ugly before

oldhollywood:

Gena Rowlands in Faces (1968, dir. John Cassavetes)

“I could never make an unrealistic type of picture…It would be awfully somber if people made only realistic films. However, that’s the best way I can work and if there’s no market for it then I’ll pack up as it’s the only kind of film I am interested in. If I directed a picture like Return of the Jedi or even worked on one, I would faint - I’d faint and never get up again I’d be so ashamed. 

I’m not interested in starting fires. I’ve never seen an exploding helicopter. I’ve never seen anybody go and blow somebody’s head off. So why should I make films about them? But I have seen people destroy themselves in the smallest way. I’ve seen people withdraw. I’ve seen people hide behind political ideas, behind dope, behind the sexual revolution, behind fascism, behind hypocrisy, and I’ve myself done all these things.

In our films what we are saying is so gentle. It’s gentleness. We have problems, terrible problems, but our problems are human problems.”

-John Cassavetes, quoted in Cassavetes on Cassavetes