the killing of a chinese bookie
the killing of a chinese bookie is a film written and directed by john cassavetes in 1976 .
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opening night is re - released by the bfi this month, and accompanied by a mini retrospective, including the killing of a chinese bookie .
trailer - original trailer for the killing of a chinese bookie. in english, not subtitled. (2 min, 1080p) .
all blu - ray screen captures come from the source disc and have been shrunk from 1920x1080 to 900x506 and slightly compressed to conserve space. while they are not exact representations they should offer a general idea of overall video quality. shadows shadows shadows shadows faces faces faces faces a woman under the influence a woman under the influence a woman under the influence a woman under the influence the killing of a chinese bookie (1976) the killing of a chinese bookie (1978) the killing of a chinese bookie (1976) the killing of a chinese bookie (1978) opening night opening night opening night opening night
stills gallery - this gallery features behind - the - scenes photos of the cast and crew on the set of the killing of a chinese bookie. (1080p) .
one of john cassavetes' most accessible films, the killing of a chinese bookie offers a unique, noirish and naturalistic take on the sleazy criminal milieu based around sunset strip .
trailer for the killing of a chinese bookie (john cassavetes, 1976). it is shown as part of the john cassavetes retrospective at the filmmuseum amsterdam in the fall of 2009 .
receiving its long - overdue blu - ray premiere, as part of this dual format edition, the killing of a chinese bookie is john cassavetes’s uncompromising character study of a gangster .
the 6 - disc john cassavetes collection from optimum includes: shadows, faces, a woman under the influence, the killing of a chinese bookie, opening night with these listed extras .
the 8 - disc criterion john cassavetes - five films includes - shadows, faces, a woman under the influence, the killing of a chinese bookie, opening night with these listed extras .
the killing of a chinese bookie
is a wonderful film, but don' t mistake it for an action movie. it' s simply the meticulous filming of a man' s final steps towards his own destruction .
“the killing of a chinese bookie” has nothing to compare with the spectacle of the rowlands performance in “a woman under the influence, ” but next to that earlier film it' s virtually bressonian in the rigidity of its purpose and style. it even has a story of sorts .
the first version of the killing of a chinese bookie was released in 1976. it was greeted with mixed reviews and poor box - office returns. cassavetes then went on to direct opening night. after completing that film, however, cassavetes went back and extensively re - edited the killing of a chinese bookie, shortening its length but also adding segments not in the first version. “i’d like to make that film about four or five more times”, cassavetes tells an interviewer at the time, “because it had interesting characters, interesting people”. [ 11 ] this inability to be done with the characters in the killing of a chinese bookie was a trait that marked a number of cassavetes’ productions .
also check out carney' s books for an account of the differences between the two versions of the killing of a chinese bookie. he may be the only person in the world who has seen both. cassavetes presented him with 35mm prints of each before he died .
but i was sort of drifting in and out of sleep for the first twenty minutes of this before i suddenly realised why opening night - and, as it would turn out, the killing of a chinese bookie - are so strangely, rawly compelling .
the killing of a chinese bookie isn’t your typical mobster film per se. whilst it uses familial elements of the genre, it’s mainly used as window dressing to decorate a multi - layered character drama. and to the films credit it works best as an…
a classic, noirish study of the lethal combination of masculine pride and arrogant self - destruction, the film’s subtle and very naturalistic tone is similar to mean streets, martin scorsese’s excellent examination of catholic guilt and the fallibility of criminals. this similarity is no coincidence, either: scorsese and cassavetes had together formulated a treatment for the killing of a chinese bookie several years previously, during an editing session on scorsese’s film, and indeed cassavetes even claimed to have completed the script for the killing of a chinese bookie with the sole intention of handing it over to scorsese to direct .
arguably the most plot - driven of his films, cassavates withdrew the killing of a chinese bookie shortly after the initial release and subsequently re - cut a shorter version with a different opening. the re - cut version is available on the blu - ray and the dvd includes the long version amongst the special features .
the killing of a chinese bookie is the second film in my retrospective of john cassavetes filmography, the first being his debut shadows. the film stars ben gazzara as cosmo vittelli a strip club owner whose gambling addiction leaves him in hot water with the mob. he then accepts a proposition to take on a hit of a chinese mobster in order to lower his debt, which brings a whole host of other problems to his doorsteps .
