Cassavetes comparisons are thrown out often these days.  Filmmakers with inexpensive cameras go out of focus and immediately get compared to one of the masters.  But Carl Bessai?s Mothers & Daughters actually tackles the themes of Cassavetes and comes out looking like a film that booze-loving Greek maniac would have cried at.  Bessai is a filmmaker who obviously loves actors in the way the almost self-destructively passionate Cassavetes did. 

If a comparison to John-boy weren?t flattering enough, Mothers & Daughters is also being compared to a Robert Altman film.  On one level it?s an easy comparison because it?s an ensemble piece with several narrative threads involving middle-aged women, but the deeper themes of Altman are present as well.

?It is a combination of Cassavetes and Altman.  Cassavetes usually improvised in smaller groups like in Husbands or the dinner party in A Woman Under The Influence.  But this film has a broader reach that Altman would have, particularly in the dinner scene and that interest in women?s lives and their perspectives that you see in a number of Altman movies like Three Women,? said Steve Gravestock.

At the after party Bessai and I debated the merits of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie versus Faces and Shadows, a real treat for me.  Here are some of Bessai?s observations:

?A Woman Under the Influence is one of my favourite movies, Cassavetes was a kind of messy filmmaker who cared deeply about actors, you don?t watch him for perfection or technical execution, you watch it for amazing discoveries in acting, you watch it for people who are real.? 

?What director can?t be influenced by Cassavetes?  More and more we?re packaging.  People always talk about packaging like it?s a commodity.  Cassavetes would never have packaged a movie.  The best directors avoid this, Fassbinder, Mike Leigh.?

?He had to do this stuff, think back, in his day he was not respected as filmmaker so he had to find a way.  It?s beautiful and ironic that America claims Cassavetes as this independent voice.?

?He created films that were honest and truthful and found empathy in simple beautiful things and it defied the industrial machine.  We can do that more now than ever and yet few filmmakers do.  If you look at HD they still make the cameras big and clunky.

What?s amazing about little camcorders is they aren?t intrusive.  The actors are free to roam in real space, and we shot the movie in real space.?

I told him I considered Mothers & Daughters the ideal synthesis of Cassavetes and Altman.  While Cassavetes is heartbreaking, it?s challenging.  Suburban moms like my own find A Woman Under The Influence depressing, or too difficult, however, a snappy Altman ensemble easily keeps anyone interested.

?Altman?s a master at weaving different narratives together in climactic archs that weave together at the right time.  The way he surprises narratively is amazing. These are mavericks and it?s amazing the authority they had in the industry, and I think it?s sad they had to die before they got their recognition.  They?re telling us the truth about so many things that we know and relate to,? said Bessai.

I haven?t mentioned the Gena Rowlands-like performances of the incredible actresses in this film.  Nor did I discuss how wonderful it is to see a portrait of truly Canadian women.  You?ll have to watch the film I guess.

You can do so Thursday at 8:45 or Friday at 2:45 at the Varsity.