To Risk Everything to Express It All – John Cassavetes: To Risk Everything to Express It All (1999)

Directed by: Rudolf Mestdagh | 52 minutes | documentary | Starring: Gena Rowlands, Nick Cassavetes, Sam Shaw, Al Rubin, Peter Falk, Paul Mazursky, Anthony Quinn, Ben Gazarra, Seymour Cassel, Peter Bogdanovich

There is a danger in making a documentary that centers around a (generally) beloved person. The people being interviewed are not likely to make negative statements about the person in question, which creates a rather one-sided picture of the subject. The documentary then runs the risk of becoming a kind of hero worship. Unfortunately, ‘To Risk Everything to Express It All’ about director/actor John Cassavetes is in a sense.

Belgian filmmaker Rudolf Mestdagh places an impressive number of people in front of his camera. These people have all been very closely involved in the making of Cassavetes’ independent films. Not only his wife (then also widowed) Gena Rowlands and son Nick Cassavetes are speaking, but also Sam Shaw, Al Rubin, Peter Falk, Paul Mazursky, Anthony Quinn, Ben Gazarra, Seymour Cassel and Peter Bogdanovich. pouch. In general, they are very enthusiastic about their inspired colleague, with whom it was not always easy to work together. For example, Gazarra says that Cassavetes never gave game instructions because that would dull the fantasy; instead, he delivered hours of speeches, after which the cast had to figure out for themselves what was actually expected of them. He let his cast push their limits; the human emotion was more important than the plot of the film. For example, the inexperienced actress Lynn Carlin was chased on set by Cassavetes with a knife, so that she could show that little bit more emotion. They are nice anecdotes that give a little more insight into the man behind the films.

The images of the talking heads are interspersed with – rather long – fragments from Cassavetes’ films, such as from ‘Shadows’, ‘Faces’ and ‘The Killing of a Chinese Bookie’. For a lover of Cassavetes a feast to see these scenes again; for the people who are not (yet), a reason to finally put his films on a to see list. It’s not a well-balanced documentary, but because it’s unique in itself to see and hear people talk about America’s first independent filmmaker (persons who, given their age, are also certain that they won’t be around for too many years have their say about Cassavetes) Rudolf Mestdagh’s documentary is well worth watching.