no doubt the prime motivation for cassavetes’ participation in such films was money, and if those salaries bought him some time and artistic freedom, and helped bankroll mini - masterpieces like the killing of a chinese bookie, then all the better. despite the film' s art - house credentials, the killing of a chinese bookie is perhaps cassavetes’ most well - known and conventional work, and it seems incomprehensible that it was panned upon its initial release, before a hasty re - edit by the director addressed its perceived deficiencies .
right from the opening handful of frames, one discovers that john cassavetes’ best known film, or at least the film many people think of when his name is brought up in conversation, the killing of a chinese bookie, is unlike anything the director did prior, or would do in its wake .
john cassavetes the killing of a chinese bookie, the fourth film in criterions john cassavetes: five films box set, is presented on blu - ray in the original aspect ratio of 1. 85: 1 in 1080p / 24hz. the dual - layer disc presents both the 1976 and 1978 versions of the film .
opening night’s production issues ranged from unions threatening the film for its non - union crew and extras to a stunted release and an exceedingly cool domestic reception. “if the killing of a chinese bookie was a commercial failure, ” notes charity, “ opening night barely registered at all. ” 21
it' s rather like a shaggy dog story operating inside a chase movie. chinese bookie is the more insouciant, involuted and unfathomable of the two; the curdled charm of gazzara' s lopsided grin has never been more to the point .
one of them was the killing of a chinese bookie, a film that displays most of the faults of his kind of on - the - hoof film - making - and all the virtues. cassavetes always used to say that the emotion in his films was improvised but the lines written. there is no doubt, though, that when he let his actors loose on the set, there were considerable surprises in store .
john cassavetes' s “the killing of a chinese bookie, ” which opened yesterday at the columbia i and ii theater, is like the last three of the director' s films (“a woman under the influence, ” “husbands” and “minnie and moskowitz”) in the way it resolutely refuses to come to a point strong or interesting enough to support the loving care that' s gone into its production, particularly on the part of the actors .
im disappointed with how the 76 version of chinese bookie was handled but everything else about this set offers a significant enhancement over the previous dvd set. the supplements altogether offer a great overview of cassavetes work and the presentations for the films are better and more filmic overall. it comes with a high recommendation .
i' m going to watch john cassavetes' s the killing of a chinese bookie and the copy i borrowed from the library has two cuts - one from 1976 that' s a 135 minute edit and one from 1978 that' s a 108 minute edit. i wonder which version i should watch, and if anybody knows which version cassavetes considered to be the
correct
edit .
but instead of cashing in, cassavetes continued to work mostly outside the mainstream hollywood system, and his remarkable run of films in the 1970s – husbands (1971), minnie and moskowitz (1971), a woman under the influence (1974), killing of a chinese bookie (1976), opening night (1977) – is an accomplishment that ranks with any director' s body of work before or since .
interestingly, both the killing of a chinese bookie and mean streets are a long way from the terrific, elaborate and expensive crime films that scorsese would come to direct twenty years or so later. by then, scorsese was more interested in deconstructing the glamour, mythology and iconography of famous and wealthy mafia figures, rather than realism and the seamier, low - key experiences of small - time gangsters at street level .
from a story developed with martin scorcese, cassavetes tackles (and comments on) the film noir genre. cosmo, a club owner in heavy debt, is pressured into committing the title act to pay off the mob. note: according to ray carney, two versions of killing of a chinese bookie exist: a 1976 edit (135 minutes) and a 1978 edit (108 minutes). both, carney says, are of equal interest. stars ben gazzara .
ben gazzara is the star of killing, the story of the owner of the crazy horse west, a failing la strip joint he is determined to keep open because it' s the only thing he' s built up from scratch in his somewhat tawdry life. in order to remain solvent, he has to kill a chinese bookie for the mob. the sequence in which he breaks into the old man' s luxurious apartment and does the job is as terrifying as anything in the godfather .
if one face of time in cassavetes’ films is about repetition, habit, fatigue and the elongation of actions to the point where meaning is lost or overturned, time in the killing of a chinese bookie is more elusive, yet also more abrupt. for jean epstein, cinema’s ability to mark an event or an emotion with a sense of constant temporal dispersal constitutes one of its principal links to modern life: “you look at your watch, the present strictly speaking is already no longer there, and strictly speaking it is there again, it will always be there from one midnight to the next”. [ 28 ] there is a gnawing senses of distraction in the killing of a chinese bookie, of always being too soon or too late. it is as if the turning point that could reveal events and their significance is always just about to happen or has already happened prior to our arrival .
