{"id":2274,"date":"2023-11-08T19:19:26","date_gmt":"2023-11-08T18:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redcutcollective.com\/?p=2274"},"modified":"2024-06-24T15:29:46","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T13:29:46","slug":"open-letter-to-john-cassavetes-by-jim-jarmusch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redcutcollective.com\/?p=2274","title":{"rendered":"OPEN LETTER TO JOHN CASSAVETES BY JIM JARMUSCH"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a particular feeling I get when I\u2019m about to see one of your films\u2013an anticipation. It doesn\u2019t matter if I\u2019ve seen the film before or not (by now I think I\u2019ve seen them all at least several times) I still get that feeling. I\u2019m expecting something I seem to crave, a kind of cinematic enlightenment. As a film fan or as a filmmaker (there isn\u2019t really a clear dividing line for me anymore) I\u2019m anticipating a blast of inspiration. I want formal enlightenment. I need the secret consequences of a jump-cut to be revealed to me. I want to know how the rawness of the camera angles or the grain of the film material figures into the emotional equation. I want to learn about acting from the performances, about atmosphere from the light and locations. I\u2019m ready, fully prepared to absorb \u201ctruth at twenty-four-frames-per-second.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But the thing is this: as soon as the film begins, introduces its world to me, I\u2019m lost. The expectation of that particular enlightenment evaporates. It leaves me there in the dark, alone. Human beings now inhabit that world inside the screen. They also seem lost, alone. I watch them. I observe every detail of their movements, their expressions, their reactions. I listen carefully to what each one is saying, to the frayed edges of someone\u2019s tone of voice, the concealed mischief in the rhythm of another\u2019s speech. I\u2019m no longer thinking about acting. I\u2019m oblivious to \u201cdialogue.\u201d I\u2019ve forgotten the camera.<\/span><\/p>\n

The enlightenment I anticipated from you is being replaced by another. This one doesn\u2019t invite analysis or dissection, only observation and intuition. Instead of insights into, say, the construction of a scene, I\u2019m becoming enlightened by the sly nuances of human nature.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Your films are about love, about trust and mistrust, about isolation, joy, sadness, ecstasy and stupidity. They\u2019re about restlessness, drunkenness, resilience and lust, about humor, stubbornness, miscommunication and fear. But mostly they\u2019re about love and they take one to a far deeper place than any study of \u201cnarrative form.\u201d Yeah, you are a great filmmaker, one of my favorites. But what your films illuminate most poignantly is that celluloid is one thing and the beauty, strangeness and complexity of human experience is another.<\/span><\/p>\n

John Cassavetes, my hat is off to you. I\u2019m holding it over my heart.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

The source of the article:<\/b><\/p>\n

http:\/\/diaryofascreenwriter.blogspot.com\/jim-jarmusch-open-letter-to-john<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a particular feeling I get when I\u2019m about to see one of your films\u2013an anticipation. It doesn\u2019t matter if I\u2019ve seen the film before or not (by now I think I\u2019ve seen them all at least several times) I still get that feeling. I\u2019m expecting something I seem to crave, a kind of cinematic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redcutcollective.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redcutcollective.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redcutcollective.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redcutcollective.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redcutcollective.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2274"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/redcutcollective.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2743,"href":"https:\/\/redcutcollective.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2274\/revisions\/2743"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redcutcollective.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redcutcollective.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redcutcollective.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redcutcollective.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}