Cassavetes on Cassavetes

Summary: "For more than thirty years John Cassavetes, the spiritual father of American independent filmmaking, steered a courageous course freelancing on the fringes of the Hollywood studio system. This is the autobiography he never lived to write." "In his own words Cassavetes tells the story of his life as he lived it, day by day, year by year. He begins with his family and childhood and describes his high school, college, and drama school days. He talks about the years he spent pounding the pavement in New York as a young, unemployed actor unable to get a job - or even an agent. Then he takes the reader behind the scenes to sit in on the planning, rehearsing, shooting, and editing of each of his films - from Shadows, Faces, and Husbands, to Minnie and Moskowitz, A Woman Under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Opening Night, Gloria, and Love Streams. He describes the battles to get them made and the even greater struggle to get them into theaters. It is an extraordinary personal saga of dreams, triumphs, and frustrations; of high-stakes financial gambles, crazy artistic risk-taking, and midnight visions of glory. This is Cassavetes at his most candid and outspoken - uncompromising, humane, and passionate about both life and art." "Ray Carney, the leading authority on Cassavetes' life and work, spent more than ten years assembling the text, based on new and previously published interviews with Cassavetes and artists who knew him - including Gena Rowlands, Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara and scores of others."--BOOK JACKET.