Cassavetes' 'Minnie and Moskowitz' Screens at New Beverly — SkimNews
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- John Cassavetes directed half of his 12 features for major studios despite his reputation as the godfather of American independent film, with "Minnie and Moskowitz" (1971) among his studio-funded works for Universal.
- "Minnie and Moskowitz" is a gender-reversed romantic comedy starring Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel that subverts the rom-com formula by making a male character's obsessive pursuit feel "intense and, at times, sinister."
- Cassavetes exploited real-life tensions between his wife Rowlands and friend Cassel during production, giving them contradictory directions on set and failing to tell Rowlands he had cast himself as her abusive lover until it was time to shoot.
- Universal executive Ned Tanen green-lit the film through a low-budget unit created to find the next "Easy Rider," which also bankrolled Monte Hellman, Miloš Forman, Dennis Hopper, and ultimately George Lucas' breakout hit "American Graffiti."
- "Minnie and Moskowitz" earned a WGA screenplay nomination and strong reviews but lost money; Cassavetes felt Universal dumped it with poor advertising because it lacked movie stars (he wanted Jack Nicholson for Cassel's part).
- "Minnie and Moskowitz" will screen on a 35mm print at Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema on a double bill with Lasse Hallström's "Once Around," having had no American physical media release since Anchor Bay's out-of-print DVD and no Criterion Collection edition.
Why it matters: For serious cinephiles, this double bill is the rare chance to see one of Cassavetes' most underseen masterworks in 35mm — the film has been physically unavailable on American home video since Anchor Bay's long-out-of-print DVD and remains absent from the Criterion Collection despite being, by the author's argument, equal to "Faces" or "A Woman Under the Influence."
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