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

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