Filmfestival Rotterdam
33rd International Film Festival Rotterdam 21 januari - 1 februari
2004
PERSBERICHT 7 januari 2004
Legendarische eerste versie van Cassavetes' SHADOWS in Rotterdam
De legendarische 'verloren' eerste versie van John Cassavetes'
speelfilmdebuut Shadows (1958) zal tijdens het komende IFFR, voor het
eerst in meer dan vijfenveertig jaar, te zien zijn als onderdeel van
het festivalprogramma 'Cinema Regained'. De Amerikaanse universitair
docent en auteur Ray Carney, die de eerste versie terugvond, zal de
film inleiden. Jonas Mekas omschreef SHADOWS in zijn 'Movie Journal'
column in 'The Village Voice' van 27 januari 1960 als 'the most
frontier-breaking American feature in at least a decade.'
De eerste versie van Cassavetes' SHADOWS, in 1958 slechts drie maal
vertoond in het Newyorkse Paris Theatre, werd vervangen door een
tweede versie die in 1959 in première ging. Deze tweede versie is
bekend als een van de mijlpalen van de Amerikaanse onafhankelijke film
en als het debuut van een belangrijk vertegenwoordiger van de 'beat
generation'-filmmakers. Maar filmmaker en auteur Jonas Mekas schreef
in een fameus commentaar: 'I have no doubt that whereas the second
version of SHADOWS is just another Hollywood film..however
inspired..the first version is the most frontier-breaking American
feature film in at least a decade.' De eerste versie werd ondertussen
als verloren beschouwd en groeide in de loop van veertig jaren uit tot
een legende, de 'heilige graal' van de onafhankelijke filmkunst.
Dankzij een jarenlange inspanning van Ray Carney, expert op het gebied
van Cassavetes' leven en oeuvre, is de eerste versie teruggevonden en
zal door hem worden gepresenteerd als hoogtepunt van het IFFR 2004
programma 'Cinema Regained'. Deze herontdekking stelt hedendaagse
toeschouwers in staat zelf te beoordelen in hoeverre Mekas'
bemerkingen terecht zijn. Ook vormt SHADOWS een uitdagende combinatie
met de wereldpremière van STAR SPANGLED TO DEATH van 'Filmmaker in
Focus' Ken Jacobs. Deze laatste film is eveneens voor een belangrijk
deel gemaakt in de late jaren vijftig en toont deels soortgelijke New
Yorkse 'beat' figuren.
Het 'Cinema Regained' programma van het IFFR is gewijd aan
restauraties en herontdekkingen, aan documentaires over filmen en
filmmakers en aan films die de filmkunst van destijds hergebruiken en
opnieuw tot leven brengen. 'Cinema Regained' is een festivalprogramma
dat de mijlpalen van de onafhankelijke film zoals het festival die
ondersteunt, opnieuw op het grote doek vertoond. Zoals SHADOWS; de
korte films van Santiago Alvarez, het meesterwerk DRAGON GATE INN van
King Hu uit 1966 (samen met Tsai Ming-liangs GOODBYE, DRAGON INN uit
2003) en DLIGHT, een serie compilaties van Nederlandse experimentele
films van 1960 tot heden. 'Cinema Regained' omvat verder onder meer
Thom Andersens recente documentaire LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF in
combinatie met de zich eveneens in die stad afspelende
semi-documentaire THE EXILES van Kent Mackenzie uit 1961.
Een ander hoogtepunt uit het 'Cinema Regained' programma is het
optreden van Peter Kubelka. Deze bekende avantgarde filmmaker zal de
internationale première presenteren van zijn nieuwe film DICHTUNG UND
WAHRHEIT (POETRY AND TRUTH). Kubelka: 'De film bevat een verzameling
fragmenten van reclamefilms die een gezamenlijk element hebben: ze
tonen acteurs net voordat ze beginnen, en het moment daarna wanneer ze
dat gaan spelen wat hen door de regisseur is opgedragen.' Peter
Kubelka staat bekend om zijn gepassioneerde, belezen en
ongebruikelijke lezingen over cinema, vaak gegeven in combinatie met
eigen werk. In 'Cinema Regained' combineert Kubelka DICHTUNG UND
WAHRHEIT met een lezing die zogenaamde found-footage-cinema koppelt
aan de prehistorische opkomst van alle kunst, door middel van gevonden
objecten of gebeurtenissen door de natuur geschapen.
