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To access Ray Carney's complete website, go to http://www.cassavetes.com/

Hi Ray,

Thanks again. I'll definitely try to make this new year as rewarding as possible, and hope that your's goes well too. If my calculations are correct, as of some time later this year it will have been ten years since I read The Films of John Cassavetes: Pragmatism, Modernism, and the Movies and had my entire conception and understanding of art shaken up and redirected, so, happy anniversary to me, and thanks again for the adjustment.

Sadly, the Ozu retrospective in Berkeley was all but a total bust. The films themselves were remarkably and consistently brilliant (Surprisingly so. Even the early college comedies and crime melodramas were, without exception, wholly elegant, and assured, and affecting.), but the audience response was absolutely miserable. So much so that, as much of an obsessive weirdo and complete-ist as I am, I finally just gave up in the final few days and stopped going, missing the last six or seven films.

The audiences were largely made up of tweedy, beret wearing, middle-aged Berkeley types and listless students who were obviously being forced by their professors to attend the screenings. The enlightened tweeds snorted and tsk'd at every mention of an arranged marriage and the students snickered and giggled at the melodrama. I know I shouldn't be surprised by a certain amount of crowd stupidity but, given the subtlety and overall excellence of these films, this was just too much to bear.

It just kills me that people's idea of multiculturalism somehow fails to take into account that gee, maybe a movie made 70 years ago in fucking Japan might have an understanding of values and family life and interpersonal relationships that just might differ slightly from our own wised-up all-knowing sense of postmodern irony.

Speaking of which, the ultimate irony is that, in these films, Ozu was infinitely more tolerant and accepting and less judgmental of each and every one of his characters than are the tskers and snorters who I'm sure, to a person, pride themselves on their tolerance and acceptance.
You know all this. I'm just venting. Now I just wait for the films I missed to come out on dvd in Hong Kong or where ever, buy 'em on Ebay, and watch them by myself or with friends who aren't emotionally retarded.

It's bad enough dealing with my own stupidity and stubborn denseness without having to listen to the snorting jackass sitting next to me who gets up and leaves half a minute before the last scene actually ends. (This happened A LOT. People so desperate to beat the "rush" and be the first out the door that they grabbed their coats, slammed their seats up, and headed for the exit in the final shot or scene of the film. !?! What's more important than the last minute of an Ozu picture?!)

For now I'm going to focus on book reading and writing and let the audience wear themselves out. Anyway, in response to your comment about sometimes feeling that only students should be allowed access to these films, right now I don't think ANYBODY should get to see them. Lock 'em up until we all learn to grow up a little. We don't deserve them.

Adam

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Ray,

Wow, you are writing on Henry James and 19th century painting. Do you realize how much of a wasteland is out there? How they are encouraging cultural amnesia (or trauma, depending on your perspective)?

I belong to the generation that was willfully mistaught and led astray. The mere mention of the word "canon" leads to accusations of hegemony or telelogical narratives (as if Aristotle is no better or worse than Stuart Hall). To experience art, one should always be suspicious of theory. Always. Without art and critical aesthetics, there is no intuition or feeling. Only cold analysis and political one up man woman transgender hetero homo western sub altern white black brown yellow red ship.
There IS a high and a low. We don't shit where we pray.

Of course, if I hadn't attended BU and encountered iconoclasts like you, George Bluestone, or Tag Gallagher I wouldn't be questioning the system. Go figure...

Thanks for responding,

Larry Knapp

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Hi! Just a quick note. I really liked the Mike Leigh book and would like to thank you for writing a book about his movies. I have read the book once and I feel I know so much more about film, life and so on from reading it. I don't understand everything but as I re-read it I'm sure I will learn more about film.

I live in Daytona Beach but I from a coal mining town in Wales so I can relate to the British characters in Leigh's films, I grew up around them. I'm 35 years old and don't have that much education, I was refused entry to a British art school because i didn't have the necessary qualifications, not suprising when you come from a place that relies more on machismo, manual work and is often anti-book.

But the great thing is that by reading bookslike this it doesn't seem to matter so much that I haven't been to film school or University, because for a couple of dollars I learn't that it doesn't matter where you come from but where you seek out knowledge to improve your education. And that a film class that was only for middle class students is on a few dollars away ,and then up to myself to make the effort to learn. I feel stupid that I thought I was inferior because i didn't go to such and such a school and so on.

