Fan Forum - View Single Post - John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands Appreciation: "Dynamite, on screen and off"

**Crystal Clear** · 04-21-2021, 03:40 PM

The C a s s a v e t e s Family Appreciation Thread #1
{ John, Gena, Nick, Alexandra and Zoe }

"We keep learning how to play together,
so I can step on her toes gently and she can step on mine
and we can make a lot of noise."

~ John about him and Gena, Playboy [1971]

[source]

"I believe that any two people who disagree should really go as far as they can, and I think we do:
screaming, yelling, petty acts of hostility and cruelty — but it’s all meaningless.
It’s meaningless, if that essential love is there.
Like a rubber band that you stretch out, no matter how far you pull it — and even if it stings snapping back — it returns, the love reappears.”

~ John about him and Gena, Playboy

[+]

Joint Films
+ A Child is Waiting (1963)
+ Faces (1968)
+ Machine Gun McCain (1969)
+ Minnie and Moskowitz (1971)
+ A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
+ Two-Minute Warning (1976)
+ Opening Night (1977)
+ Gloria (1980)
+ Tempest (1982)
+ Love Streams (1984)

"John was always thinking a great deal ahead of us. He loved and adored actors.
I like knowing that there are people out there who admire the work we did together, and still consider John an example of how this can be done.
And he still is. He still is an example."

~ Gena about John, RogerEbert.com [2016]

"My dad was dead for a number of years before I made my first movie. We never really talked film theory.
My experience with him was more along the lines of how to be a man, how to be yourself;
How to free yourself from what society tells you to do, how to release yourself as an artist.
In no way shape or form can I compare myself with him, because a guy like him comes along every hundred years.
You must be satisfied to think the way you think and explore things in the manner that you think. In that position I’m much more like mom than dad.
We’re probably more reflective; our thought-processes probably occur in a quieter way than John’s. John’s thoughts exploded out of his body.
He was a wildly entertaining guy. I’m very, very lucky to have him as a father."

~ John and Gena's son, Nick Cassavetes (director of 'The Notebook'), to Filmic Passion [2007]

Articles
"A love that always snapped back"
"Fiery and tempestuous... One of cinema's great husband-wife partnerships"
"The king and queen of independent cinema"
"The core of Gena's best work is a series of films she did with her husband"
"Each other's muse"

"While we were waiting to shoot, Roman (Polanski) was discoursing about the impossibility of long-term monogamy given the brevity of a man's sexual attraction to any woman.
An impassioned John Cassavetes responded that Roman knew nothing about women, or relationships, and that he was more attracted than ever to his wife, Gena Rowlands.
Roman stared at him and blinked a few times, and for once, had no reply."

~ Mia Farrow on filming 'Rosemary's Baby', in her book What Falls Away: A Memoir [1997]

Fans
1. Crystal Clear (Gwen)