Starring: Ben Carruthers, Lelia Goldoni, Hugh Hurd, Anthony Ray
Director: John Cassavetes
Running Time: 82 mins
Certificate: PG
Release Date: April 23rd, 2012

Shadows is not the sort of movie that you watch for fun, and indeed if you come to it cold without knowing anything about it, the film is likely to strike you as a tad stilted and unfocussed. However in context it’s a vitally important part of American cinema history, and the film that’s often credited as the place where modern US indie cinema began.

Director John Cassavetes was having some success in TV and film as an actor in the late 50s, but his heart had always been in underground New York theatre. He raised a minuscule budget and over three years put together Shadows, which was unlike virtually anything that had gone before it. [Read more…]