Thanks for making such knowledge available, it's a shame I grew up around people who hardly read books (like I used to be) they are missing out on so much. Thanks again,

Paul Ashford

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dear ray carney

firstly i would very much like to thank you for your book - "Cassavetes on Cassavetes". reading this book gave me strength to get through an incredibly tough time in my life.

now i have read you have just found an 18min extra version of faces! will you be doing something about releasing this to the public, i hope so!!

take care and best of luckmany thanks once again

nik kamvissis

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Dear Ray-

It's been far too long since we corresponded - and the last time was via "snail mail."

Anyway, as a too often tired, stressed out mother of an almost two-year-old, I've decided to expose all the other Moms to John Cassavetes. (I just hope they can handle it) It's not easy to get his films on video, and any help or direction you could offer would be greatly appreciated. Really, some of these women have never seen anything even resembling an independent film - not to mention a brilliant film like any one of John's...

Believe me, the passion lives.

I will say, without a doubt, you were the most influential professor I ever knew at BU, and I'm itching to spread the zest for real independent American filmmaking!

On a more personal side - my son is almost two years old now. And, I am so elated with each and every sunrise to know that I have all this time to spend with my little guy -- (a not so jaded and doesn't know who Noam Chomsky or President G. W. Bush is) little individual.

I would love to hear your latest news and to know that things are well with you and those you care for...

Jennifer Jones
BU COM '91

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Dear Ray,

I've been reading Flannery O'Connor's essays, and have been quite floored by them, and wanted to share this with you:

"There are those who maintain that you can't demand anything of the reader. They say the reader knows nothing about art, and that if you are going to reach him, you have to be humble enough to descend to his level. This supposes that the aim of art is to teach, which it is not, or that to create anything which is simply a good-in-itself is a waste of time. Art never responds to the wish to make it democratic; it is not for everybody; it is only for those who are willing to undergo the effort needed to understand it. We hear a great deal about humility being required to lower oneself, but it requires an equal humility and a real love of the truth to raise oneself and by hard labor to acquire higher standards."

Hope all's well.

Caveh Zahedi

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Dear Ray,

Thanks.

I read this in a Flannery O'Conner essay recently and thought of you:

"I don't know if I am setting the aims of the teacher of English too high or too low when I suggest that it is, partly at least, his business to change the face of the best-seller list."

Caveh Zahedi

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Dear Ray,

Another Flannery O'Connor quote I wanted to share. This will be my last, I promise:

" The great novels we get in the future are not going to be those that the public thinks it wants, or
those that critics demand. They are going to be the kind of novels that interest the novelist. And the novels that interest the novelist are those that have not already been written. They are those that put the greatest demands on him, that require him to operate at the maximum of his intelligence and his talents, and to be true to the particularities of his own vocation."

Hope all's well.

Caveh Zahedi

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Hello Ray,

My name is Felim Mac Dermott, I am writing to you from Ireland. I have no doubt that you receive many emails every day from students and filmmakers - and rightly so.

There are few books on filmmaking that I have found more interesting than 'Pragmatism and Modernism'. I feel that so often, books on cinema draw on surface values - insubstantial values. Good filmmakers can create work that inspire me to look at life differently. A simple gift maybe, but so powerful. Imagine, looking at the world differently. These film are rich in ideas - and are reflected in the work of great writers or philosophers: as you very deftly noted in your book. In college, I re-read your book & underlined it. It has been a source of information.

Anyway, the occasion for the email, is that in addition to work on books, I run a bi-annual festival called Visions. This year we focused on Kieslowski. We may focus on Cassavettes for 2005. I would value the opportunity to discuss this with you. I hope that the prospects of travelling to Ireland to be involved in the festival will be of interest to you.

My number is below, please feel free to ring or maybe drop me an email.

best wishes,

Felim
Felim Mac Dermott
Visions Festival

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Mr Carney,

My name is Matthew Newton and I am a recently educated Cassavetes devotee--the work and the artist. I have just directed my first film and became overwhelmed by the universe shoving John Cassavetes under my nose and I took a whiff. Loved him and started to seek him out.

