven't seen much Cassavetes, but Love Streams blew me away
even just watching it on my laptop in my living room was something akin to a spiritual experience, so I can't imagine how what you described must have been like
I don't think I'll ever forget that film
Posted by: Tim at September 29, 2009 7:04 PM