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The Criterion Collection: John Cassavetes: Five Films Blu-ray disc review $124.95

The Criterion Collection: John Cassavetes: Five Films Blu-ray disc review

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  • THE FILMS
  • VIDEO
  • AUDIO
  • EXTRAS

JOHN CASSAVETES: FIVE FILMS
(1959-1977, Blu-ray released October 22, 2013 – MSRP $124.95)

THE FILMS:

    John Cassavetes was a genius, a visionary, and the progenitor of American independent film, but that doesn’t begin to get at the generosity of his art. A former theater actor fascinated by the power of improvisation, Cassavetes brought his search for truth in performance to the screen. The five films in this collection—all of which the director maintained total control over by financing them himself and making them outside the studio system—are electrifying and compassionate creations, populated by all manner of humanity: beatniks, hippies, businessmen, actors, housewives, strippers, club owners, gangsters, children. Cassavetes has often been called an actor’s director, but this body of work—even greater than the sum of its extraordinary parts—shows him to be an audience’s director.

REVIEW:

You should have one of two questions for me regarding the John Cassavetes: Five Films Blu-ray set – should I buy it or should I upgrade from my old DVDs. The answer is yes, either way.

If you’ve never seen any of Cassavetes’ work, know that this box contains five of his most essential films. It’s by no means a complete collection (criminally lacking Husbands and Love Streams, amongst others) but provides the films that are key to understanding his work as a writer/director and his place in film history.

All five films feature brand new high-def transfers that look spectacular and are, across the board, astonishingly film-like. Owners of Criterion’s previously released DVD set will note the substantial upgrade by checking out the screengrabs below. Those expecting a glossy Hollywood image from any of these discs need not apply. Shadows and Faces, in particular, were shot on 16mm and exhibit a grain structure that’s bound to do the average viewer’s head in, if they don’t understand what they’re looking at. For enthusiasts like us, however, every single one of these transfers is pure magic. Each film sports a new lossless audio track, all of which seem more crisp and dynamic than their DVD counterparts, exhibiting a depth the lossy format clearly wasn’t capable of capturing.

If the hours of interviews, commentary tracks and documentaries aren’t enough for those of you seeking the film-school-in-a-box experience, there’s a stellar 80-page book included to keep you up late at night, busy with your studies.

Criterion’s John Cassavetes: Five Films is one of the must-buy Blu-ray releases of the year. Highest possible recommendation!

SCREENSHOTS:
Click to enlarge
(Note: All screenshots are created in the lossy jpg format which may cause additional compression artifacts and noise in the image.)

SHADOWS

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FACES

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A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE

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THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE

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OPENING NIGHT

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SPECIAL FEATURES:

  • New high-definition digital restorations of all five films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks
  • New high-definition digital restoration of Cassavetes’s 108-minute 1978 version of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
  • A Constant Forge: The Life and Art of John Cassavetes (2000), a 200-minute documentary by Charles Kiselyak
  • New interviews with actor Lelia Goldoni and associate producer Seymour Cassel about Shadows
  • Silent footage from the Cassavetes-Lane Drama Workshop, from which Shadows emerged
  • Restoration demonstration for Shadows
  • Alternate eighteen-minute opening sequence for Faces
  • Episode of the French television series Cinéastes de notre temps from 1968, dedicated to Cassavetes
  • Making “Faces,” a new documentary featuring interviews with actors Cassel, Lynn Carlin, and Gena Rowlands and director of photography Al Ruban
  • Al Ruban on Lighting and Shooting “Faces,” a new video program featuring commentary by Ruban (Blu-ray); Lighting and Shooting the Film, an on-screen essay by Ruban, illustrated with video clips, that discusses the techniques and equipment used on Faces (DVD)
  • Audio commentary for A Woman Under the Influence by sound recordist and composer Bo Harwood and camera operator Mike Ferris
  • New conversation between Rowlands and actor Peter Falk about A Woman Under the Influence
  • New interviews with actor Ben Gazzara and Ruban on The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
  • New conversation between Rowlands and Gazzara about Opening Night
  • New interview with Ruban about Opening Night
  • Audio interviews with Cassavetes from the 1970s about A Woman Under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and Opening Night
  • Trailers for Shadows, A Woman Under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and Opening Night
  • Stills and poster galleries
  • Biographical sketches of the actors Cassavetes frequently cast in his films, written by Tom Chartity (John Cassavetes: Lifeworks) (DVD only)
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by Gary Giddins, Kent Jones, Charles Kiselyak, Stuart Klawans, Dennis Lim, and Phillip Lopate; writings by and interviews with Cassavetes; and tributes to the filmmaker by director Martin Scorsese; actor and writer Elaine Kagan, Cassavetes’s former secretary; and novelist Jonathan Lethem


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