面孔1968

Mille Plateaux: YEAR ZERO: FACIALITY

Faces are not basically individual; they define zones of

frequency or probability, delimit a field that neutralizes in advance any

expressions or connections unamenable to the appropriate significations.

Similarly, the form of subjectivity, whether consciousness or passion,

would remain absolutely empty if faces did not form loci of resonance that

select the sensed or mental reality and make it conform in advance to a

dominant reality. The face itself is redundancy. It is itself in redundancy

with the redundancies of signifiance or frequency, and those of resonance

or subjectivity. The face constructs the wall that the signifier needs in order

to bounce off of; it constitutes the wall of the signifier, the frame or screen.

The face digs the hole that subjectification needs in order to break through;

it constitutes the black hole of subjectivity as consciousness or passion, the

camera, the third eye.

Cassavetes on Cassavetes by Cassavetes, John Carney

Page 165

As in Shadows, and as would be the case in all of his subsequent films, Faces’ actors were encouraged to draw on the deepest aspects of their personalities and attitudes in their playing. Cassavetes’ secret to making this work was to operate in such a deep way that the actors didn’t realize what was going on. Their performances became explorations of parts of themselves they didn’t know were there, and which would only be discovered later, if ever. The characters Cassavetes created were sufficiently different from the actors in superficial respects that the actors didn’t recognize the similarity to themselves, which meant that they played their roles unselfconsciously and unguardedly. But, at the same time, the roles tapped into deep structures of feeling and personality that enriched their performances and made them profoundly revealing.

As Cassavetes mentioned above, Seymour Cassel did follow women home and make love to them (and had gotten into a lot of trouble because of it). He was a kind of ‘beach boy’, and aspects of Cassel’s personality and attitudes deeply informed the character of Chettie. Lynn Carlin played a housewife with problems and, at the point she made Faces, she herself had ‘some severe personal problems’ (in Al Ruban’s words). Her marriage was falling apart; she had lost her job; and she had a lot of mixed feelings (both positive and negative) about her life and the men she knew, even as she still maintained a degree of innocence that contrasted with the externals of her situation. Cassavetes got her to draw on her pains, confusions and vulnerability in her portrayal of Maria. Similarly, Cassavetes drew on parts of Val Avery that Avery himself didn’t understand to deepen his performance of McCarthy. Avery’s characteristic bluster and swagger – and the vulnerability that the big talk covered up – became his character. (Avery the person is the very definition of a lamb in wolf’s clothing – hiding his genuine gentleness under a gruff exterior.) As a comic illustration of the overlap of life and art, at one point in the shoot Avery invited Cassavetes to ‘go outside and fight when he got upset with him, exactly the same way his character does with Richard Forst. Cassavetes similarly drew on aspects of John Marley’s personality. As a seasoned ‘pro’, Marley did have a high opinion of himself and felt superior to the less experienced actors – particularly the beginner, Carlin. He intimidated her, patronized her and criticized her acting. He was occasionally testy when Cassavetes asked for another take (feeling that his performance had been good enough). Cassavetes knew not to ignore this dynamic but to use it to enhance Marley’s performance as a high-powered businessman and to energize his acted relationship with Carlin. (By way of contrast, Marley’s very different feelings towards Gena Rowlands, his respect for her as an actress and a person, are drawn on in the altogether more responsive performance he gives when he is playing with her.