Shadows – John Cassavetes (1959)

“Shadows is a 1959 American independent drama film directed by John Cassavetes about race relations during the Beat Generation years in New York City. The film stars Ben Carruthers, Lelia Goldoni, and Hugh Hurd as three black siblings, though only one of them is dark-skinned enough to be considered African American. The film was initially shot in 1957 and shown in 1958, but a poor reception prompted Cassavetes to rework it in 1959. Promoted as a completely improvisational film, it was intensively rehearsed in 1957, and in 1959 it was fully scripted. The film depicts two weeks in the lives of three siblings on the margins of society: two brothers who are struggling jazz musicians and their light-skinned younger sister who goes through three relationships, one with an older white writer, one with a shallow white lover, and finally one with a gentle young black admirer. Film scholars consider Shadows a milestone of American independent cinema. In 1960, the film won the Critics Award at the Venice Film Festival. Ben, diffident and awkward, wants to be a jazz trumpeter but wastes his time drinking in Manhattan bars and trying to pick up girls with two fellow-idlers, Dennis and Tom. He is supported by his brother Hugh (the sibling with the most African-American skin-tone characteristics), who is supposed to be a jazz singer but is unable to find much work because of his old-fashioned vocal style. Hugh’s career is managed by Rupert. Ben and Hugh live with their fair-skinned, younger sister Lelia, who wants to be a writer. Initially, she is under the wing of an older boyfriend, the intellectual David, who attempts to be helpfully critical of her writing. At a party, she abandons David for a younger man, Tony, who coaxes her back to his apartment. … The idea for the film came from a classroom exercise. With acting coach Burt Lane (later the father of Diane Lane), Cassavetes was conducting classes for aspiring actors at the Variety Arts Theatre in Manhattan’s off-Broadway Union Square neighborhood, the classes listed as ‘The Cassavetes-Lane Drama Workshop’; this was Cassavetes’ attempt to counter the adherents of method acting who controlled much of New York theatre and film.^[3] A particular exercise became the core of the film: A young African-American woman who was very light-skinned dated a young white man, but he was repulsed when he discovered she had a black brother. Cassavetes determined to put the scene on film, so he began looking for funding. While ostensibly promoting the film Edge of the City on Jean Shepherd‘s Night People radio show on WOR in February 1957, Cassavetes said he could make a better film than could director Martin Ritt. He pitched the drama workshop idea to Shepherd’s radio audience. …”
Wikipedia
Shadows: Experimental Film Venture (Video)
Criterion – Shadows: Eternal Times Square
FAR OUT: How John Cassavetes’ ‘Shadows’ became a titan of independent cinema (Video)

Cassavetes helped define the concept of “indie cinema” with Shadows