Cornered
In the opening of the film we see Ben carrying bongos trying to make his way through the crowd in order to play with the musicians already jamming. But as he tries to cut through he is pushed further away from the music by the dense crowd of people dancing until he is in the corner. In the final shot of this scene we see Ben without his instrument, a beer in his hand and a cigarette. He's completely in the corner of the room now, trapped by the mass of people. The image evokes feelings of fear and claustrophobia in the midst of trying to become apart of the environment he chooses to be in.
Lack of Interest
While Hugh sings at a nightclub in Philly we see the audience members in different ways become disinterested in his performance. Cassavetes uses quick cuts of various people talking or shaking their heads during his singing that allow us to feel both sorry for Hugh, but at the same time we ourselves are given the opportunity to join in with the audience in being uninterested in what this artist is performing.
Put to Sleep
At a literary party we find a man talking with a blonde haired woman. He's curious to know if she's a writer. She's not. She's a dancer. The man asks if she does ballet to find out she does exotic dancing. He seems initially turned off, but his interest increases as he is physically attracted to this woman. In the background Cassavetes has a woman who's fallen asleep behind the man. She was in a previous scene as an 'intellectual' discussing 'sophisticated' matters. We can see that this woman's posture represents her feelings of this relationship and its lack of depth.
Ben and the Statue
The guys go to The Met Museum and while Tom is ranting about how the people who run these museums are nobodies who've never done anything in their life we see Ben crouched by a statue. We see that he's deeply moved by the piece. This image of Ben having a deeply felt experience with this piece of art is in complete contrast with Tom's views, and the image also tells us that regardless of labels art still has the ability to cut through to the very core of who we are in ways that intellectualizing it cannot.
