Faces (film)
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | John Cassavetes |
| Produced by | John Cassavetes Maurice McEndree |
| Written by | John Cassavetes |
| Starring |
John Marley Gena Rowlands Lynn Carlin Seymour Cassel Fred Draper Val Avery Dorothy Gulliver |
| Music by | Jack Ackerman |
| Cinematography | Al Ruban Maurice McEndree Haskell Wexler |
| Edited by | Al Ruban Maurice McEndree John Cassavetes |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Continental Distributing |
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Release date
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Running time
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183 minutes 130 minutes (General cut) 147 minutes (Criterion cut) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $275,000 |
Faces is a 1968 drama film, written and directed by John Cassavetes and starring John Marley, Cassavetes' wife Gena Rowlands, Fred Draper, Seymour Cassel and Lynn Carlin. Both Cassel and Carlin received Academy Award nominations for this film. Cassavetes was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Faces. The film was shot in high contrast 16 mm black and white film stock. In 2011, it was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
The film, shot in cinéma vérité-style, depicts the final stages of the disintegrating marriage of a middle-aged couple. We are introduced to various groups and individuals the couple interacts with after the husband, Richard Forst's (John Marley), sudden statement of his desire for a divorce. Afterwards, Richard spends the night in the company of brash businessmen and prostitutes, the wife with her middle-aged female friends and an aging, free-associating playboy they've picked up at a bar. The night proceeds as a series of tense conversations and confrontations occur, illustrating where the modern American lifestyle has failed to nourish the interests, love lives, and emotional/spiritual fulfillment of these characters. Nearly everyone we meet expresses deep dissatisfaction with their lives and also a resigned attitude to this malaise. The film offers little hope, only a suggestion that in this world merely understanding that we're unhappy or dissatisfied is a revelation.
As is the case with several of Cassavetes' films, several different versions of this film are known to exist (though it was generally assumed that, after creating the general release print, Cassavetes destroyed the alternate versions). It was initially premiered in Toronto with a running time of 183 minutes, before Cassavetes cut it down to 130 minutes. Though the 130-minute version is the general release version, a print of a longer version with a running time of 147 minutes was accidentally found by Ray Carney, and was deposited at the Library of Congress. 17 minutes of this print was included in the Criterion box set John Cassavetes: Five Films, though Carney has said that there are numerous differences between the two films.
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