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SHADOWS
From John Cassavetes: Five Films

Review by Ed Nguyen

Stars: Lelia Goldoni, Anthony Ray, Hugh Hurd, Ben Carruthers, Rupert Crosse
Director: John Cassavetes
Audio: English monaural
Subtitles: English
Video: Black & white, full-frame 1.33:1
Studio: Criterion
Features: Lelia Goldoni and Seymour Cassel interviews, workshop footage, restoration demonstration, stills gallery, trailer
Length: 81 minutes
Release Date: September 21, 2004

"Filmmaking although unquestionably predicated on profit and loss...cannot survive without individual expression." - John Cassavetes

Film ***

In the mid-1950's, to encourage young actors, John Cassavetes began running a small acting studio in Manhattan.  During a regular workshop session, Cassavetes recognized in one particular improvised skit the premise for a potentially good film.  He used the basis of that skit to develop a plot and, by 1957, had begun filming what would eventually to become his directorial debut, Shadows.  Made on an eventual budget of just $40,000, the film featured many of the young students from Cassavetes’ acting workshop.  In fact, many of these actors would even use their real first names in the film.

Shadows offers an exploration of the interpersonal dynamics within an interracial family - two brothers and one sister.  The eldest brother is Hugh (Hugh Hurd), a long-time, struggling dark-skinned jazz singer with aspirations of hitting it big someday.  He has faith in his cheerful manager, Rupert (Rupert Crosse), who remains optimistic though they must frequently travel afar to find singing gigs for Hugh.  The second brother, the light-skinned Bennie (Ben Carruthers), is a James Dean-esque drifter still searching for some purpose to his life. Affecting a rebellious demeanor, he is occasionally antagonistic, getting into unwarranted conflicts or fights.  Their younger sister, light-skinned Lelia (the extremely photogenic Lelia Goldoni, resembling a young Louise Brooks), is an impressionable girl upon the brink of womanhood. 

At the film’s core is the rocky relationships between Lelia and her suitors.  David, the first suitor, is acquainted with Lelia’s brothers, yet she finds him a bit boorish, opting instead for the younger and more exciting Tony (Anthony Ray).  In truth, Tony is shallow and probably not interested in anything more than a one-night stand, or at least nothing beyond a superficial relationship.  Not surprising, when Tony discovers Lelia’s mixed lineage in an unexpected meeting with her brother Hugh, the encounter does not go well, revealing a degree of bigotry in Tony’s character.  The last suitor, Davey, is polite and courteous but Lelia treats him poorly in an effort to incite jealousy in Tony.  Of the three love interests, Davey is the best suitor, a fact that does not dawn upon Lelia until perhaps during a dance sequence near the film’s conclusion.

In fact, all three siblings will eventually come to a realization that the direction in their lives needs to be changed.  One fight too many causes Bennie to question his motive for being rebellious; he resolves to abandon his drifting ways.  Hugh finds a new optimism within himself when his usually cheerful Rupert, frustrated by years of non-success, nearly throws in the towel; ironically, it is then Hugh who must encourage Rupert not to abandon their dream.  Lelia, of course, learns a valuable lesson about race and relationships, that while there is acceptance among her family and friends, others (particularly in this period of the 1950-60's) may not yet share those sentiments.

Shadows in general follows the lives of the three siblings over a short period of several days, offering us brief glimpses into their desires and their frustrations.  The film has a very open-ended feel to it, and its loose plotting charges the film with a sense of freshness, as the outcome of any scene or encounter cannot be easily predicted.  Dialogue flows in a very stream-of-consciousness mode, mimicking the cadences and flow of conversations in real life.  While commonplace in cinema today, these characteristics made Shadows a highly unusual film in its day.

Not surprisingly, the film's very first screening was not a success.  Shadows was simply too different from the regular Hollywood fare, and audiences were initially unsure how to interpret the film's radical new approach and free-form plot structure.  Cassavetes himself concluded that he had not yet adequately explored the essence of his film's potential emotional resonance.  Cassavetes re-shot portions of the film, removing trick angles or fancy camera shots and replacing them with additional scenes designed to focus upon the characters.

