John Cassavettes

After seeing A Woman Under The Influence and The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie together about six months ago, I've been completely unable to get them out of my head. A WUTI in particular struck me more forcefully than almost any other film I've ever seen. I'd love to see more, but it's ****ing difficult to find any of his films on DVD; apart from this (http://www.amazon.com/John-Cassavetes-Influence-Criterion-Collection/dp/B0002JP2OS/sr=8-1/qid=1160939451/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-3070935-3864754?ie=UTF8&s=dvd) boxed set, which looks great but is a little out of reach on my current wages, there doesn't seem to be anything.

Anyway, is anyone else a fan, or have any other films of his to reccommend?

I liked Husbands and Gloria.

How about films he was in that I enjoyed ???

Rosemary's Baby
The Fury
Tempest

Unfortunately he is one of those peole who died too soon and should have done more.

You should definately see Shadows and Faces, e.

I've heard that the early films, Shadows in particular, are very different to later ones like Woman and Bookie; they're more theatrical and less cinematic. That's what someone I know told me, anyway. Would you agree, Matt?

I suppose it's fair to characterize them as theatrical in the sense that they are low-budget, raw and fairly primative in terms of cinematic technique--the cinéma vérité style and improvisational dialogue--and clearly more interested in performance than other aspects--they both tend to lock in on their actors faces with uncomfortable close-ups.