Apropos of our focus on John Cassavetes this week, above is the trailer for his 1968 film ‘Faces’. I have no idea if he cut or approved this trailer but it does an excellent job of whetting the appetite for seeing the film. Removing the audio and playing the images over Charlie Small’s ‘Never Felt Like This Before’ (which is on the soundtrack of the film) is a brilliant stroke, given the films clearly impressionistic style. The same can’t be said for the below trailer of ‘Opening Nights’ (1977), the Cassavetes film that was the subject of Monday’s post. The trailer looks like a ragged assembly of outtakes of a film that’s probably a lot more interesting than one might guess from the sizzle reel–the decision to include as much slapping, yelling and general emotional mayhem as possible heightens a melodramatic vibe that sends it into the land of the satirical. Nonetheless I plan on watching both films (or at least a good deal of both films) in the near future, with my money being on ‘Faces’ as the superior piece of work. Why? Because it’s in black and white, of course…