Shadows (film)

Infobox Film
name = Shadows


image_size =
caption =
director = John Cassavetes
producer = Maurice McEndree
writer = John Cassavetes
narrator =
starring = Ben Carruthers
Lelia Goldoni
Hugh Hurd
Anthony Ray
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor =
released = November 11, 1959
runtime = 78 min. (1957 version)
87 min. (1959 version)
country = United States
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0053270

"Shadows" (1959) is an improvisational film about interracial relations during the Beat Generation years in New York City, and was written and directed by John Cassavetes. The film stars Ben Carruthers, Lelia Goldoni, Hugh Hurd, and Anthony Ray. Many film scholars consider "Shadows" one of the highlights of independent film in the U.S.

Production

Cassavetes shot the film twice, once in 1957 and again in 1959. The second version is the one Cassavetes favored; though he did screen the first version, he eventually lost track of the print, and for decades it was believed to have been lost or destroyed. In 2004, after over a decade of searching, Cassavetes scholar and Boston University professor Ray Carney announced that his discovery of the only print of the original version of the film, found in a box on the subway before being bought with some other "lost and found" objects.cite web
url = http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1151818,00.html
title = The Searcher
accessdate = 2007-08-24
last = Carney
first = Ray
authorlink = Ray Carney
year = 2004
month = February
publisher = Guardian Unlimited] The film Carney managed to find was a pristine copy that apparently had only been screened two or three times before it was lost.cite web
url = http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/discoveries/shadowsquest.shtml
title = Lost and Found Department: Chasing Shadows
accessdate = 2007-08-24
last = Carney
first = Ray
year = 2004
publisher = Ray Carney] Carney has posted three video clips from "Shadows I" for viewing on his website to verify the film's condition and indicate the presence of a complete credits sequence, which demonstrates that the version he possesses is a final version, not a rough assembly.cite web
url = http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/aboutrc/letters60.shtml#vids
title = Letters from students and artists, announcements of events and screenings, and miscellaneous observations about life and art
accessdate = 2007-08-24
last = Carney
first = Ray
page = p. 60
year = 2007
publisher = Ray Carney]

Reception

Film critic Leonard Maltin calls Cassavetes' second version of "Shadows" "a watershed in the birth of American independent cinema". The movie was shot with a 16 mm handheld camera on the streets of New York. Much of the dialogue was improvised, and the crew were class members or volunteers. The jazz-infused score, some of which is composed by jazz legend Charles Mingus, underlines the movie's Beat Generation theme of alienation and raw emotion. The movie's plot features an interracial relationship, which was still a taboo subject in Eisenhower-era America.

In 1993, "Shadows" was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

References

External links

*
* [http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=251&eid=375&section=essay Criterion Collection essay by Gary Giddins]
* [http://www.nickschager.com/nsfp/2004/03/shadows_1959_b.html Nick Schager Review of Shadows]
* [http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/discoveries/shadowsquest.shtml The quest for the first version of Shadows]
* [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C0CE0DD133DE733A25751C2A9659C946091D6CF 1961 N.Y. Times review]