Shadows (1958)

Directed by

John Cassavetes

Genre

drama film, art film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 27m

Rated

PG

Rating

6.9 of 10 from 273 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A group of black siblings in 1950s New York try to get by. One brother is a struggling jazz musician and the other works various jobs. Their light-skinned sister navigates complicated relationships with white and black men.

groundedrawimprovisationaltensemelancholicintimateunpolishedsocially-awaregritty

What happens

Shadows is a 1958 American independent drama film directed by John Cassavetes about race relations during the Beat Generation years in New York City. The film stars Ben Carruthers, Lelia Goldoni, and Hugh Hurd as three black siblings. The film was initially shot in 1957 and shown in 1958, but a poor reception prompted Cassavetes to rework it in 1959. Promoted as a completely improvisational film, it was intensively rehearsed in 1957, and in 1959 it was fully scripted. The film depicts two weeks in the lives of three siblings on the margins of society: two brothers who are struggling jazz musicians and their light-skinned younger sister who goes through three relationships, one with an older white writer, one with a shallow white lover, and finally one with a gentle young black admirer. Film scholars consider Shadows a milestone of American independent cinema. In 1960, the film won the Critics Award at the Venice Film Festival. In 1993, Shadows was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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