Faces
Gena Rowlands and John Marley in Faces (1968), directed by John Cassavetes.
Faces
film by Cassavetes [1968]
Faces, American film drama, released in 1968, that was directed by John Cassavetes and shot in the cinéma vérité-style of improvisational filmmaking. It is one of Cassavetes’s most acclaimed works. Shot in high-contrast black-and-white film, Faces documents the disintegration of the marriage of a middle-aged, upper-middle-class couple. After an argument, Richard (played by John Marley) and Maria (Lynn Carlin) both have one-night stands, further straining their relationship. Actress Gena Rowlands, Cassavetes’s wife, portrayed the prostitute who sleeps with Richard. Sincere but bleak and exhausting (the original cut was six hours long), Faces offers little hope for happiness, and the incessant, ...(100 of 154 words)