Ainsi va l'amour

Trailer—Minnie and Moskowitz

source: Minnie and Moskowitz

Minnie and Moskowitz

If I wanted to listen to crazy people talking gibberish, groping random strangers and getting into fights I don't have to watch a Cassavetes movie; I can drop into the Greyhound station, a crappy diner or a skid row tavern. If I didn't know better I'd swear Cassevetes convinced Cassel to wander into a bar and start harassing randos. The people seem genuinely peeved at his presence. Then we switch to Gena Rowlands, who no sooner gets introduced but we're subjected to watching director/actor and real-life husband!! Slapping her around!! And with that, I was out. Life is too short. I have yet to sit through an entire Cassevetes film and I consider New American Cinema to be the greatest era of film-making anywhere, anytime.

Possibly John Cassavetes best film to date, and definitely his funniest. Seymour Cassel plays the young Moskowitz smitten with real-life wife of Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, excellent as usual. A must see gem of a film, if you can locate it.

real love. true love. mad love. beautiful love. ugly love. dirty love. sad love. happy love. silly love. smart love. gorgeous love. dumb love. love love love. minnie moore understands that what she really needs is a man who trust her, trust her and love her madly. of course when this man comes along... she tries to run away but seymour, wonderful seymour, he trusts her, he believes in her so he is going to fight for her against her. i want to be like seymour moskowitz. i want to be that kind of man. a man willing to love without been afraid to fail but willing to fail. that's a kind of hero. that's my kind of hero... and minnie moore is my kind of woman. long live cassavetes and all his lovely bunch!

A museum curator (Gena Rowlands) falls in love with a crazy parking attendant (Seymour Cassel). Although not one of the title characters, the most memorable actor in this film is Val Avery. He gives an incredible monologue where he goes from sad sack to abusive and everywhere in between. We never like him, but we might feel sorry for him one minute and despise him the next. Quite the performance. Roger Ebert gave the film four stars and singled out Seymour's "magnificent mustache" for appreciation. Indeed, that mustache is pretty amazing and one hopes it was not just the makeup department that provided that impressive tuft.

I'm not a huge fan of slick Hollywood phoniness, but this film made me long for "Hollywood values". At least the boys and girls of Tinseltown know how to tell a story. If you are going to tell a story about a cultured, upper-middle-class woman falling for a not-too-bright, ill-mannered jerk of at best average appearance, you need to develop the characters, their motives, and the dynamics of their inherently implausible relationship convincingly. What this film needs is a lot more preliminary development of Minnie's character and a good deal less of the repetitious, one-note, top-of-the-lungs interaction between her and Moskowitz. It needs, in short, a better script and better direction. Cassavetes may have been a luminary of US independent cinema, but on this evidence at least his importance is strictly historical.

In between 2 and 3 stars. Like Faces (1968), which I also couldn't finish, this was overly dramatic. Lines like "I think about you so much, I forget to go to the bathroom!". And Jim (Cassavetes) and Moskowitz (Cassel) were, IMO, both impulsive and physical towards Minnie (Rowlands) that it was surprising and hurt suspension of disbelief that she didn't call the police on either of them, especially Moskowitz. At least, she had known Jim for some time and professed to love him. Moskowitz she hardly knew. This couldn't have ended the way it did. Should have been a noir like "Looking for Mr. Goodbar". ------------------------------ My IMDb ratings 1 Deliberately botched 2 I don't want to see it 3 I FF'd through it 4 Bad 5 I don't get it 6 Good 7 Great but with a major flaw 8 Great 9 Noir with moral 10 Inspiring with moral.

Zelmo says "people that listen continuously are much more interesting than people that talk continuously" He doesn't get the girl. Seymour says "I think about you so much I forget to go to the bathroom." He gets the girl. "When I'm with someone I want to get away." This is the girl speaking. Her name is Minnie . She also says "I don't like men. They smile too much. You see a lot of teeth." This is no ordinary love story. Correction this is an extraordinary love story where Minnie ultimately becomes a Moskowitz which is difficult to say with a straight face. But the ultimate romance is between John Cassavetes and the English language. Forget the popcorn, to eternally enjoy Minnie &Moskowitz, have a notepad and some shorthand and "if you have bread, we can make toast."