It was this second version of the film which was screened more broadly and which received a much warmer reception.  Although crude at times and certainly a bit rough at the edges, Shadows was instantly recognized as an innovative, new film in American cinema.  It employed location shooting and numerous sudden cuts, sometimes in mid-action or dialogue.  The actors, although amateuristic and clearly uncomfortable or uncertain at times before the camera, displayed a sincerity and natural behavior that provided a strong sense of spontaneity to the film.  The film's ambience was a very experimental and improvisational one (despite the fact that Shadows was actually quite carefully-scripted).  Few films in America had ever achieved this degree of authenticity.  Shadows, in braving these untested waters, would usher in a new phase in America cinema, much as the New Wave films had rejuvenated European cinema.

BONUS TRIVIA: Cassavetes has a cameo in Shadows as a pedestrian who saves Lelia from a potential molester, while Gena Rowlands appears briefly in a nightclub scene.

Video **

Shadows is generally free of debris or scratches.  Except for one early instance of a jarring frame jump, the frame is quite stable.  However, the film's image looks quite rough due to the 16mm film stock upon which the film was originally photographed; as a result, the image is generally grainier and softer than that seen in a regular 35mm film.  Nevertheless, this roughness contributes to the film's documentary-cinéma vérité style.

For this DVD, the film has been carefully restored from the original 16mm negative and a 35mm dupe negative made from a 35mm blow-up master positive (now lost).  These negatives were used to create a new composite 35mm dupe negative and, from that, a new 35mm analog restored print.  There is a restoration demonstration in the extra features section which details the time-consuming restoration done on Shadows.  The demonstration is worth a look to truly appreciate the amount of work involved!

Audio **

Shadows was recorded using very rudimentary sound equipment, and as a result, the soundtrack is often scratchy, with thin and somewhat distorted sound in the upper registers.  Ambient noise occasionally obscures the dialogue somewhat.  The original post-dubbing was uneven at times, so sound does not always match the on-screen action.  The soundtrack was cleaned during the restoration process, but the essence of the soundtrack was left intact to preserve the original intent of the film.

I want to mention the wonderfully jazzy if sparse score, which captures the atmosphere and energy of early rock 'n' roll music.  Jazz legend Charles Mingus also contributes to the fine score.

Features **

The features on this disc are short but numerous.  First is an interview (11 min.) with Lelia Goldoni.  She relates how a friend persuaded her to attend one of Cassavetes' acting classes after a New York musical dance gig fell through.  Goldoni describes the genesis of Shadows from these sessions and how she ended up being cast in the film at the young age of only eighteen.  Lastly, she mentions differences in the second version for the film after scenes were added from the re-shoot.  Regrettably, the DVD does not include the first version of Shadows.

Actor Seymour Cassel also began his film career with Shadows.  In a brief interview clip (4 min.), he describes how his first meeting with Cassavetes led to his voluntary engagement in crew duties for Shadows and afterwards his own introduction to acting.

Workshop footage (4 min.) is included of actors improvising.  The footage is entirely silent, so perhaps lip-readers can have fun figuring out what is going on.  There are also appearances by some actors from the final version of Shadows itself.

Next is a restoration demonstration (11 min.) detailing the efforts at the UCLA Film and Television Archive to restore this film while still preserving the rough visual texture and scratchy sound of the original low-budget vision.  Narrated by Ross Lipman, one of the men involved in the restoration, this featurette describes the many obstacles encountered, such as an original negative that was in an advanced state of disrepair (it required months of restoration just to enable it to be projected).  Furthermore, the restoration process was complicated by differing 1957 and 1958 versions of the film, which often led to varying contrast or image quality.  Lipman goes into great deal about the research and complex flowcharting involved and the occasional digital restoration techniques used to clean up certain shots.  Overall, this is an informative featurette revealing the degree of work required to restore many older films (and not just Criterion releases).

There is a stills gallery (68 entries) comprised of camera frames, publicity shots, and on-the-set shoots.  Snapshots are included of the recording session with Charles Mingus and his musicians, inter-cut with an anecdote about Mingus.

Lastly, the DVD includes the film's trailer, which mentions many of the rave reviews for this then-innovative and provocative film.

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