Thank you destiny for bringing Gena and John to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts at Carnegie Hall, where they met each other, fell in love, got married, had children and bought that house where this movie was filmed, creating one of the most raw, beautiful and fascinating demonstrations of love ever put on screen. Thank you Gena and John, my deepest respect to both of you

Thank you destiny for bringing Gena and John to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts at Carnegie Hall, where they met each other, fell in love, got married, had children and bought that house where this movie was filmed, creating one of the most raw, beautiful and fascinating demonstrations of love ever put on screen. Thank you Gena and John, my deepest respect to both of you

This really felt like the cumulation of Cassavetes work. Gena and John and absolutely on the top of their game here. I expected this to be about an extremely contentious sibling relationship but instead this focused on the love between siblings which was a welcome surprise. I’m going to be getting this on Criterion ASAP because I can’t wait rewatch this. There’s so much love and passion on the screen with  Cassavetes’s films. His films show some the truest portraits of emotion I’ve ever seen. A true titan of cinema and of my new favorite directors of all time.

This really felt like the cumulation of Cassavetes work. Gena and John and absolutely on the top of their game here. I expected this to be about an extremely contentious sibling relationship but instead this focused on the love between siblings which was a welcome surprise. I’m going to be getting this on Criterion ASAP because I can’t wait rewatch this. There’s so much love and passion on the screen with  Cassavetes’s films. His films show some the truest portraits of emotion I’ve ever seen. A true titan of cinema and of my new favorite directors of all time.

Two miniature horses and a dream

Two miniature horses and a dream

i think some films are just too personal to review properly.

*Love Streams* is one of them for me.

every time i try to write about it, i feel like i’m doing it wrong, it’s like i’m trying to explain something that isn’t meant to be explained.

what John Cassavetes does in this film is so simple and so rare at the same time. he doesn’t try to control people. he lets them exist. he lets them be awkward, emotional, embarrassing, fragile, funny, sometimes even unbearable. and somehow that makes everything feel more real than most films i’ve seen.

one of the reasons is the relationship between Robert and Sarah. two people who clearly love deeply, but don’t really know how to live in the world. one hides from love. the other gives it away so freely that it almost destroys her.

watching Gena Rowlands in this film (and in other films of hers that i’ve seen, especially *A Woman Under the Influence)* is honestly so emotionally draining for me, the way she plays Sarah feels so open and exposed that sometimes it almost hurts to watch. there’s something about the way she loves people in the film that feels too pure for the world she lives in.

there’s this one line that keeps repeating in my head. sarah says that love is a stream. that it doesn’t stop. sommeone tells her that it does stop. that love ends.

but she insists that it doesn’t.

for some reason that moment hit me harder than almost anything else in the film. because the whole movie feels like it’s asking the same question. does love stop? or does it just keep flowing through people even when everything else falls apart?

the film never answers it clearly. but it feels like Cassavetes actually believes what Sarah is saying.

what i also love most about this film is that it never pretends people are clean or stable or easy to understand. everyone is messy. everyone is confused. everyone is trying to love in their own strange way.

and sometimes that love goes wrong.

sometimes it becomes overwhelming. sometimes it looks foolish. sometimes it ruins things.

but the film never suggests that the love itself is the problem.

maybe that’s the reason why this film feels so special to me. it feels like it understands something about people that most films are too afraid to look at directly. that loving deeply can make you look ridiculous. that caring too much can make you seem unstable. that some people simply feel things more intensely than the world knows how to handle, and this film feels like it understands them.

i think some films are just too personal to review properly.

*Love Streams* is one of them for me.

every time i try to write about it, i feel like i’m doing it wrong, it’s like i’m trying to explain something that isn’t meant to be explained.

what John Cassavetes does in this film is so simple and so rare at the same time. he doesn’t try to control people. he lets them exist. he lets them be awkward, emotional, embarrassing, fragile, funny, sometimes even unbearable. and somehow that makes everything feel more real than most films i’ve seen.

one of the reasons is the relationship between Robert and Sarah. two people who clearly love deeply, but don’t really know how to live in the world. one hides from love. the other gives it away so freely that it almost destroys her.

watching Gena Rowlands in this film (and in other films of hers that i’ve seen, especially *A Woman Under the Influence)* is honestly so emotionally draining for me, the way she plays Sarah feels so open and exposed that sometimes it almost hurts to watch. there’s something about the way she loves people in the film that feels too pure for the world she lives in.

there’s this one line that keeps repeating in my head. sarah says that love is a stream. that it doesn’t stop. sommeone tells her that it does stop. that love ends.

but she insists that it doesn’t.

for some reason that moment hit me harder than almost anything else in the film. because the whole movie feels like it’s asking the same question. does love stop? or does it just keep flowing through people even when everything else falls apart?

the film never answers it clearly. but it feels like Cassavetes actually believes what Sarah is saying.

what i also love most about this film is that it never pretends people are clean or stable or easy to understand. everyone is messy. everyone is confused. everyone is trying to love in their own strange way.

and sometimes that love goes wrong.

sometimes it becomes overwhelming. sometimes it looks foolish. sometimes it ruins things.

but the film never suggests that the love itself is the problem.

maybe that’s the reason why this film feels so special to me. it feels like it understands something about people that most films are too afraid to look at directly. that loving deeply can make you look ridiculous. that caring too much can make you seem unstable. that some people simply feel things more intensely than the world knows how to handle, and this film feels like it understands them.

cassavetes just knows it all man

cassavetes just knows it all man