“the killing of a chinese bookie” is about cosmo vitelli (ben gazzara), the owner of a tacky nightclub on hollywood' s sunset strip, and cosmo' s troubles when the mob coerces him into carrying out a contract murder in order to pay off a $ 23, 000 gambling debt. that' s the story, but the film has less interest in story than in character, for which, in mr. cassavetes' s vocabulary, you may also read actor .
the killing of a chinese bookie seems to retrace one of cinema’s first lessons, about light and its capacity to both bring forth an image or action yet also lose it in an uneven flow and distribution of luminous force. how is it possible to build and maintain a figure in the midst of this uneven luminous wash? what are the attributes of this figure that is at once both flesh and blood and shot through with light? in alexandre astruc’s account of murnau’s films he describes a tension between composition and annihilation in the very construction of the image :
ben gazzara and al ruban - in this excellent interview piece, actor ben gazzara (cosmo) and and producer al ruban discuss their contributions to the killing of a chinese bookie and recall their interactions with john cassavetes during the shooting of the film. the two gentlemen also discuss the initial reactions to the 1976 version of the film. the interviews were conducted exclusively for criterion in los angeles and new york in 2004. in english, not subtitled. (19 min, 1080i) .
the fourth disc features the killing of a chinese bookie and the big feature is that the disc features both the 1976 and 1978 cuts of the film. the inclusion of the two cuts is somewhat surprising since gena rowlands apparently refused to allow the alternate version of shadows to be included in the set and my understanding is cassavetes preferred the 78 cut. as to why there are two cuts to the film: cassavetes was apparently disappointed in the reception of it when he originally released it in 1976. he shortened it down and re - edited, i think in an attempt to make it more of a conventional gangster film .
the killing of a chinese bookie, directed and written by john cassavetes; produced by al rubin; supervising editor, torn cornwell; camera operators, fred elmes and mike harris; music conducted and arranged by anthony harris; released by faces distribution corporation. running time: 130 minutes. at the columbia i and ii theaters. second avenue rear 64th street. this film has been rated r .
barely able to contain his anger but realizing that he is in a tight spot, cosmo drives to the chinese gangster' s heavily guarded home .
mort comes to visit the club with an entourage. they ask him about his mortgage. they know he doesn' t have the money and start talking about a
punk chinese bookie
they can' t get to. cosmo reveals that he fought in korea and killed some people in the war. they propose that he kill the bookie. he initially declines, bragging about being a club owner and how he built himself up from nothing. he says that he' s interested in reducing the debt but not eliminating it. (killing the bookie) after some back and forth, they suggest that he take his girls and use them to draw out the bookie (he likes beautiful girls) go locate him and invite him to his club to reduce the debt by $ 10, 000. 00 .
the criterion collection upgrades their box set john cassavetes: five films to blu - ray, presenting the films and special features over five dual - layer discs. the set includes the films shadows, faces, a woman under the influence, the killing of a chinese bookie, and opening night. shadows is presented in the aspect ratio of about 1. 33: 1, faces at 1. 66: 1, and the other three films in the ratio of 1. 85: 1. all five films are presented with 1080p / 24hz high - definition transfers .
it has the plot of a fast - paced, exciting thriller, but the killing of a chinese bookie rather becomes a slow - paced, intimate, somber and atmospheric noir - ish character study full of humanity that' ll immersive you throughout. its superbly shot but it never shows off, and ben gazzara is phenomenal, totally convincing as the sleazy strip club owner living a mundane existence. cassavetes' honest portrait of this man is both sympathetic and bleak, and the mood and his raw, observational style works wonders here. i really liked this one, and its not only because there' s a lot of boobs in it .
if theatre and cinema are always present in cassavetes’ films, caught in a process of reciprocal exchange, why, we might ask, does he feel the need to literalise this scenario in the killing of a chinese bookie and opening night? these two films reveal something rarely associated with cassavetes: an attempt to theorise the impulses and drives at work in his films. this theorisation, however, does not take place somewhere apart from the films; it emerges in tandem with the work of performance. by turning towards the world of theatre, cassavetes is not taking a step away from cinema but looking at it from a certain vantage point, taking in a particular truth of the work .
this disturbance of tempo is strikingly reflected in the centrepiece of the film’s rereading of the gangster genre: cosmo’s performance of the hit on the chinese bookie. after receiving an extraordinarily complex set of directions, cosmo finds his journey to the bookie’s house suddenly interrupted by a blowout on the freeway. he uses this unexpected delay to make a quick phone call back to the club to check on the progress of the act. when neither vince nor sonny are able to tell him which number is being performed, cosmo is forced to sing into the receiver a few bars of mr sophistication’s signature tune, “i can’t give you anything but love”. the neon light of the phone booth seems to operate as cosmo’s own personal spotlight demanding that he come up with an appropriate performance .