To say that Mr Cassavetes work and influence (albeit in a couple of months viewing and reading) kicked me up the ass to raise whatever funds I had and just shoot would be a massive understatement. Thank-you for your books, insights and obvious love for someone who means so much to me.

Can you suggest any further research I could do--his way of working resonates powerfully with my contemparies here in Australia and I'm keen to know more.

Cheers again,

Matt

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Hello Mr. Carney,

this is a message from a german cassavetes fan.

For any reasons I have found your Cassavetes website not before some days ago, though I`ve known some of your books for years.

I first want to thank you very, very much for your work and your fight for Cassavetes`legacy. Your book "C. on C." is one of the few books I can open at any page, whenever I feel depressed, read any sentence and feel much better, because then I know again: there is something it`s worth living and working for and that the lies are not everywhere and almighty. It`s SO important to have made the experience that it is POSSIBLE to do honest non-bullshit work, because there was and is somebody who DID it.

Last year there was a Cassavetes retrospective here in Cologne and at last I had the opportunity to watch LOVE STREAMS and HUSBANDS (in the original versions, well I mean undubbed at least). I`ve been there with some friends and after HUSBANDS we could`nt barely talk: It was as if someone just had given me back my body and my living soul. It was a shock to feel so deeply ALIVE. And I felt: Thank God I`m released from watching a MOVIE; AT LAST NO MORE MOVIE! It was no movie, it was something that saved my life and it would have been a bit ridiculous to critisize it in terms of form etc. As if you critisized life itself ("well, you know, I think it`s a bit dumb everybody has to die in the end, he better should have..."). For me it`s a similar experience with your writing: AT LAST somebody tells it how we all know it IS!

I was extremely pissed, when I read your interview about the state of the existing prints. ("Couldn't he send someone to Al Ruban or whoever, who makes him an offer he can't refuse...?"). In the best world there would be at least a DVD-Box-Set, which comprised each version of HUSBANDS Cassavetes ever cut, the Dreyer-like version of "woman", the unabridged "faces"... Well, I will shut up and look forward to the Director`s Cut of Matricks... Why can`t you kidnap Bill Gates and force him to... I'd be the first to engage in fundraising for your release!

Well, anyway. I think what I`m trying to do is to encourage you not to give up the struggle for Cassavetes`work and to tell you that this work MUST be saved. It´s literally a question of life and death. Okay, YOU know that, don`t you?... But there are many who don`t, and I think I was one of them.

I wish you all the best and good luck for your efforts!

Thank you.

Klaus Findl

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Dear Mr. Carney,

I've grown increasingly tired of my unfulfilling office job and I would like to do something about it. Four years ago, I saw my first John Cassavetes film, " Faces," and to say that it changed my life sounds corny, dramatic, and trite, but it did. Within two months, I watched every Cassavetes film. Then I bought copies of every film, spending time and money I didn't have to track down rare copies of "Love Streams" and " Too Late Blues." These films did something to me I can't put into words. My thought processes evolved, not only about how I watch films, but about how I live my life. I had always loved film, but I didn't know movies could do that. I was beginning to dabble with writing, but the confluence of Cassavetes' influence and other serendipitous life events pushed me to write more seriously, nearly every night. My interest in Cassavetes led me to your website and books. I can't thank you enough for leading me to so many wonderful films and filmmakers and for pushing me into new ways of thinking about old favorites, such as Mike Leigh, Elaine May, and Jim Jarmusch. I find a voice in your writing that is missing from much of both journalistic criticism and academic thinking. Which leads me to the point of this e-mail. I have been seriously contemplating applying for admission into the master's program for film at Boston University. I would like more information about the program, and I have a question. I'm torn between applying for film studies or film production. I'm seriously interested in making films someday, but I'm not sure if academia is the place to learn this. I'm not interested in establishing a career. I want to explore what I'm capable of and push myself to try to create a lasting piece of art. I just feel a bit daunted at learning to use the equipment and figuring out ways to finance a film. I'm also deeply interested in the film studies program, which seems to be one of the few alternatives to the intellectual, politically correct stranglehold placed on most film studies programs in the rest of the country. Is there any possibility of completing both programs, or mixing classes from both?

