The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie Blu-Ray Review

Rating:
15
BD Release Date:
15th July 2013
Director:
John Cassavetes
Cast:
John Cassavetes, Ben Gazzara, Timothy Carey, Seymour Cassel
Buy: (3-Disc Limited Edition) The Killing of a Chinese Bookie was my introduction to work of John Cassavetes many years ago. It’s probably his most accessible film in a way; it’s inspired by film noir (which John Cassavetes acted in a handful in his time) but it’s a very arty and gritty take on it. Its much more story focused than most of his work that certainly helps its accessibility. It also came near the end of his golden period of filmmaking, which was from Faces to Gloria.

The film stars frequent Cassavetes collaborator Ben Gazzara who plays Cosmo Vittelli. He is a strip club owner and is making his last payment of his gambling debt to this sleazebag loanshark (played by the film’s producer/cinematographer Al Ruban). He celebrates this by taking his 3 favourite dancers out and it eventually ends in another poker game and he looses $23,000. The mob uses this against him so he will do a hit for them. He believes it to be some small-time Chinese bookie but in reality it’s a capo of the Chinese mafia “the heaviest cat on the West Coast”. He manages to perform the hit but soon realises he is double-crossed.

The film not unlike many of his other films was originally released in a much longer cut. It was originally released in a 135 minute cut but he pulled it after a week and Ben Gazzara hated this version and said it was too long. It was eventually recut in a much more accessible shorter cut of 108 minutes. It mostly cut the strip club routines but true to Cassavetes’ form he ordered the scenes in the new cut. The BFI Blu-ray includes both cuts.

The film is a great piece of cynical neo-noir 70s filmmaking in the vein of Chinatown or Night Moves. It’s boosts a wonderful performance by the always great Ben Gazzara (I’m sure the Coens watched this before they cast him in The Big Lebowski due to his role in this). His performance really makes the film, which is not unlike most of Cassavetes’ films where the leading actor or actress makes the film like for example his wife Gena Rowlands in many of the films. It’s different cause it’s male protagonist when a good majority of his films have a female one.

It’s one of John Cassavetes’ best films partly due to its accessibility. If you’re a fan of Scorsese’s early films and other noir inspired films of the 70s it’s very much worth your time. BFI has released a 3-disc special edition, which includes the film on both Blu-ray and dvd and a bonus disc with a feature length doc on John Cassavetes, a short, a interview and the film itself includes scene selected commentaries by the producer and Cassavetes’ friend and contemporary Peter Bogdanovich.

★★★★★

Ian Schultz

BFI To Release John Casavettes' The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie On DualPlay This July

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, released on 15 July 2013, is the fifth and final title in the BFI's John Cassavetes Collection. Presented on Blu-ray for the first time, it is released in a Dual Format Edition (containing both DVD and Blu-ray) in both its original 1976 cut and Cassavetes’ re-edited shorter 1978 version. Also available on the same date will be a Limited 3-Disc Collector’s Edition which has a bonus DVD containing the documentary Anything for John (1993), the short film The Haircut (1982), and an interview with Tamar Hoffs, director of The Haircut.

In an absorbing performance, Ben Gazzara plays small-time Sunset Strip entrepreneur Cosmo Vitelli, owner of the Crazy Horse West night spot. An obsessive showman, Cosmo navigates a murky world of loan sharks and crooks to keep his club afloat, but, when a gambling debt spirals out of control, he is blackmailed into accepting a murderous commission.

Featuring standout turns by Seymour Cassel and Timothy Agoglia Carey as the underworld racketeers out to fleece Cosmo, John Cassavetes' portrayal of one man's hubristic descent subverts the conventions of its plot to explore the darker regions of the American dream.

Arguably the most plot-driven of all his films, Cassavetes withdrew The Killing of a Chinese Bookie shortly after the initial release and subsequently cut a new version which features different scenes.

Check out this funny clip from the documentary Anything For John, in which actor Ben Gazzara talks about the time he and Cassavetes discussed the film's title. The documentary the clip is from is included as a bonus on the BFI's 3-Disc Collector's Edition of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie.

Special features
• Presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition
• Includes the original 1976 cut of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
• Selected scenes commentary on 1976 version by Al Ruban and Peter Bogdanovich
• Illustrated booklet with a newly commissioned essay by Tom Charity

Limited 3-Disc Collector's Edition - Dual Format - As above, plus:
• The Haircut (Tamar Simon Hoffs, 1982, bonus DVD only): John Cassavetes stars as a busy music executive sidetracked by a haircut in Hoffs' delightful directorial debut
• Anything for John (Doug Headline, 1993, 91 mins, bonus DVD only): feature length documentary tribute to John Cassavetes, featuring interviews with Peter Falk, Gena Rowlands and Al Ruban
• Tamar Hoffs interview (Doug Headline, 1993, 6 mins, bonus DVD only)

Pre-Order/Buy The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie:Dual Play (DVD + Blu-ray) / 3-Disc Limited Edition (DVD & Blu-ray)

John Cassavetes' Opening Night Blu-Ray Review

Opening Night is the latest John Cassavetes film BFI being re-released on a dual format blu-ray/dvd combo. They started they’re reissues back in April 2012 with the landmark films Shadows and Faces (which I just picked up the other day). One of the very first reviews I did for the people’s movies / cinehouse was Shadows which to this day remains my favourite Cassavetes directorial effort.

Opening Night is a later Cassavetes film in that golden period of American cinema known as the New Hollywood of the 1970s. Cassavetes was one of the first truly independent American directors of feature films (sometime mistaken as the first but Sam Fuller was a decade before). John would act or sometimes direct Hollywood films so he could fund (and distribute) his more personal improvisational melodramas. John Sayles would later do a similar thing but in that case screenwriting.

Opening Night is very much A Woman Under the Influence (one of Cassavetes’ best films and most well known) goes Broadway. Like A Woman Under the Influence it’s stars John Cassavetes’ real life wife Gena Rowlands who plays the central character Myrtle Gordon, a actress who is rehearsing for her latest play. The play is about a woman unable to admit she is aging and it has many parallels to her own mid-life crisis. Myrtle witnesses a young woman who gets killed after trying to meet her after a preview of the play and this deeply troubles her and she feels responsible for her death. Her feelings of guilt start to interfere with her professional work but she also has a serious drinking problem as well. The film deals with her very complicated relationships with the stage director (played by frequent Cassavetes collaborator Ben Gazzara) producer, fellow actors (including one played by John Cassavetes) etc. She also starts having hallucinations of the dead girl near the end of the film, which reminds you of Black Swan, a similar themed film about the parallels of a stage life and personal life and the eventual merging of the 2.

Like many of Cassavetes films he could certain use with some reigning in during the editing process (many of his films have went though many cuts and released and then withdrawn and re-released) and the film suffers from many way too long. It’s round the 2 hour and 30 minute mark with many scenes of the play wasting the running time and being pretty obvious with it’s parallels with Myrtle’s life. Cassavetes was first and foremost an actor and all his films are very much actor’s pieces and he is great and bringing out great performances but they can become too actory and stagey (most evident in this film for obvious reasons). Cassavetes has always struggled with pacing in his films and this is no exception but it has a great performance by Gena Rowlands. I would recommend seeing A Woman Under the Influence before you see this, which is the superior film and performance.

★★★½☆

Ian Schultz

DVD/BD Release Date:27th May 2013 (UK)
Director: John Cassavetes
Cast:John Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, Joan Blondell

Buy: Opening Night (DVD & Blu-ray)