Review of Love Streams (1984) by Ally C — 15 Apr 2011

The films of John Cassavetes belong to a strand of cinema so removed from the mainstream, they sometimes seem hardly like films at all. That's not to say they aren't cinematic or have great editing or dramatic sequences moreover they can shun so many of the conventions of mainstream Hollywood cinema, it feels like we are watching another medium entirely.

Love streams was Cassavetes' last great film and his last great performance with Gena Rowlands by his side like so many of the great Cassavetes features. It is obvious the cast (including Seymour Cassel and Diahnne Abbott) are so familiar with one another and the closeness of the performances give the film its main strength.

Like Welles, Cassavetes is his own equal in front of the camera as behind it and his Robert Harmon betrays his alcoholism, his lack of responsibilty, his nihilism through the love of his sister Gena Rowlands.

Again, Rowlands plays a woman who is on the edge of madness and depression but in Love Streams, Cassavetes explore her neuroses through expressionistic touches like her imagining an opera scene to win back her husband Seymour Cassel.

The film is about secrets which can be kept and uncovered and the inability of humans to cope with absolutely everything thrown at them. Their is a dignity in defeat and depression although perhaps not obvious at the time.

Love Streams is one of Cassavetes' best and was a great reminder to the cinematic community that he could still produce pictures of the finest quality.