Love Streams

Truly a very "personal" Cassavetes film and also in its own way somewhat optimistic. I would perhaps use the word sentimental, although not in the usual pejorative sense. Cassavetes already knew back then that he didn't have too many years left, and without being a fan of incorporating the author's personal life into the final work, it shows in the film with his not-always-well-combined split between scenes of pessimistic despair and optimistic refusal to give up on life without love. On one hand, it’s classic Cassavetes - solitude, awkwardness, boredom, and alcohol, which gets to your head (in the film, Cassavetes occasionally reminds us of Gazzara from The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, while Gena Rowlands also reminds us of A Woman Under the Influence). On the other hand, the grotesque scenes are deliberately comedic (Rowlands and her suitcases). In between lies a middle ground of comedy, which is chilling - again, classic Cassavetes - in which the characters desperately try to convince themselves that happiness is possible. The question is: why are these relaxed scenes in the film? Probably precisely because the author somehow did not want to forget the "optimism" and hope in anticipation of the end, I think. That wouldn't be a problem if these scenes (in my opinion) didn't somewhat disrupt the tightness of the entire film and create an impression of authorial and script inconsistency, which can only be explained by pointing to something outside the film itself. (30.07.2015)

To browse the catalogue of John Cassavetes' directorial output means first of all to arm oneself with a considerable amount of patience, because getting on the wave of this distinctive author's work is quite a big nut to crack. His completely grounded yet completely crazy films are not very approachable, and although the director's last purely auteur venture, Love Streams, was made under the banner of the Cannon Group studio (known mainly for action films starring macho dudes wielding machine-guns), don't expect anything different and more accessible from him. Through Cassavetes, producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus simply wanted to validate themselves as creators of worthwhile art. Of the many films by John Cassavetes presented in Karlovy Vary in recent years, this one caught me by far the most, and yet, I am reluctant to recommend it to anyone right away. [KVIFF 2024] (04.07.2024)