Impressionism And Real Realism

American director John Cassavetes is the pioneer of American independent film,known as ‘the father of American independent film'.In nearly 30 years of creative career,he directed a total of 12 feature films,8 of which are independent.Not only was he nominated for three Oscar awards,he also won the Golden Lion in Venice in 1980 and the Golden Bear in Berlin in 1984.Throughout his life,Cassavetes' independent spirit is not only reflected in his off-Hollywood independent production methods,but also in the aesthetic characteristics of his works.This paper is divided into three chapters.The first chapter teases out and analyses Cassavetes' life experience from his two identities of actor and director.The second chapter focuses on the characteristics of impressionism in his films.The first section starts from the tradition of impressionism in painting,literature and cinema to explore and analyze the characteristics of impressionism reflected in Cassavetes' films.The second section focuses on the presentation of body and gestus in his works,while the last section discusses the theme ‘love streams' that runs through Cassavetes' film series.The third chapter focuses on the characteristics of ‘real realism' in his films.The first section analyses the characteristics of ‘real reality' representes in Cassavetes' films.The second section takes Faces as an example to compare the similarities and differences between the two schools in the Cinéma vérité movement.Taking impressionism–real realism style as a whole,the last section examines its connection with the world's New Cinema trend and how to position Cassavetes' independent films.