This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Let's be realistic.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

It takes an acquired taste to be comfortably and thoroughly engaged in Cassavetes' intensely disheartening dramaturgy of bourgeois ennui, FACES is irrefutably a feather in his cup, not in the least for its unsparing cinema-vérité bravura, one could only imagine watching it in front of a celluloid with those intrusive, sidling über-closeups underlined by that grainy monochrome, how different would it be from anything else in the year of 1968? Watching in on a TV screen might be a less dizzying experience and it may even lend a helping hand for the audience to become more appreciated of Cassavetes' scalpel-like dissection of an internecine relationship tangle where no one comes off as unscathed. The film takes the course roughly within one day, we are peering into the disintegration of a 12- year-old marriage between Richard Frost (Marley, who physically resembles an elder version of Cassavetes), a well-off movie financier and his younger wife Maria (Carlin), plus its immediate aftermath. What tickles the idea of divorce into Richard's mind is another woman, Jeannie Rapp (Rowlands), a classy fille de joie who is tentative by the courtship from one of her patron, whom she might also fall for. Whilst Richard visits Jeannie in her apartment with the presence of her other clients, Maria, pent-up after receiving the bolt from the blue, hangs out with her gal pals in a club and they bring back a young go-go dancer Chet (Cassel) to find some cheap solace, but the problem is always the morning after, does she have the courage to face a new day? What else can a domesticated woman do when she is going to a cast-off? The story pans out intimately in its interior-exclusive episodes, burnished by what dynamo of a cast, the film galvanizes our attention from A to Z, it is hard to tell whether the dialogue and play- off is semi-improvised or strictly script-based, but Cassavetes relentlessly presses home a brisk tension of fickleness and turns of moods through the lengthy procedures, two friends banter, jape, dance until one of them finds himself becomes an inconvenient third wheel and he snaps; the same coup-de-theater occurs almost repetitively in each episode, whether it is between Richard and Maria's abruptly disconnected duologue, or the tangible disquiet/agitation between Jeanine and her client Jim McCarthy (Avery, a wonderful chameleon), or later the macho confrontation/reconciliation between Jim and Richard. But it is the chapter where Maria and co. facing off a woman-pleasing Chef leaves the most indelible mark, for its utterly frank expose of a lonely woman's delusion and desperation under the influence of alcohol, the unsung hero here is Dorothy Gulliver's importunate Florence, you cannot help but feeling pity for her, but the pity is concomitant with a whiff of involuntary disgust. The cast is pure gold, John Marley upstages the rest with his silver fox allure so damning pungent in every line delivery and gesticulation, deceptively papers over Richard's dark streak with a winning/poignant combo of open-facedness and bluntness, only belies his shallowness and misery in the morning after as an exasperating cuckold. Ms. Cassavetes, the unparalleled Gena Rowlands drums nuances into every pore of her body and every glance she casts (also thanks to the majestically in-your-face shots to create that stunning effect). However it is two newbies who are given some legitimate Oscar love, Lynn Carlin is stripped down to her raw emotion in her film debut, which powerfully elicits Maria's clogged mental state and counterpoises its life-threatening after-effect; on the other hand, a blond and youthful Seymour Cassel beautifully oozes sex appeal and wide-eyed sophistication as an unexpectedly selfless symbol of savior to all those wrenched and dissatisfied housewives, his Chet is the diagonal counterpart of Rowland's Jeanine, only in exeunt omnes, he has to rashly flee from a window whereas she might eventually get what she wants, if one wanna write about sex politics, FACES is a gold mine. Most suitably, FACES should be ensconced as a smoldering pendant of Mike Nichols' WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, both are hell-bent in tearing down smoke and mirrors to debunk lethargy, inaction and mythomania (among many other maladies) abound in all relationships, dare you to watch them cheek by jowl!