mr. cassavetes' s way of film making is to set up actors, whom he admires, trusts and finds endlessly fascinating, in situations in which they are as likely to philosophize about acting as about life. acting—performance—is a legitimate metaphor for certain kinds of lives but by the end of “the killing of a chinese bookie” you may rightfully expect more than you have actually received. this includes a lot of enigmatic snatches of cosmo' s nightclub shows, bits and pieces of intentionally awful sketches, as well as cosmo' s relationships to his “girls” and his emcee (a selfdescribed “freak, ” played with good, self‐contained desperation by meade roberts, the screen writer .
the killing of a chinese bookie made me, like, immediately and deeply unhappy. i' m not sure if this is the audience arc cassavetes had in mind exactly (not that it matters what cassavetes had in mind), but i started the movie feeling sorry for cosmo. he runs a seedy nightclub and pours himself into it but doesn' t have the money or the talent or the luck for it to be really special. the clientele all seem more bored by the show than they are titillated. this is largely due to cassaavetes' s slow pacing and ben…
the plague’s freedom, of course, comes at a cost for both human life and a certain type of theatrical representation in which performance and the mechanics of staging are in the service of a re - presentation of a previous text. this is a theatre bound to the authority of the script, a theatre where action and gesture are subordinated to the psychological requirements of character. artaud affirms :
next is another portion of an audio interview with john cassavetes, conducted by michael ciment. similar interviews also appear on the discs for a woman under the influence and the killing of a chinese bookie. this 29 - minute segment unsurprisingly concentrates on opening night, and he talks about his personal experiences working in theater and talks about recruiting the films audiences. most interestingly, though, is when he talks about the films central play. it was incredibly hard to write since it was supposed to be an awful play the actors didnt want anything to do with, and he had little interest in it. i found it probably the more engaging of all of the audio interviews found in the set .
these events follow on from each other in a consecutive pattern, yet what has been lost or curtailed is the motivating connection that could adequately explain how we have come to be where we are, how we get from one point to the next. the various events that push the narrative forward lack a gravitational pull and tend to constantly deviate our attention away from the central drama. (“nothing remains fixed, and everything becomes ominous”, as rosenbaum said of out one / spectre). [ 26 ] deleuze identifies this breakdown in the line or fibre that connects and prolongs events as a defining feature of a certain sector of post wwii american cinema beyond hollywood. in altman’s a wedding (us 1978), nashville (us 1975) and cassavetes’ the killing of a chinese bookie :
the guards don' t seem to notice him at all and he makes his way into the bookie' s quarters to find the old man in a hot tub with a younger woman. he waits for her to leave and confronts him when the bookie returns to the hot tub alone. the girl was close by however, and sees him shoot the bookie. the guards come running and he' s forced to kill some of them on his way out, getting shot himself. he catches a passing bus and heads home then switching taxis as they' d planned for him. he collapses once inside, but still insists on getting to the club. mort and his people hear that the bookie' s dead, and are obviously surprised. mort appears angry about it and quite surprised .
[ a ] fluid space, subject to variations of mood, the feeling of the moment, the unpredictability of the present moment, when a moment of madness could at any time cause the scene to shift and jeopardise the performance and the very idea of performance itself. (16 )
the 1978 version of bookie and the four other films in the set deliver fantastic digital transfers that look far more film - like in comparison to criterions previous dvds of the films. the images are as crisp as possible when the source allows and detail is very high with excellent depth .
the 76 version of bookie sounds pretty awful. its mixed low, near impossible to hear at times, flat, and appallingly edgy. the 78 version of the film, along with influence and opening night sound much better, offering a bit more range and fidelity .
leaving the realm of broken marriages, insane significant others or the bohemian culture of 50s new york city, cassavetes takes to the world of a low - rent strip club owner in la who becomes indebted to a gangster after losing $ 20, 000 in a card game. with no money to his name and no one looking to help him out with this debt, he is forced to take the life of a chinese bookie with the hopes of clearing his books of the big debt. however, when things are uncovered that prove this alleged hit as something far deeper and far more troubling, lives get put on the line, and what follows is a rather solid, if oddly uninteresting and unwieldy bit of post - noir filmmaking .
