Director John Cassavetes forgoes conventional style in this hard-bitten examination of a marriage, letting his actors tell the story through dialogue and their Faces to refreshing effect. Read critic reviews
Faces
1968, Drama, 2h 10m
26 Reviews 5,000+ RatingsWhat to know
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Faces Photos
Movie Info
Middle-aged suburban husband Richard (John Marley) abruptly tells his wife, Maria (Lynn Carlin), that he wants a divorce. As Richard takes up with a younger woman (Gena Rowlands), Maria enjoys a night on the town with her friends and meets a younger man (Seymour Cassel). As the couple and those around them confront a seemingly futile search for what they've lost -- love, excitement, passion -- this classic American independent film explores themes of aging and alienation.
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Rating: R
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Genre: Drama
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Original Language: English
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Director: John Cassavetes
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Producer: John Cassavetes, Maurice McEndree
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Writer: John Cassavetes
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Release Date (Theaters): original
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Release Date (Streaming):
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Runtime:
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Distributor: Orion Pictures, Pioneer Entertainment
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Sound Mix: Mono
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Aspect Ratio: 35mm
Cast & Crew
Critic Reviews for Faces
Audience Reviews for Faces
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Cassavetes' probing look at dissolving marriages in the face of suburban malaise may be overlong and excessive, but it's unflinchingly honest at every turn. He's the master of letting scenes develop while simultaneously deconstructing them. Faces may not be his best film, but his directorial prowess is on full display. Cinema verite at its best.
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This might be my fave John Cassavetes picture. "Faces" is a painful look at the breakdowns of marriage and the breakdown of how people connect and separate through embaressment, lost, and regret. John Marley plays a business exe, has everything in life except how to love. He tells his wife(Lynn Carlin) he wants a divorce, leaves her to be with a hooker (Gena Rowlands) Carlin's character doesn't take the news well, goes to a go-go nightclub with her girlfriends, meets a fresh young hipster (Seymour Cassel) Carlin and Cassel scenes is a powerhouse that must have been exhausting to shoot over and over. If only society wouldn't have to make things so complicated in life we would love each other and be better in relationships a whole lot more.
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Cassavetes' first endeavor into the world of marriage, with his second feature film, yielded a humane glimpse into the lives of two impossibly unhappy people who think they understand happiness. The husband believes he understands that a fourteen year marriage, security, and repetition makes for an unhappy person, and so he leaves his wife in the middle of the night to fall into the arms of a younger woman. The wife believes she is happy already, and though shocked by her husband's request, knows to find it elsewhere while she still can. Both of them journey back into the night to find people to give them their satisfaction, their happiness, but sadly they both find that the crumbling of a decade long marriage does not relinquish them from one another. What comes of the wide scope and interesting subject matter covered, is a film that speaks about how uncomfortable we all are when we're placed in our separate boxes, and how happiness is relative and finite. The camera follows each of them as they find others to spend the night with. Richard (Marley) falls back in with a group of people who think they're completely different than anyone else, and have found happiness in greed, sex, and wealth. Jeannie (Rapp) finds appeal in alcohol, being out with other women, and youth. Both husband and wife believe that being with someone younger predicates happiness, and that decision proves fatal to one and heartbreaking to the other. Cassavetes made a film that is ungodly uncomfortable to watch from beginning to end. It is the epitome of people going through a mid-life crisis, though Jeannie is only putting on a show for her husband to show she doesn't care. Neither of them finds what they're looking for by the end of the film, and both probably regret the actions they took the night before, but it seems that neither will admit anything either. In the last scene we're left with disillusionment as both find themselves changed by the night before, but remain silent and pensive. It's clear that Cassavetes wants us to examine ourselves, and what we perceive as happiness, as romance, but not in such a one sided approach as society has dictated. Though many characters ramble and it feels inconsistent at times, it is a good portrait of a couple who have lost their way.
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An excellent piece of cinema. It has an almost documentary style which makes you feel as if you are eavesdropping on real people in real situations. This of course is down to the brilliant acting, which is so raw and powerful. Cassavetes style won't be for everyone, but it's worth sitting through the 2 hours plus just for the acting alone.
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