Director: John Cassavetes
People are often split into two distinct camps when it comes to an artist's intent - either an artist can fully account for everything that goes into his art, or else he's basically spurred into action by the Muses - he knows not what he paints, sculpts, writes, or in this case directs. I think no director gives a better argument for the latter than John Cassavetes, who seems to care very little about whether or not an audience will find a particular scene interesting. He finds it interesting, and if you don't, well, that's life.
Husbands starts off intriguing, but quickly becomes mired in a 30 minute scene at a bar with people around a table singing songs. While this scene very accurately replicates the feeling of being sober around a bunch of drunks, that feeling is incredibly agitating. I haven't felt this annoyed in a film since Godard's 'Traffic Jam' scene in Week End. Too many of the scenes seem like performances only - 'In this scene, what if you acted this way?' - and our protagonists are merely sketches.
Husbands is, somehow, 141 minutes long - this film could've easily been much better at 100 minutes. Cassavetes seems to be an actor's director, and he can't bear to waste a good performance; unfortunately, that's all this movie is good for.
No comments:
Post a Comment