this perceptual transformation of the world is crucial to the film’s effect and its construction of a specifically cinematic form of theatricality. in terms drawn from the work of jean - louis schefer, deleuze describes the cinema’s capacity to replace the presence of bodies found in theatre with a different type of presence :
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what happens? the movie opens on a schoolyard with girls chanting a jump rope rhyme. on the other side of the fence surrounding the scho ...
the other films, all in colour, are in far better shape. there are shots that do look out of focus, but its a condition from the shoot and nothing to do with the transfers. the 1978 version of bookie looks a bit muddy in places (maybe a condition of all of the low light shooting ,) but otherwise the colours in it and the other colour films look to be gorgeously saturated, with natural skin tones. the colour films also have very little damage present, just a few minor marks .
just as cassavetes repeatedly took acting roles in movies that were clearly beneath him in order to finance his own work, likewise, to preserve his position, gazarra is forced to put his morals aside and shoot the chinaman. lit by mostly available neon street signs and flares of sunshine in the lens, bookie indulges little of the familiar trappings of the gangster film. vitelli is a law unto himself, much like cassavetes, and it is his dedication to the minutiae of his craft that is afforded the most screen time. his contempt for anything resembling a movie ‘event’ is particularly evident in a key scene where the hoods tell vitelli how to carry out the killing being shot in almost complete darkness .
a witness who sees all, a guarantee that all has been witnessed by an effectively virtual audience, so that we do not leave the framework of a performance in a truly theatrical sense of the word. (87 )
these rapid shifts of perspective are an essential part of what jousse refers to as cassavetes’ “contrapuntal composition” (15). we see the production of the second woman from a range of different and often competing perspectives: that of the producer, the audience, the stagehands, the personal dressers, the playwright, the director, the director’s wife and the resentful co - star. as jousse notes, the effect of this composition is to engage the viewer in the tension of the performance, to, in a sense, lift us out of the comfort of our seats and force us to experience something of the confusions, anxieties and competing perspectives which inform the play’s production .
true to cassavetes' form, the 108 - minute version is not just a simple edit of the 135 - minute version. the order of several scenes has been changed, there are different edits of a few scenes, and there are a few segments unique to the 108 - minute version. the bulk of the cutting in the 1978 version removed many of the nightclub routines that were in the 1976 version .
the disc then closes with a series of production galleries, offering on set photos from the shoot, followed by a theatrical trailer .
cosmo vitelli is the owner of the
crazy horse west
strip club in las vegas. one night, he loses $ 23, 000 while playing poker at mort weil' s place. cosmo doesn' t have the money to pay his debt to mort and his associates who are mobsters. mort strongly suggests cosmoget even by performing a hit for the mob. all he has to do is to kill a chinese bookmaker downtown. left with no other choices, cosmo kills the man who' s in fact the head of the chinese triads of the west coast. wounded by a bullet, cosmo comes back to his club only to learn that the mob wants him dead now. however, vitelli goes on presenting the show every night .
disc # 1 - - the killing of a chinese bookie - the 1976 cut 1. paid in full [: 17 ] 2. scotch and water [ 4: 29 ] 3. crazy horse west [ 4: 20 ] 4 .
it' ll pick up
[ 4: 30 ] 5. picking up the girls [ 7: 44 ] 6. casino [ 4: 54 ] 7. audition [ 11: 01 ] 8. gay paris [ 9: 07 ] 9. debt reduction [ 8: 51 ] 10. further instruction [ 5: 02 ] 11. en route [ 7: 15 ] 12. killing [ 1: 19 ] 13. damage control [ 6: 26 ] 14 .
imagination
[ 9: 02 ] 15. shootout [ 7: 43 ] 16. a rose for betty [ 4: 52 ] 17. backstage [ 13: 14 ] 18. a whole new trip [ 7: 24 ] disc # 2 - - the killing of a chinese bookie - the 1978 cut 1 .
it' ll pick up
/ paid in full [: 17 ] 2. scotch and water [ 3: 25 ] 3. picking up the girls [ 4: 22 ] 4. casino [ 4: 11 ] 5. audition [ 10: 28 ] 6. gay paris [ 7: 45 ] 7. debt reduction [ 6: 01 ] 8. further instruction [ 8: 55 ] 9. en route [ 5: 49 ] 10. killing [ 6: 18 ] 11. damage control [ 2: 20 ] 12 .
