John Cassavetes lets difficult people remain difficult, and we value the tenderness that comes from watching them closely. His patience with actors can test ours, but Gloria makes a persuasive case for staying through the quarrels.
Fi1m perspective
In Gloria (1980), a boy being pursued by the Mafia still finds time for tantrums. John Cassavetes lets John Adames's Phil be inconvenient, even when the thriller might prefer him to keep quiet and be rescued. We found his outbursts unexpectedly touching because danger has not made him any less of a child. Gena Rowlands's Gloria has to cope with him as well as protect him, and her impatience makes their growing affection believable.
His directing began with the partly improvised Shadows (1959). In Faces (1968), extended, naturalistic scenes examined a marriage breaking down. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) brought his concern with character into a crime story, before Gloria gave it a more conventional thriller shape. By Love Streams (1984), fractured family relationships were still occupying him.
His close-ups, long takes and handheld camerawork favour small gestures and pauses over getting on with the plot. The apparent looseness comes within structured scenes, with space for spontaneous behaviour. In Gloria, that means letting the quarrels take up time that a more hurried thriller would give to pursuit. Looking after Phil is allowed to be exhausting, and Cassavetes does not require Rowlands to make Gloria agreeable before we can care about her.
The trouble is that the chase needs attention too. Cassavetes the writer gives the gangsters clearer jobs than personalities, and the threat can feel arranged to provide Gloria with another occasion to take charge. The shifts from intimate quarrelling to crime-film exaggeration do not always work. At 122 minutes, Gloria spends too long on the weaker material, even though the exchanges between its leads remain worth following.
That patience is less rewarding when exchanges grow repetitive, as they do in Husbands (1970). We would not defend every extra minute as necessary to understanding the people on screen. Start with Gloria for Rowlands and Adames; choose another thriller if a tightly managed escape is the main attraction.
Biography
John Cassavetes was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He was born in New York City on 9 December 1929 and died in Los Angeles on 3 February 1989.
Cassavetes directed and wrote Gloria (1980). His other films as director and writer include Shadows (1960), Faces (1968), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), Opening Night (1977) and Love Streams (1984). He frequently collaborated with his wife, the actress Gena Rowlands.
He trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and worked as an actor in television and studio films before establishing himself in independent cinema.
