Shadows

The first movie of this independent filmmaker shares through the subject and cinematographic expression some common ties with the Beat movement. This film develops an expressive aesthetics in rupture with Hollywood’s codes; it is dealing with an afro American family’s and jazzmen’s everyday life. Jonas Mekas rewarded this film with the first Independent film price but criticized the second version shown at the Film Club of New York together with Pull my Daisy. He accused Cassavetes to reshoot scenes in order to correspond to commercial criteria despite the spontaneous qualities. Amos Vogel continues the debate defending the improvised processes of the actors’ performance inscribed in an actual experience in which fiction and reality cannot be distinguished. Even if Cassavetes’ relationship to mass cinema remains ambiguous, the film nonetheless reveals that any control position is being risked.