>Who, or what, is Cassevettes?
John Cassevettes was a filmmaker who worked in the 60s and 70s and who made all of his films outside Hollywood, both financially and artistically. His movie Faces has subject matter similar to American Beauty: troubled marriages, dissatisfaction with life and with work, etc. Unlike American Beauty, though, Faces didn't strive for a social statement but artistic one. Imo, by accomplishing the latter he also made the former. [Woman Under the Influence, Shadows, and Husbands are some of his other great movies, if you're interested.]
>>(Brett, did you think that the movie was extremely
>>misogynist? I did.)
>
>I wouldn't go this far.
I guess I was thinking mostly of the wife, Annette Bening's character. She was allowed one brief moment of humanity--when she didn't sell the house--but other than that she was the rather stereotypically shrill, status-obsessed, emotionally inert foil to our hero. And even that one moment was too sneering to make her sympathetic or real. The daughter, however, was a deep and well-drawn character, but then there was her friend, who was a sort of Annette Bening in waiting.
>His job was definitely part of the problem, and I
>didn't feel as though it was solely due to his boss. But I admit I was
>baffled by his decision to work at a fast food joint - what was that all
>about?
Machinations of the plot? How else was he supposed to find out his wife was cheating on him? Sorry to be so cynical, but that's what I saw. There was no other reason for it--no motivation and no statement to be made.
>And the bit where he's supposedly finding himself where he goes out
>and buys a new car was pretty bad too - redemption through consumerism.
>Hmmm, maybe you're crankiness is justified.
Fight Club and American Beauty share a similar element: the heroes of both blackmail their bosses, and end up getting paid, handsomely, for not working. And in both movies we are told that we should cheer on our heroes because of this, that this is somehow beating "the system." To me, this is wrong on two counts: it violates one of the basic rules of art--never tell your audience what to feel; these allegedly subversive things are really just individual--and Phrryic--victories that do nothing to topple the Man or his crummy system. The fact that audiences at the screenings I saw cheered these scenes indicates we have no clue about how business works or how to begin to change it.
Eric