John Cassavetes - excerpt from "Opening Night" (1977)

[TheWitz]

RIP Ben Gazzara

[peteratanas]

one of best acting i saw in cinema so far

pm

[dpohunter]

I first saw Zorah Lampert in - of all things- "Hey Let's Twist!", a terrible teen movie from 1961. She was also in "Splendor In The Grass". She's a wonderful presence and we should have seen much more of her that we did.

[seedofvision]

This is Cassavetes at his best. Great writing, but the directing...allowing it to unfold humanly. The actors in this scene (and in most of his films) always give unexpected line readings and reactions. His films are like bad dreams that we must see, must examine. And Benny worked great with him.

[ZoePardeeSinginstone]

This and "Husbands" are my favorite Cassavetes films. I'm dissapointed that Husbands was not part of the Criterion Collection boxed set that I have. It's one of his quinessential films. I watch some scenes in "Opening Night" and I get teary-eyed.

[drboogersnot]

Ah yes. People sure don't drink like they used to. Barely anyone drinks scotch anymore. That's why I drink alone.... lol.

[FungusMossGnosis]

Maybe I was inebriated from too many celluloidal fumes, but when I saw this with a couple other extra-long JC films, this forever struck me as Cassavetes's masterpiece.

Husbands is the one I recommend more often, though, because it's easier to appreciate for Cassavetes greenhorns.

[special1740]

Ben Gazzara looks really hot here.

Grr!

[JohnMoseley]

I disagree about the music. I think it's amazing.

I didn't mention it before, but this is one of my favourite scenes in just about my favourite movie of all time. It's totally believable, but totally strange, as if we're eavesdropping or have only just met these people and found ourselves in what may be an uncomfortably near the knuckle conversation with them, but we don't know them well enough to be sure what's really happening. It's just incredibly good and there's nothing else like it.

[goback3spaces]

Beautiful. They act as though they really are married. They're in the moment.

[mayitpleasethecourt]

the music doesn't belong

[bonzelite]

what an amazing scene; wow

[JohnMoseley]

'If one can speak of the difficulty of knowing what in fact took place yesterday, one can, I think, treat the present in the same way. What's happening now? We won't know until tomorrow or in six months' time, and we won't know then...'

'The speech we hear is an indication of that which we don't hear.'

'A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.'

- Harold Pinter, excerpts from a speech at the National Student Drama Festival, Bristol, 1962