Thanks for your time.

Josh Krauter

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Mr. Carney,

My name is Jay Bowen and recently we have been studying some of your viewpoints in my film class at Florida State University. As an amateur screenwriter who will likely never sell a single script because I'm incapable of writing the kind of garbage typically gobbled up by studios, I have to tell you what a breathe of fresh air your thoughts were. I particularly enjoyed the following quote:
Besides being the world's most boring TV show, the Academy Awards obviously have nothing to do with art. It's a three-hour commercial for bad movies. Actors who can't act, writers who can't write, and directors who can't direct get together and give each other little trophies congratulating themselves on how wonderful they all are.

Words more true I rarely hear. Though I'm sure Hollywood probably looks at your thoughts like college students do Joe Lieberman, you've got a classroom full of people in North Florida who commend you for your pursuit of salvation for the art we all love.

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Dear Mr. Carney,

I'm a filmmaker from Portugal and I have been a frequent visitor of your site for a couple of years now. I've also read your book on Cassavetes (Pragmatism, modernism and the movies) and your book on Dreyer. I have to say that both readings were events that helped change my perception of life and of art. It helped me understand why Cassavates films affected me so much and that understanding was crucial in finding my own way of creating films. I'm still finding, searching the way, and that's great.

I so very much agree with your observations about the way the press works to prolong the power and influence of those that already possess it. It's amazing how such a thing works in exactly the same way, even in a small country like Portugal. Being an independent filmmaker myself, I suffer the difficulties of trying to show my work in my own country or having the press interested in what I am doing.

I know that you probably won't have the chance to answer this email, but anyway, I would like to ask you what are or views on contemporary European cinema. I ask this because I haven't found any references to it on your writings and interviews. Also because I think European cinema lacks someone with your clarity and straightforwardness writing about it - even though there are some very good critics still. If you find the time, I would be very much interested in knowing your views on this subject.

Yours sincerely,

Luís Fonseca

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Subject: Cassavetes, et al, cost me a job!

Dr. Carney,

Thanks for your wonderful insights into film, art and the human soul; while I don't agree with everything you say, I do agree that Hollywood, for the greatest part, acts as a domicile for idiots and the brain-dead.

This proved quite true when a "producer" wanted to hire me to write a screenplay; I've written several screenplays, most of them much too controversial by today's Hollywood standards; people have likened my writing to that Yukio Mishima's early work. (I suppose I don't have a businessman's mentality when it comes to art; then again, I don't write to pander to a common denominator; I write because I love to write, which explains why I craft daily.)

Anyway, the producer said he wanted to show the real world, wanted to show the truth and didn't want to follow the typical Hollywood party line. (In his words, no "Scooby Doo"s or "Scary Movie"s or "American Pie" trash.)

He asked me about my favorite filmmakers; I mentioned Jean Renoir, Billy Wilder and John Cassavetes, in fact, I pointed to "Husbands" as my favorite Cassavetes film, "Rules of the Game" as my favorite Renoir film and "Sunset Boulevard" as my favorite Wilder film.

I never heard from this "producer" again; from what I understand, he made a B-grade slasher film. So much for not following the typical Hollywood party line. I suppose he sees "The Matrix" as the antidote to all things crassly Hollywood; the reality here is that "The Matrix" acts as a vehicle of enslavement, not as a vehicle of liberation; Neo, as you say, is no more real than Bugs Bunny; my alternative to "The Matrix" was a cyberpunk television show upon which I worked when I lived in Seattle; I wanted to show how science, electronics, etc., can actually move a person away from personal liberation; I wanted to show how humanity can exist and survive in a hostile world of make-believe, that each person is unique, that each person has a soul that cannot be happy as long as it's enslaved by anything, especially the status quo; as the "Tao Teh Ching" teaches, I wanted to work from the internal, not the external; the "producer" on this project opted to scrap my work and use a storyline that focused on the main character acting like Ayn Rand's John Galt -- perfect robot man or Mr. Roboto -- and having an "obligatory scene" where two women initiate a lesbian relationship; when I mentioned it might be more interesting for the male protagonist to have a homosexual relationship, the "producer" scoffed; needless to say, I didn't last very long on this gig. (It didn't off the ground, by the way.)