imagination
[: 55 ] 13. shootout [ 4: 07 ] 14. a rose for betty [ 6: 49 ] 15. backstage [ 4: 47 ] 16. a whole new trip [ 10: 04 ] 1. color bars
cosmo vitelli owns the crazy horse west, a strip joint in california. he' s laconic, a korean war vet, and a gambler. when we meet him, he' s making his last payment on a gambling debt. then, he promptly loses $ 23, 000 playing poker at an illegal local casino. the guys he owes this time aren' t so friendly, pressuring him for immediate payment. then they suggest that he kill a chinese bookie to wipe off the debt. vitelli and the film move back and forth between the double - crossing, murderous insincerity of the gamblers and the friendships, sweetness, and even love among vitelli, the dancers, a dancer' s mother, and the club' s singer, mr. sophistication .
then closing off the disc is a stills gallery presenting a decent sized collection of shots from the film, publicity photos and behind - the - scenes bits, including what looks like a photo of the crew at the end. the disc then closes with a theatrical trailer that i dont actually think is on the previous dvd edition .
this release offers a collection of four films for lovers of country western themes and ...
cosmo vitelli owns the crazy horse west, a strip joint in california. he' s laconic, a korean war vet, and a gambler. when we meet him, he' s making his last payment on a gambling debt. then, he promptly loses $ 23, 000 playing poker at an illegal local casino. the guys he owes this time aren' t so friendly, pressuring him for immediate payment. then they suggest that he kill a chinese bookie to wipe off the debt. vitelli and the film move back and forth between the double - crossing, murderous insincerity of the gamblers and the friendships, sweetness, and even love among vitelli, the dancers, a dancer' s mother, and the club' s singer, mr. sophistication. written by
the shooting angle, the placement of the people within the frame, the distribution of lights – all serve to construct the lines of a dramatic scene whose unbearable tension will end in annihilation... each image is an unstable equilibrium, better still the destruction of a stable equilibrium brought about by its own élan. [ 25 ]
gazzara in a tuxedo the whole time, i' ll watch that any day of the fucking week .
one of john cassavetes’s loyal troupe of collaborators reminisces about working with the fearless filmmaker .
the only disappointing transfer is the 1976 version of bookie. it appears every film in the set received new masters but the 1976 version looks very similar to the previous dvd edition and i suspect its the same high - def transfer used for that. its much softer and lacks detail in comparison to the 78 version here, with close - ups that look fuzzy around edges where they look crisper and cleaner in the 78 version. colours are a bit duller and blacks can crush out parts of the image. for me this was the most disappointing aspect of the sets transfers since i actually prefer the 76 cut of the film .
gentlemen’s club owner cosmo vitelli is a man dedicated to pretenses of composure and self - possession. when he runs afoul of a group of gangsters, cosmo is forced to commit a horrible crime in a last - ditch effort to save his beloved club and his way of life .
a strange, strange little movie; shot
cinema verite ,
often utilizing a hand held camera, and murky lighting. due to the resultant disorientation from the documentary like directorial techniques, and the script' s rather unorthodox concepts, i wasn' t quite sure what to make of chinese bookie. but it' s all so unique, appreciation is the only possible response (for me, least) to this film. there just isn' t anything remotely like it. if you haven' t seen it, i' d encourage you to do so. - john fiero
the dreams and visions in opening night and love streams serve as a reminder of the proximity of cassavetes’ films to a theatre which “reforges the links between what does and does not exist, between the virtual nature of the possible and the material nature of existence”. (artaud, “theatre and the plague”, 17) this is a type of theatre that “can only happen the moment the inconceivable really begins, where poetry taking place on stage nourishes and superheats created symbols”. (17 )
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all of the films present their respective films audio in lossless linear pcm 1. 0 mono. other than the 76 version of bookie i feel the transfers are about as good as they can be. dialogue is mostly clear but limitations of the audio equipment used during filming can cause some problems, like muffled dialogue. faces had some dialogue looped over in post - production and this is very obvious and distracting in a few places .
even the most arid and banal image is transformed when it is projected on the screen. the smallest detail, the most insignificant object assume a meaning and a life which pertain to them alone, independently of the value of the meaning of the images themselves, the idea which they interpret and the symbol which they constitute. (…) essentially the cinema reveals a whole occult life with which it puts us directly into contact. [ 23 ]
the disc then closes with a couple of standards, including a stills gallery with photos from the workshop, the filming and premiere of shadows, as well as photos from the score recording session and then posters from around the world for cassavetes films (these posters were originally included on the constant forge dvd as a supplement .) a 3 - minute theatrical trailer closes off the disc .
