The Filmmaker’s Filmmaker

Filmmaker John Cassavetes never really won over the public during his lifetime, and even some prominent critics gave him a continuous cold shoulder. “Like Orson Welles, he didn’t always play well with others and he didn’t make all that much money for the movie industry. The other reason for the discomfort, I think, is that he called himself an artist. Many critics prefer their art with subtitles or not at all.” But a new box set of his work provides a window into the mind of a man who inspired a generation of better-loved filmmakers, even if his own work often went unappreciated by the powers that be.