And I've got to tell you about this one; I wrote a commissioned piece about a Jewish boy whose uncle buys a professional football team in the 60s; I didn't base the work on "The Titans" or "Bull Durham" or "The Natural"; I deal with the relationship the boy had with his uncle, who did everything in his power to deny his Jewish ethnicity in a Gentile world, and with a friendship the boy develops with a fledgling quarterback, a Floridian with a wife and kids and who attends a Baptist church; the boy learns the reality of several worlds -- Jewish, Gentile, athlete, lover, etc. -- with each world showing a unique truth to the boy.

My friends (those who love Renoir, Wilder, Cassavetes, Haynes, et al) loved the work; the guy who commissioned the piece asked if we could make it into a "teen comedy"; I asked if he was kidding; no, he said, he was quite serious; he thought it would be "cute" if we showed the boy in the locker room handling dirty laundry (jockstraps), and that we could use the dirty laundry as a "metaphor" for the boy's world, and as a "metaphor" for how he felt about his Jewish ethnicity.

I quit the project the next day.

At the moment, I reside in the greater Las Vegas area (out of necessity, not desire); I do plan to
move to LA, not to work in the studio system, but to meet real actors; LA still has quite a few good ones around, and I plan to make my own feature; I have the screenplay completed; I plan to shoot in August or so; screw the studios; studio or not, I will craft art; if not screenplays, then I'll write short stories or novels or work with puppets; I don't give a damn; just as long as I craft on a daily basis, I stay happy.

Thanks again for your work; take care, Dr. Carney, and have a great week!

Shanti,Bob

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Prof. Carney-

I just wanted to let you know that I think your book "Cassavetes on Cassavetes" is one of the most organized and helpful tools to understanding the mind of a filmmaker that I've ever seen. I didn't know anything about Cassavetes except for the fact that he directed "A woman under the influence" when I came to the NYU Film Program. No one really talks about him here. It's surprising because he drew on neo-realist styles like that of de Sica, Rosselini, and Fellini, (for a film like Shadows) who are constantly talked about by Antonio Monda (NYU italian cinema professor/pundit). But Cassavetes is simply neglected in discussion here.

Anyway, I've been digging through the Cassavetes catalog and I think his films are absolutely brilliant. In your book, I particularly love the section that explains his method for directing and his differences from Strassberg in what he likes/dislikes about character development. I think that's extremely helpful. You never find stuff like that in other books on directors. Your book is essentially a tour through Cassavetes' life while giving thorough information on directing/acting for aspiring artists.

If you know of other books that get into detail as much as yours, I would love to know about them. I'm an aspiring actor/director and Cassavetes is quickly becoming a model for my own personal artistic development/career.

Sincerely,

(Name withheld by request)

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Dear Mr. Carney,

I am a huge fan of your work! Your essays on Cassavetes and beyond have really changed my outlook on film and life. I have a question concerning the alternate prints of Husbands and Bookie. In Pragmatism, modernism, and the movies, you wrote that they " exist". Are they at all accessable? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for your time.

Sincerely,

Cocheme'a Gastelum

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Dear Mr. Carney,

Why do you suggest that "Academic Animadversions" is for Ph.D.'s only?

Matt Wilkins
Sisyphus Productions

Ray Carney replies:

It's a joke. A wall to climb. A piece of barbed wire to get your overalls caught on. Why else do you think I picked a word like Animadversions? What kind of word is that? Since professors are stupider than ordinary people, I wanted to scare them off. Or prick their brains. Conjugations, confabulations, conundrums. Alliteration is the enticement. Assonance the astonishment. It's the pons asinorum. The fifth postulate. The non-Euclidean dimension. Lobachevski rules! The white rabbit. The red pill. The Bead Game. Magister Ludi. Three card Monte on a card table house of cards.The Ithaca chapter of Ulysses. Energy is eternal delight. A hundred heavenly hosts hurling hosannas in the Highest. Te Deum. Tedium?