(einde persbericht)
Noten aan de redactie: Ter nadere informatie vindt u als bijlage bij
dit persbericht teksten over SHADOWS door Jonas Mekas en door Ray
Carney. Informatie: IFFR Press Office, Bert-Jan Zoet / Anne Wijnen
Tel. +31.10.890.90.90; Fax: +31.10.890.90.91; Email:
press@filmfestivalrotterdam.com
Bijlage bij IFFR persbericht dd 7 januari 2004
Press Release by Ray Carney Rediscovery: The legendary lost first
version of John Cassavetes' Shadows
Noted critic and independent filmmaker Jonas Mekas on the first
version of Shadows -- an excerpt from his January 27, 1960 Village
Voice "Movie Journal" column
" I have no further doubt that
whereas the second version of Shadows is just another Hollywood film -
however inspired, at moments - the first version is the most
frontier-breaking American feature film in at least a decade. Rightly
understood and properly presented, it could influence and change the
tone, subject matter, and style of the entire independent American
cinema.... Again, I stress that I am talking about the first version
of Shadows only. I shall be relentless in stressing this point. For I
want to be certain not to be misunderstood. I have been put into a
situation, one in which a film critic can get into once in a lifetime
(I hope). I have been praising and supporting Shadows from the very
beginning ... writing about it, pulling everybody into it, making
enemies because of it (including the director of the film himself) -
and here I am ridiculously betrayed by an "improved" version of that
film, with the same title but different footage, different setting,
story, attitude, character, style, everything: a bad commercial film,
with everything that I was praising completely destroyed. So everybody
says: What was that critic raving about? Is he blind or something?
Therefore I repeat and repeat: It is the first version I was and am
still talking about.... I have no space for a detailed analysis and
comparison of the two versions. It is enough to say that the
difference is radical. The first Shadows could be considered as
standing at the opposite pole from Citizen Kane; it makes as strong an
attempt at catching life as Citizen Kane was making an attempt at
destroying life and creating art.... In any case [the first version
of] Shadows breaks with the official staged cinema, with made-up
faces, with written scripts, with plot continuities. Even its
inexperience in editing, sound, and camera work becomes part of its
style, the roughness that only life (and Alfred Leslie's paintings)
have. It doesn't prove anything, it doesn't even want to say anything,
but really it tells more than 10 or 110 other recent American films.
The tones and rhythms of a new America are caught in [the first
version of] Shadows for the very first time....
Shadows has caught more life than Cassavetes himself realizes. Perhaps
now he is too close to his work, but I am confident he will change his
mind. And the sooner the second version is taken out of circulation,
the better. Meanwhile, the bastardized version is being sent to
festivals and being pushed officially, while the true film, the first
Shadows is being treated as a step-child. It is enough to make one
sick and shut up."
A personal statement by Ray Carney
Shortly before Cassavetes' death, I had several remarkable
conversations with him about his life and his work. I call them his
"Rosebud" conversations because he told me things that he had never
said before publicly.
We covered a lot of territory in the course of our wide-ranging
discussion, but one of the things I was most interested in was the
history of alternative versions of his films, and of his first film
Shadows in particular.
We talked about the fact that Shadows had been filmed twice, with the
first version being filmed in 1957 and screened in the fall of 1958
for invited audiences at three free midnight screenings at New York's
Paris Theater. He told me that following those initial screenings, he
decided to re-shoot the movie, jettisoning much of the earlier
footage, and inserting large chunks of new material in its place. In
1959 he deleted approximately two-thirds of the footage from the
original print, replaced it with newly shot material, and withdrew the
earlier print from circulation. The new print that resulted, the
second version of the film, premiered in Amos Vogel's Cinema 16 series
on November 11, 1959, and is the one that comes down to us today.
