Cast

Ben Carruthers, Lelia Goldoni, Hugh Hurd, Anthony Ray, Dennis Sallas, Tom Reese, David Pokitillow, Rupert Crosse, David Jones, Victoria Vargas, Seymour Cassel

awards

Venice IFF 1960 – Pasinetti award

Film description

John Cassavetes shot Shadows, his first independent, film inspired by young actors’ workshops and his distaste for the Hollywood formula. During Jean Shepherd’s night radio show, Cassavetes was to discuss Martin Ritt’s latest production On the Waterfront (1957), in which he plays one of the leads. Instead, he criticized the classical system and spun visions about what real cinema should be. Shepherd doubted the possibility of collecting money for that kind of project. Cassavetes countered that if common people wanted to see their lives on screen they should finance the pictures themselves. After the show, the station collected $2,500 from listeners for the future film. At the time, Cassavetes and friends ran acting workshops in New York, which became the perfect source for the film’s actors. Shadows is about three siblings; the eldest brother is a typical Afro-American, but the younger brother and sister are mulattoes who can pass as white. Showing a few days from their New York lives in the late 1950s, Cassavetes treats the racial issue casually, concentrating instead on entering adulthood and taking responsibility. Using his scant filmmaking experience and, as he claimed, managing to make every possible mistake while shooting, Cassavetes ultimately produced Shadows, often considered the best film of the American New Wave.

Elżbieta Durys