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even with the bare outlines provided by what is already known, however, it is still possible to piece together a history of mutual relations out of which emerges an understanding of cinematic writing defined in and through a relationship to the stage – the stage as both a physical place and as the catalyst for a scenario carried through into the cinema. in terms of the films themselves, this consciousness of the stage as a generator for the fiction is reflected in the way cassavetes builds into his scripts situations in which the various life crises of his characters are structured around, and framed by, questions of performance and theatricality. in a comparison between cassavetes and orson welles (for whom theatre - and - cinema also forms a constant refrain), rosenbaum observes :
when cosmo arrives at the bookie’s house, the camera travels through a series of exits, corridors and doorways following cosmo but also at times seeming to lose him in the maze. eventually the camera stumbles upon an old man contently humming to himself and splashing around in a large communal bath. for a time the film seems to forget about cosmo, intent instead to observe the playful behavior of the old man. when the old man moves to a different bath in an adjoining room, he glances a number of times in the general direction of where we assume cosmo is standing, without registering his presence. when he finally acknowledges cosmo’s presence, the old man blinks hard as if trying to assure himself that what he is seeing is not a ghost. the only verbal contact between the two occurs just before the old man is shot, when he mumbles in a barely audible tone, “i’m real bad. i’m so sorry” .
at first it seems as if nancy has been conjured into being by myrtle as a device for the performance – an attempt to “stay in touch” with a set of emotions that are fast receding and a way of transforming the scenario of aging and passivity built into the role of virginia. what quickly becomes apparent, however, is the danger of such conjurings, registered in the dead fan’s brutal actions and myrtle’s equally violent, final response. as myrtle is pummeled by nancy, the threat of madness that hovers over her struggle with the role of virginia is steered away from a question of psychological crisis to one of physical disintegration. despite myrtle’s assurances that she has created nancy and can make her appear and disappear at will, opening night never resolves the issue of myrtle’s relation to the dead fan or the place of this apparition in relation to the rest of the film .
teenagers in a small town are dropping like flies, apparently in the grip of mass ...
tracing cassavetes’s schooling and early career before giving a chapter on each of the films, attention is also paid to cassavetes’s relationship with gena rowlands—and the ways in which the two worked together. charity additionally explores posthumous productions of cassavetes’s un - filmed scripts. included is a filmography, a chronology of his stage plays, and of his performances .
despite a few disappointments (like the lengthy documentary, a constant forge) the supplements generally do offer an excellent amount of insight into cassavetes filmmaking career and style, and offer a great overview for those coming to the directors films for the first time .
note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer (s) .
george kouvaros is professor of film studies in the school of the arts and media, unsw. his most recent book is
moving on with the remaining supplements you first get notes about the two versions of the film followed by an 18 - minute discussion featuring ben gazzara and al ruban. both talk about working with cassavetes and how they see his films, but concentrate primarily on killing of course. they talk about making it, their reactions to it and the eventual public reception of it. it' s an excellent interview, which i felt might have been too short .
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he starts to reconsider, when mort comes by the club and asks him to step outside. he presents it to mort as
i' m going to do you a favor, i don' t want to reduce the debt .
mort is insistent that he come outside and after they hit cosmo a few times they force him into a car and make it clear that they' re willing to kill him. they give him a car, a map, a gun and specific instructions for dealing with the bookie' s dogs, guards, and locks. cosmo heads out to do it, seeing no choice in the matter any longer. he has some difficulty with the car which breaks down on the highway while he' s driving, so he finds a gas station and calls a cab. despite his crisis, he also takes the opportunity to check on the club, getting angry about only having two girls on stage and the music choice. he stops at a bar and orders meat for the dogs and then sets out for the bookie' s place .
moving on with the remaining supplements you first get notes about the two versions of the film followed by an 18 - minute discussion featuring ben gazzara and al ruban. both talk about working with cassavetes and how they see his films, but concentrate primarily on killing? of course. they talk about making it, their reactions to it and the eventual public reception of it. it' s an excellent interview, which i felt might have been too short .
this sudden shifting can also be seen during the spaghetti breakfast when one of nick’s work mates suddenly finds his voice and begins to serenade myrtle. both moments remind us of the dynamic potential that defines the nature of the scene in cassavetes’ work: a capacity for a sudden and sometimes violent interruption to work against the very foundations of a scene, as well as our ability to define its general direction .
what about it? (for a full summary of the film, scroll down to
what happens ?
