MASKS AND FACES: THE FILMS OF JOHN CASSAVETES at TIFF Cinematheque (TIFF Bell Lightbox, 350 King West), tonight (Thursday, July 14) to July 31. tiff.net. See Indie & Rep listings.
Here’s a secret about Gena Rowlands: she’s not nearly as intimidating as she seems.
Her history is formidable, without a doubt. She’s the godmother of American independent cinema, thanks to her stunning performances in movies like Faces, A Woman Under The Influence and Opening Night, all of which were directed by her late husband, John Cassavetes.
But when I met her at a 1992 event in Los Angeles celebrating Disney’s home-video release of those films as well as Shadows and The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie, I was struck by her boundless warmth and her clear affection for Peter Falk, Seymour Cassel and producer Al Ruban, who’d arrived to celebrate Cassavetes’s legacy. It felt more like a gathering of old friends than a formal press day.
In conversation nearly two decades later, Rowlands is just as engaged and just as warm. She’s coming to TIFF Bell Lightbox to launch its Cassavetes retrospective, Masks And Faces, with three appearances: introducing A Woman Under The Influence tonight (July 14) at 8:45 pm and Faces Friday at 6:30 pm. But it’s the long-form interview (tonight at 6:30 pm) with Jesse Wente, TIFF’s head of film programming, that she’s really excited about.
“I’m actually more comfortable with questions and answers,” she says, “because then you know what people are thinking about, what they’re worried about and what they’re guarded about. It’s a wonderful way of dealing with a film the film’s in the middle, and you have people discussing and revealing what they think about things. I love that.”
Since Cassavetes’s untimely death in 1989 at the age of 59, Rowlands has been the keeper of his cinematic legacy. It’s a duty she undertakes with some reluctance.
“I don’t spend a lot of time going over them, because I have mixed feelings,” she says. “I miss him and the people who are in them, and yet I loved [the films] so much that they give me great happiness when they are shown. And, you know, they have some significance to other people.”
That’s putting it mildly. Cassavetes’s films are genuinely revolutionary works – ragged, vital dramas that practically rearranged the DNA of American cinema. They’re a one-man new wave, and I’ve always wondered if Rowlands and her husband understood the importance of what they were doing at the time.
“Well, we just wanted to do it, and nobody else did,” she says. “It’s not like we were against studio films – which a lot of people assume. It’s not true. We just thought there was plenty of space for any kind of film in the world. And we were lucky in that we’d been working in television at that great time in New York, in the 50s. Everyone was so excited about it. It was live, and kinda dangerous. You felt like you could do anything. So we did.”
She laughs. “We did what we wanted to. And it was almost more pleasure than a human being deserved.”
It’s impossible to talk about these films without touching on the recent death of Peter Falk, a long-time friend of Cassavetes and Rowlands who matched Rowlands moment for moment as her negligent husband in A Woman Under The Influence.
“Yeah,” Rowlands says, exhaling audibly. “It’s very hard. But what can you do? You have to go through it. I can’t think of anything else – there’s nothing you can do except to just keep doin’ what you’ve been doin’.”
I only met Falk once, I say, but seeing him now in Woman and Husbands and Mikey And Nicky? It hurts.
“Yes, it does,” Rowlands says. “It does indeed.”
Interview Clips
Gena Rowlands on why John Cassavetes’s films endure:
Gena Rowlands on the reaction to A Woman Under The Influence:
Rowlands on coming up in the days of live television:
normw@nowtoronto.com
