John Cassavetes (1929 - 1989) opened up a door in the cinema, which I am trying very hard to keep open a crack. You might say that he decided to show immediate human behavior along with, in the European manner, a "deep" rendering of character. He didn't just show characters who furthered a story; he made the story consequent of the sort of people he filmed. This is a crucial distinction but it's hard to explain. Some filmmakers allow for the truth of that admixture of feelings, actions, intuitions, and the ineffable thing that makes up the essence of a person to freely flow. John is the only American director who consistently did that, constantly asked himself "who?" when he looked into his characters' eyes. John's characters, although badly flawed (and that was one of the points), show dimension, contradiction, the ability to be what we are...certain and uncertain at the same time, good people and savage bastards at the same time,...
