面孔

A Cassavetes remake that pushes the original title to its ultimate consequence: strictly faces, each shot lasting as long as in the 1968 film. What's more, Benning concentrates entirely on static close-ups of the actors, caught in uncomfortable silences. Experimental filmmaker James Benning created a radical, dialogue-free remake of John Cassavetes' marriage crisis film Faces (1968). He based his eponymous 'reconstruction' on three rules: 1) Only close-ups of the faces of the actors in Faces, who included Gena Rowlands, Seymour Cassel and John Marley. 2) Every actor should be on screen the same length of time that they were in the original. 3) Every scene should last as long as it did in Cassavetes' film. So if the original features Gena Rowlands for 15 minutes in a 30-minute scene, then Benning will have her on screen for 15 minutes in his version. To this end, Benning sometimes had to really slow down shots, giving free reign to the human fascination with faces. Unhampered by story or dialogue, viewers can concentrate fully on the faces and study and clarify the various expressions at their leisure.