) l. a. confidential is a movie all about make ...
an amazing but sad first act sets up a sleek, tense, and comparitively consumable cassavetes film that left me depressed for all the owners of a failing business. a great character study .
the plot’s biggest gamble is to make cosmo, this likable if screwed - up schnook, actually go through with the killing. is it plausible that someone so seemingly decent would do such a thing? we don’t know, any more than we know enough about his past to say with certainty whether it’s even the first time he’s killed someone. but if we accept cassavetes’s model of the self as constantly in flux—provisional, unknowable, yet susceptible to the immediate claims of duty—then we may be better able to make the leap and accept the possibility .
when a young boy' s family is killed by the mob, their tough neighbor gloria becomes his reluctant guardian. in possession of a book that the gangsters want, the pair go on the run in new york .
the idea of a play built right on stage, encountering production and performance obstacles, demands the discovery of active language, both active and anarchic, where the usual limits of feelings and words are transcended. antonin artaud [ 2 ]
to consider the theater as a second - hand psychological or moral function, and to believe that dreams themselves have only a substitute function, is to diminish the profound poetic bearing of dreams as well as of the theater. [ 22 ]
founded in 1999, senses of cinema is one of the first online film journals of its kind and has set the standard for professional, high quality film - related content on the internet .
it is an intoxicating vision of the function of criticism; the only problem is that, in the rush to significance, the actual ways artistic language operates get forgotten. works of genius are not explainable in terms of a series of generic cultural meanings. shakespeare is not synonymous with the elizabethan world view; in fact, the power and wonder of his work begin where cultural descriptions of it end. great artists inflect and comment upon the systems of expression into which they are bornthey do not merely repeat them in their work .
a large gambling debt forces cosmo to meet a group of local wise guys (seymour cassel, morgan woodward, timothy carey, robert phillips, john kullers) who demand that he immediately pays what he owes if he wishes to continue running the club. when cosmo confesses to them that he does not have the money, they offer him a' reasonable' deal: if cosmo agrees to kill an influential chinese gangster for them, they will forget about his gambling debt. at first cosmo rejects the deal, but after one of the wise guys, a bubbly regular at the club, bruises his ribs, he changes his mind. another wise guy then gives him a gun and a stolen car .
this film works on a number of levels that challenge the viewer. on the one hand, the cinema - verite technique of the visuals, reminiscent of raoul coutard (
breathless
), really dials us into the life of cosmo. cassavetes delivers him as he is: a freewheeling, caring guy trying to make his nightclub a go without exploiting the girls who work for him. on the other, the plot, a meandering set of tableaus that toy with cliché but never give into them, gives the viewer an opportunity to escape the authoritarian conventions of mainstream cinema. cassavetes isn' t worried about masking real time precisely because his characters come to life in it. one of the finest
organic
films ever made; a seemingly naturally paced film about real people bracketed by the aesthetic codes of the film noir genre. very impressive .
this marks, at least within this five films box set that criterion so wonderfully upgraded to blu - ray late last month, the point in cassavetes’ career where, at least aesthetically, the director began getting in his own way. featuring only a handful of truly memorable shots and some of the least inspired photography in any of cassavetes’ films (there is actually no cinematography credit found on this film), the film lacks much of the energy of his earlier work, or even the unbridled energy found within many of the final frames of the film that came prior to this, a woman under the influence. despite a score that keeps the film afloat and pace chugging along, the best thing that can be said about the film visually is that cassavetes has a way with crafting an ever evolving film that has rarely been matched. at its best, the film is a slow burn of a neo - noir. oddly lyrical in its pacing, the film builds and, as previously mentioned, evolves continuously starting out as a character study and making its way to the realm of pure crime noir. with the central hit being one of the best and most vital moments of the film, the picture takes a decided turn following, only to find its stride for a wonderfully kinetic final act.
the killing of a chinese bookie is a 1976 american art and crime film directed and written by john cassavetes and starring ben gazzara . a rough and gritty film , the formidable character gazzara plays was based on an impersonation he did for his friend cassavetes in the 1970s . this is the second of their three collaborations , following husbands and preceding opening night . 
the killing of a chinese bookie is a 1976 american art and crime film directed and written by john cassavetes and starring ben gazzara. a rough and gritty film, the formidable character gazzara plays was based on an impersonation he did for his friend cassavetes in the 1970s. this is the second of their three collaborations, following husbands and preceding opening night.
the killing of a chinese bookie is a 1976 american art and crime film directed and written by john cassavetes and starring ben gazzara. a rough and gritty film, the formidable character gazzara plays was based on an impersonation he did for his friend cassavetes in the 1970s. this is the second of their three collaborations, following husbands and preceding opening night.