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Filmmaking is a craft that I want to keep learning. I’m in love with it and I would make films for nothing, and do, and pay for them myself or with the help of my friends. I don’t feel I have a responsibility to anyone if I’m going to take my own losses. I’ve lived my whole life that way and I am r…

Cosmo is trapped in a conformist world. This is somebody who will do anything if enough pressure is put on him. I don’t have a lot of respect for people who buckle under to the conventional non-approach to things. Yet I’ve been plagued by the same temptations: to be liked, to be secure, to be a mem…

At the same time, Cassavetes’ hell never has other people in it. Cosmo is not someone else; he is also a portrait of the artist. Ben Gazzara says that became clear to him one day a few weeks into the shoot when he confessed to Cassavetes that he was having a difficult time bringing his character in…

As Cassavetes worked on the film, Cosmo grew into a reflection on male psychology. In particular, he represented a meditation on aspects of Ben Gazzara’s off-camera personality. Gazzara was similar to Cosmo in many deep and half-veiled respects – most notably in his devotion to living a life of ‘st…

I could never make an unrealistic type of picture; I cannot work that way, but I admire people who can. I think Frank Capra is wonderful, and I think many of the early Lubitsch films were great. I even admire Dick Powell and his detective stories; he’s wonderfully talented in those areas and it’s a…