However, following that film’s own completion he returned to Chinese Bookie and set about re-editing it.
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie was made in 1976 and is shot in Cassavettes’ usual veritas style as the camera It is also an endurance test: scenes are stretched to mind-numbing length while messy, improvised dialogue flies by and crashes to the floor, and the bulk of the film is devoted to watching the extremely unrealistic floor show at a strip-club/cabaret owned by Gazzara's "Cosmo" character. Directed by John Cassavetes. Photographed progressively in darker, grainy shadows as Cosmo falls deeper into the tangles of the crime syndicate, this film illustrates the grime and dirt festering just beneath the cheerful daytime facade of most big cities. With Ben Gazzara, Timothy Carey, Seymour Cassel, Robert Phillips. Language: English Location: United States Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, and scratches were … Ben Gazzara brilliantly portrays a gentleman’s club owner, Cosmo Vitelli, desperately committed to maintaining a facade of suave gentility despite the seediness of his environment and his own unhealthy appetites.
It's not the long cut dwindled down.
When Cosmo loses big-time at an underground casino run by mobster Mort, he isn't able to pay up.
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" is- for lack of a better description- a character-driven crime film. That’s bad news for Cosmo Vitelli (Ben Gazzara), owner of a Hollywood strip club. All of which dovetails into The Killing of a Chinese Bookie ’s final scene, a scene that is left wholly untouched in either version: Rather than announce Mr. There are 2 versions of Killing of a Chinese Bookie.
Watch The ... by Write Better Stories. Arguably the most plot-driven of his films, Cassavates withdrew The Killing of a Chinese Bookie shortly after the initial release and subsequently re-cut a shorter version with a different opening. 8:54. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie was completed and released in 1976 at which point director John Cassavetes went straight to work on Opening Night. TM: This book is made up of some plot points of John Cassavetes’s The Killing of a Chinese Bookie from 1976. A rough and gritty film, the formidable character Gazzara plays was based on an impersonation he did for his friend Cassavetes in the 1970s. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie was the first John Cassavetes film I saw, on a late night BBC broadcast when I was in my teens. It takes a long time for John Cassavetes’ The Killing of a Chinese Bookie to live up to its title. The first is the 1976 version, which is 135 minutes in length. I just want to note that it's not a truncated version of the long cut. A proud strip club owner is forced to come to terms with himself as a man, when his gambling addiction gets him in hot water with the mob, who offer him only one alternative. One of John Cassavetes' most accessible films, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie offers a unique, noirish and naturalistic take on the sleazy criminal milieu based around Sunset Strip. I know you have a love of film (and certainly Cassavetes) and have plumbed other great works from Psycho to Pickpocket to the film noir Detour .