The magnificent Gena Rowlands passed away last week and in tribute to her I offer the above legendary video which features her husband John Cassavetes, Paul Stewart, Ben Gazzara and Seymour Cassel (sort of–he’s barely seen and doesn’t speak) sitting around a table in a restaurant called ‘The Bull Frog’, discussing the new Cassavetes film ‘Opening Night’. The film was released in late 1977 and did literally no business in the one L.A. theater that would book it, the Fox Wilshire. Annoyed as hell and always looking for a way to get his unusual and challenging films to be seen by the wide audiences he apparently thought would be interested, Cassavetes called a local L.A. television station and said he’d get the five above-named actors together if they’d shoot an interview to serve as a televised promo for the film. On January 26th 1978 the interview went down. Far from giving good sound-bite, Cassavetes is insolent, angry, intense and frustrated. Gena is much friendlier and gets a nice chunk of time beginning at 14:00 or so. Gazzara and Stewart also get interview time but it really is Cassavetes’ show. The interview was never aired and you can understand why when you watch it–it’s delightful as raw footage but its tough to see how to edit it in a way that would inspire a TV viewer to do anything but turn the channel to a game show. Things really get going as Cassavetes, who is moodily sipping a Scotch on the rocks, starts getting worked up at about 26 minutes in. By the thirty-one minute mark he’s in a rage at the entire American culture, Hollywood, movies, youth, corporations etc. and finally yells ‘T.V. sucks!’ Apparently, the interview was rescued from the dumpster of whatever TV station shot and discarded it and for years was in the hands of its rescuer, a man whose name apparently was MacDonald. Thus the irritating ‘MacDonald-Cassavetes’ watermark in the center of the screen–MacDonald was said to have charged exorbitantly high prices for viewing it. Somehow, though, it’s been liberated and makes for delightful (sort of) viewing. The ‘T.V. Sucks’ clip had previously made it into a Cassavetes documentary. As for ‘The Bull Frog’–the restaurant they’re in–the internet is completely silent. It’s gone to restaurant heaven and there seems to be no further record of its life…