I haven't seen A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), Husbands (1970), or Faces (1968).Anybody seen those last five and what did you think of them?
The only two movies of his that I've liked so far are The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) and Gloria (1980), I hated Too Late Blues (1961) thought it was quite tedious,
Too Late Blues is a film Cassavates himself detests. It was a failed flirt with the Hollywood studio system, and is as result an odd bastard. But he made another troubled and failed Hollywood film (for Stanley Kramer) with A Child Is Waiting before he learned that his kind of cinema could only be done outside the system.So if you like the other 2 you can try some more of his later films.
The Silent Partner (1978) – 8/10. Eliott Gould is a bank teller who one Christmas season gets tipped to the fact that Santa Claus (Christopher Plummer) is going to stick the place up. Gould arranges matters so that the cash is diverted; Plummer gets away with little, the lion-share stays with Gould. The perfect crime, except Plummer immediately understands what has happened and begins terrorizing Gould for the money. Gould, unable to go to the police, emerges from milquetoast mode and terrorizes back. The partnership is forged and cannot be dissolved until one of the men is dead. This is such a wonderfully plotted film that when the story goes wrong near the end the flaw is glaringly obvious. Gould agrees to give up the money, but Plummer has to come back to the bank to get it. No way would Plummer expose himself to such a risk—without further enticement. Gould should have come up with some kind of B.S. to sweeten the pot: by coming in a second time, he could have said, Plummer would double his money (maybe there was going to be a big deposit on that day or something). Without some such inducement, Plummer needn’t run any risks, just insist Gould deliver the already stolen money or else. Nonetheless, the film is a lot of fun, the very best example of a neo-noir I can think of.
Thanks for your words on D.B. I don't think I've ever seen the whole thing and should give it a shot. Anyway, your comments got me interested.