Film is, to me, just unimportant. But people are very important

It is still difficult to attempt to classify John Cassavetes's cinema, despite the customary accolades of pioneer and icon of independent film-making being more than justified. His cinema forged q link between the spirit of the New American Cinema and the New Hollywood, it built a bridge between the innovative approach devised by independent film-makers in New York in the 1950s and the profound renewal of mainstream American film-making over the following twenty years. Yet Cassavetes himself never identified with any particular school or movement, continuing to work both for the majors and for almost family-run productions, and always brilliantly alternating the roles of director and actor. His vision of the cinema is still so personal, so strong and so recognisable that it marks a truly unique moment in the history of film-making. And, as with the other directors from Renoir to Truffaut whose work has figured in these retrospectives in recent years, so with Cassavetes too (and with his wonderful group of actors that cannot be overlooked) the crucial factor is still their deeply humanistic approach to the cinema, their determination to use the cinema to probe and to narrate the human soul, including – in fact, primarily – under the most extreme of circumstances. His world of neurotics, alcoholics, gangsters and dropouts of every kind provides the perfect setting for the feverish pursuit of his goal, which was to capture even just a single moment of human truth in its tragic and disturbing beauty.
 
 

INFO
Palazzo delle Esposizioni - Sala Cinema
Admission via steps in Via Milano 9 A, Rome
ADMISSION FREE WHILE PLACES LAST
Places will be assigned from one hour before the start of each screening. Reservations may be made by membership card holders only.  There will no further admission once the film has started.