An older man (John Marley as Richard Forst) leaves his wife (Lynn Carlin as Maria Forst) and this film tracks the fallout as he takes up with a younger escort (Gena Rowlands as Jeannie Rapp) and she takes up with a more fun-loving younger man from Detroit (Seymour Cassel as Chet). The caustic moments in this film could peel the paint off walls. The false and forced bonhomie, the hollow laughter and the empty words will rip you to pieces.The cinematography overseen by Al Ruban astonishing. The quick cuts from speakers to their interpolators keep one just a little on edge but don't detract from the tension of the movie.The writing and acting are bracing - the early scene in which Richard shows affection and laughs almost manically as he and his wife share a nice domestic scene. Just a short time later though, we see the change in mood as they lay in bed and Richard, turning away from his wife, looks cold and distant, clearly about something not as pleasant. The rapidly shifting vibe between Richard and Jeannie as he flatters her and then seems cold and cruel toward her and she tries unsuccessfully to retain some emotional distance from him. Gena Rowlands is amazing in her scenes with John Marley. She conveys hurt, playfulness, need, and love in short order.Perhaps my favorite scene is when Richard goes to Jeannie only to find her entertaining two businessmen - Jim and Joe. Both men try to remain cool, not appearing too angry while also attempting to stake their claim for Jeannie's affections. Two powerful men trying to look cool while posturing makes for great entertainment. Cassavetes script conveys the difficulty of their task.The alienation and emotional isolation of Maria's nightcap with her friends and Chet (Seymour Cassel) is also bracing. They try to cheer her up but it seems no one is really having a good time. The mood shifts wildly and no one ends up happy. Astonishing writing and acting from Dorothy Gulliver as Florence and Darlene Conley as Billie Mae, as well as an amazing depiction of heartbreak from Lynn Carlin.The final scene is also amazing for the reserved way it holds in reserve vast amounts of emotional energy. The acting, writing, directing and camera-work here speak to professionals really working at a high level. The rawness of the acting, the skittish camera-work from Ruban, and Cassavetes control over, and vision of, it all, make this a film of the highest caliber.

This is obviously not your average, everyday movie. It's some thing you could only watch at an art-house theater, so clearly this movie is not for just everyone.John Cassavetes was a sort of guerrilla film-maker. His movies never felt like it had any storyboards or were rehearsed in any way. There was never a pre-setup plan, concerning any of its camera-work or positions and the actors all also seemed to be ad-libbing at points. They were just simply shooting away, which gives the movie a very raw and authentic feeling. I think this is the foremost reason why people really like his movies. I myself can appreciate it but that doesn't mean I'm that fond or impressed with it as well.No, it's not really an easy or pleasant movie to watch. It's because the story is not really following a clear main plot line and things just seem to happen very randomly. I just simply prefer a more clear and straightforward story, since it also seemed to me that because of Cassavetes' approach, some of the sequences seemed to go on for ever and often weren't making that much sense for the story either.I can still understand the story and what Cassavetes was trying to do and tell with it. It's basically a look into married life and not about any of its peachy or happy aspects. But however, like I mentioned before, I would had been more taken by it and probably would had find the story to be a more interesting one, if it had a more straightforward story and approach to it.But yet I never hated watching this movie either. I can still definitely appreciate the way it got made and also all of the actors were a joy to watch. The movie really has some fine actors in it and I was especially fond of John Marley's performance. It were however Lynn Carlin and Seymour Cassel who received an Oscar nomination for their roles in this move.Actually it seems quite amazing to me how this movie managed to score 3 Oscar nominations, since it's such an artistic movie, that normally would hardly get ever noticed or recognized by any of the big award shows. It perhaps says something about the popularity or status of director and writer John Cassavetes at the time or how people looked at movies.For most people this movie will probably be too tough to bite through, or it simply won't be interesting enough to sit through but there is still a large crowd for these sort of movies out there. So if it sounds like it's your thing, chances are you'll probably end up loving it.7/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

In reviewing writer-director John Cassavetes' cinema verite-styled "Faces" for the New Yorker, film critic Pauline Kael was more interested in the theater audience's reaction to the picture than the picture itself. She noted that everyone in the crowd seemed to accept this "bad office party" with the utmost seriousness, as if what they were witnessing was extremely personal and important. "Faces" is probably still quite important to revolutionary filmmakers, but it doesn't feel very personal. Cassavetes views a sad, crumbling, upper-class marriage between a businessman and a housewife in Los Angeles with blank eyes. The conversation between the two is vapid and disconnected--and later, when the couple separates and he finds company with a prostitute while she brings home a gigolo, the dialogue remains flat and monotonous. Is Cassavetes trying to say that some marriages become zombie-fied to the point where no amount of conversation breaks through? The wife overdoses on pills and is rescued by the stud, but when the husband comes back and sees the bottle and the mess in the bathroom, he doesn't even ask her about it. The film is stultified by its need to be raw and uncompromising in an arty fashion (with Mount Rushmore-like close-ups of the four principals, a gambit which gets tiresome). Flickers of truth permeate the production, though it isn't very well-shot or lighted, and the editing (purposefully) allows scenes to ramble on passed their emotional peak. ** from ****