Speaking of Cassavetes-- another pair of parallel excerpts from Stop Smiling 34 (a solid issue - cover to cover).
Stop Smiling: What was Charles Mingus' role in the soundtrack for Shadows?
Al Ruban: Mingus worked on a score but he was more organized than John wanted. And I don't think that was apparent to John in the beginning. He did all this music, and John loved it, but he really wanted control. John needed to improvise some things because he couldn't communicate what he wanted to get across.
SS: So who did the saxophone work that's in the film?
AR: Shafi Hadi, who had recently been released from prison. John got him to do some saxophone solos. I remember how they recorded them. John would act out everything, and in the sound booth. Shafi tried to interpret on his saxophone what John was emotionally telling him what to do. He behaved with Shafi in a very emotional way, didn't explain anything, just acted it out. John would be on the floor, jumping around. And it worked very well, because you hear a lot of it in the film. Unfortunately, Shafi died at an early age, but he was a very, very good saxophonist.
excerpted from Nicolas Rapold's interview with Al Ruban and Seymour Cassel on the subject of John Cassavetes.
as published in Issue 34 (April 2008) of Stop Smiling magazine.
----------------------------------------------------
SS: With the standardization of test audiences, Hollywood directors seemingly can't be trusted anymore. In Cassavetes' day, he could make a completely improvised film.
Ken Vandermark: He would still make the kinds of films he made then if he was making them now, just because of the kind of person he was. But he was struggling his whole career to get those films made. He was unbelievably important as a director, and even he couldn't get the backing to get the films made. Cassavetes is one of the most important American directors.
excerpted from Jim Dempsey's conversation with Ken Vandermark.
as published in Issue 34 (April 2008) of Stop Smiling magazine.
No comments:
Post a Comment