John Cassavetes began to be known from his television and film roles in the 1950s. After starring in Edge of the Town he went on to publicize the film during a radio show to which he announced that he could make a picture better than the film’s director, Martin Ritt. After proclaiming this Cassavetes began to receive money from listeners who believed he could. At the time Cassavetes was also teaching acting with Burt Lane (Diane Lane’s father) at an acting workshop they created to counter The Method, which was dominant in the New York acting scene. It was called “The Cassavetes-Lane Drama Workshop” and out of an exercise he was teaching to his students grew the idea for what became Shadows.
As the Beat Generation of the 1950s were prominent, Cassavetes chose to explore characters that were living in these times, but instead of attempting to script scenes between actors he wanted the film to be improvisational. Thus he came up with parameters for the actors to stay within, but allowed them to fully improvise the dialogue. With the exception of the cameraman, German cinematographer Erich Kullmar, Cassavetes was the only other member of the crew with experience. He chose to shoot without permits in his apartment which he shared with wife, Gena Rowlands and on the streets of New York City. This meant that the crew had to be light, and prepared to pack up and leave quickly if the cops came.
The first version of the film was screened in 1957, but after a poor reception Cassavetes decided to re-work it. He then began to write a screenplay, re-shot scenes, changed the score and rearranged key scenes to give the film a different tone and resolution. In doing so he was able to find critical success as the film garnered the Critics Award at the Venice Film Festival. And from the international publicity of Venice Cassavetes’ film was the first American picture to find success outside the Hollywood studio system thus paving the way for independent film in America.