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Dear Mr. Carney,

My name is Judd Apatow. I was one of the producers of "The Larry Sanders Show". I currently produce a television program entitled "Freaks and Geeks". It is a realistic look at high school life in the early nineteen eighties. I just wanted you to know that I have been inspired by your books about John Cassavetes. I came to his work late in my creative life, but I find him to be an important influence. Our program was recently cancelled by NBC, probably because it did not follow the rules of storytelling that television follows religiously. While far from Cassavetes like in style, our show was shot in a way that allowed the actors a lot of freedom to improvise and our stories were not afraid of showing shades of our charcters that led to deeper truths.

Thank you for calling attention to this incredible body of work. Whenever I read your books it inspires me to look deeper into myself and to find the courage to risk being bad in my attempt to seek honesty in my work.

Sincerely,

Judd Apatow

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Dear Ray,

Hello, cub reporter Adam Shea here with the scoop on the soundtrack tampering that we discussed last night. I did some checking and have some interesting findings to report. The tapes that I'll be referring to are the early 90's Touchstone Video releases (which I'll call the old tapes), and last year's "re mastered letter boxed" tapes released as "The John Cassavetes Collection" (I'll call these the new tapes). In the love scene immediately following the argument after the spaghetti breakfast, the old tape has Puccini on the sound track. On the new tape this same scene has Bo Harwood piano music. I am absolutely certain of this. Same scene, same edit, different music. Strangely, the earlier scene where Mabel is waiting for Nick to return for their date has the same opera music on both tapes. So the Puccini hasn't been totally excised from the new tape, but is definitely missing from the love scene.

The Chinese Bookie thing is a little trickier. Last night Chris Chase said that he thought there had been music added to the scene where Comso returns to the club, walks down the street to a cafe and meets the woman that auditions for him. The same Harwood keyboard music is on both tapes, but is used differently on each. On the old tape the music is very subtle and quiet, and fades in and out of audibility. The music can be heard faintly as the limo pulls up to the curb and Cosmo gets out, but fades out as he walks to the cafe. In the new tape the music is much louder and continues at a constant volume until Cosmo sits down. The opening shots of the film where Comso is standing outside the club also have this disparate volume level between the tapes. The music on the old tape is very subtle and at times almost subliminal, while on the new tape it's quite loud and very jarring to my ears after having seen the old tape so many times. This volume disparity seems to be consistent throughout the film, and I don't know which version to trust as being authoritative.

There is also a problem with the image quality on the new tapes. In certain respects the colors are much richer and deeper on the new tapes, but they are also so dark in some spots that you can't see much of the image. An example that springs to mind is the scene at the beginning at the bar where Nick argues on the phone. Most of the shots of the workers are impossibly dark (compared to the old tape), and Hugh Hurd in particular all but vanishes." The Cassavetes Collection" also included Minnie, Opening Night, and Mikey & Nickey. I haven't looked at these as closely as I have the others so I'm not sure if these tapes have problems as well. I think I'm going to take a closer look a Minnie and Opening Night this evening after Lancelot is over.

If you need more details or can think of particular trouble spots to look for on the tapes please call me anytime. I'm extremely eager to provide any and all assistance and help to you and your work that I can. Today I was sort of half jokingly (but half seriously) thinking about how there should some kind of "Carney's Raiders" type of advocacy group. If there's anything that I can do- endless pestering letters and e-mails, chaining myself to the theater door if that fucking Chinese Bookie remake actually happens, embassy bombings, whatever- I'm game. You lead and I'll follow.
You seemed a little beleaguered and exhausted when you were talking about the C on C book on Friday. I'm assuming that you know that what you do is important, and I'm sure(or at least hoping) that you get a lot of positive support to counteract the negative. But I also know that your work must be extremely hard and maybe even enervating at times, and that it might be hard to always keep sight of whether or not you're getting your message through. WHAT YOU DO IS IMPORTANT. Any body that tells you otherwise is wrong. I find endless inspiration and energy in your work. I don't always hear what I want. It's not always easy. But it's important and has enormous and lasting value. Never let the discouragement of all the fuckers that wish you would just shut up and go away let you lose sight of the importance of what you're doing. Keep pushing. Keep telling the truth.

Adam

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And just for laughs, and with no disrespect to the great Eric Clapton, also see this.