When I asked Cassavetes about the earlier print, he said that he had
no idea where it was and doubted that it survived. As far as he knew
it no longer existed. The odds of survival after almost fifty years
were made all the more unlikely considering the modesty of his
filmmaking operation in the late 1950s. Cassavetes told me that he had
only had enough money to make a single 16mm print of the first version
and that the earlier negative had been cut up when the second version
was assembled.
Cassavetes died a few years later. Given that the 1957-1958 print of
Shadows - and not the 1959 version - was really his first feature
film, I set myself the task of determining once and for all if the
earlier print survived. I telephoned or emailed hundreds of
universities, film archives, collectors, critics, and others who had
had any connection with the early screenings to find out if they had
any leads as to the whereabouts of the first version. I interviewed
every surviving member of the cast and crew. I made announcements at
events I moderated. I traveled to dozens of cities visiting people who
thought they might have information about the early print.
The monograph I wrote about Shadows for the British Film Institute
"Film Classics" series and my self-published "A Detective Story: Going
Inside the Heart and Mind of the Artist" (available on my web site)
summarize the state of my research as of 2001. At the point I wrote
both pieces, nothing had came of my efforts; although two years ago, I
did find a lost "long" print of another Cassavetes' film, Faces, in
the course of looking for the Shadows print. This discovery is also
described on my web site.
Finally, in November 2003, after seventeen years of searching, nearly
a thousand phone calls, letters, and e-mail inquiries, face-to-face
conversations with close to 100 people, and trips to more than a dozen
cities, the lost print was located. It consists of two reels of 16mm
black-and-white Kodak Safety Film with optical sound. The first reel
is 36 minutes long; the second 42 minutes, making a total running time
of 78 minutes. The 16mm print itself is too fragile and rare to be
screened, but a video transfer has been made and can be projected.
Forty-five years after the creation of the first version, and fifteen
years after Cassavetes' death, the world will at last have a chance to
see his first film, the movie that preceded the current print of
Shadows - and to decide whether Jonas Mekas was right.
My Cassavetes web site, my Cassavetes on Cassavetes book, and my
Shadows BFI monograph contain detailed descriptions of many of the
things Cassavetes said to me about the film and more information about
the two versions.
About the discoverer: Ray Carney is recognized as the world's expert
on the life and work of John Cassavetes. He is Professor of Film and
American Studies at Boston University in the United States, and is the
author of five books about Cassavetes, including the critically
acclaimed The Films of John Cassavetes, Cassavetes on Cassavetes, John
Cassavetes: The Adventure of Insecurity, and the Shadows volume in the
BFI "Film Classics" series.
Prof. Carney is also the author of many other books on other
filmmakers, including Frank Capra, Carl Dreyer, and Mike Leigh. He is
a frequent guest speaker at film festivals and special events devoted
to American independent filmmaking. His next book is a history of
American independent filmmaking titled: The Reel Independent Movement:
Beyond the Hype.
Contact information: Ray Carney is available for interviews by email
at: rcarney@bu.edu.
(end of statement by Ray Carney)
International Film Festival Rotterdam Press Department: Bert-Jan Zoet,
Press Officer Anne Wijnen, Assistent Press Officer & Press Desk
Coordinator Gert-Jan Bleeker and Julia de Boer, Press Accreditations
P.O. Box 21696, 3001 AR ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands tel + 31 10 890 90
90; fax + 31 10 890 90 91; email press@filmfestivalrotterdam.com;
http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com IFFR 2004: Wed, Jan. 21 - Sun,
Febr. 1, 2004
Contact
Bert-Jan Zoet
Bert-Jan Zoet
Press officer
phone: +31 10 890 90 90
fax:+31 10 890 90 91
e-mail: press@
filmfestivalrotterdam.com