Cast

Gena Rowlands, John Cassavetes, Diahnne Abbott, Seymor Cassel, Margaret Abbot, Jakob Shaw, Joan Foley, Risa Martha Blewitt, Doe Avedon

awards

Berlin IFF 1984 – Golden Bear, FIPRESCI award, Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists 1984 – best actor in foreign film, best actress in foreign film

Film description

Love Streams is Cassavetes’ official farewell to his audience. When, in one of the film’s final shots, Cassavetes, as the filmic Robert Harmon, looks directly at the camera and waves, even the crew perceived it as good-bye. While shooting Love Streams, Cassavetes was well aware of his physical state and that no company would insure him for another movie. Although he still worked very hard and held on diligently, the damage wrought by hepatitis in the late 1960s was slowly ravaging his body.

The movie tells the story of two siblings. Sarah Lawson (Gena Rowlands) is a housewife, who does everything possible to get her family (husband and daughter) back. They left her because they could no longer stand the way she perceived and reacted to the world. Her brother (Cassavetes) is a writer. He, on the other hand, does everything possible to avoid any entanglements, being a voyeuristic type who watches and describes other people’s lives, earning vast money from his novels.

When compared with the rest of Cassavetes’ oeuvre, the filmmaker seems to ask a very important and bold question: was he correct in the way he lived, following his artistic vision? He provides no direct answer, but his presentation of Sarah and Robert’s lives indicates Cassavetes’ was likely unforgiving toward himself.

Elżbieta Durys