The Killing of a Chinese Bookie The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
1976 Directed by John Cassavetes
Synopsis
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.
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Ben Gazzara's performance here is one of those that so captures an actor's essence that it would be pointless to think about anyone else in the role. Beyond all the Cassavetes grace notes-- the dingy texture of the nightclub, the evident affection for his cast of outcasts and rogues, the dread-inducing inevitability of the title-- there's Gazzara, a wannabe big-shot who lacks the means, the common sense, and the luck to lead the kind of life he feels he deserves. His gregariousness becomes tragic.
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"Hey Hugh, it's me, your agent. Remember that script I was telling you about, 'A Chinese Bookie'? Well, I got you the part! YOU'RE the Chinese bookie! Isn't that great?" "Wow, do you mean it? That's great - this kind of exposure could really do wonders for my career. I knew I had a good feeling about that part!" "Yeah, it's gonna be great. This director, Cassavetes, he's a real actor's director. He respects the craft. It'll be hard work but you'll do great." "This is exactly the kind of opportunity I've been waiting for!"
That's show business.
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"I'm a urologist." "I'm an accountant." "I'm a club owner." The context in which these careers are announced make them sound as absurd as a schlubby, hacky strip-club comedian calling himself "Mr. Sophistication." Are the gangsters pretending to be bureaucrats when they produce official forms for gambling debt? Or are they bureaucrats pretending to be gangsters? By the time you figure out it doesn't matter what role you play for others, it's too late.
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The poster gives you an accurate representation of the shadows and moody reds that the film basks in. Released around the pivotal dirtiest city period of Taxi Driver, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie might as well be the West coast equivalent in look and feel. A Cassavetes noir. Seemingly everyone is corrupt and out to get something. The faces are lived in and molded by crime. The gangsters are dripping with sleaze and menace in equal measure.
Ben Gazzara is asked to represent this height of proud sleaze culture as the strip club owner Cosmo who is in way over his head with gambling debts. Even once filming commenced, he was hesitant in how to approach the character. Cassavetes…
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So good I had to watch it twice. John Cassavetes was a unique eccentric, and having watched a handful of his films recently, he has become a new favorite director. His style was unashamedly intolerant of Hollywood formula, audience appeal and the business of Hollywood product.
He was a man who loved people. People have a lot to say. People have a lot of dreams. They over-reach, they're hopeful and they're despaired. People are always expressing themselves, negatively and positively, inwardly and outwardly. People have trouble communicating their thoughts into words. Cassavetes' goals were to examine human nature on a naked scale of emotion. More so than any filmmaker I can think of, he uses facial expression, body language, closeups…
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It's a shame if you only know Seymour Cassel as the kindly dad/barber/elevator operator/whatever else he's been in Wes Anderson movies.
You may not know that he's a mutherfucking gangster.
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probably shouldn't even technically enter this since i fell asleep during some key scenes. in my defense, i'm quitting caffeine. life's hard right now, guys. consider this my vow to rewatch it when i'm feeling more alert.
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"I'm a urologist." "I'm an accountant." "I'm a club owner." The context in which these careers are announced make them sound as absurd as a schlubby, hacky strip-club comedian calling himself "Mr. Sophistication." Are the gangsters pretending to be bureaucrats when they produce official forms for gambling debt? Or are they bureaucrats pretending to be gangsters? By the time you figure out it doesn't matter what role you play for others, it's too late.
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"Hey Hugh, it's me, your agent. Remember that script I was telling you about, 'A Chinese Bookie'? Well, I got you the part! YOU'RE the Chinese bookie! Isn't that great?" "Wow, do you mean it? That's great - this kind of exposure could really do wonders for my career. I knew I had a good feeling about that part!" "Yeah, it's gonna be great. This director, Cassavetes, he's a real actor's director. He respects the craft. It'll be hard work but you'll do great." "This is exactly the kind of opportunity I've been waiting for!"
That's show business.
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i actually watched and liked the longer cut. the new cut is interesting idea wise but this movie is meant to be a slow hypnotic gaze into destruction
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Saw Cassavetes' The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. One can see it was his handiwork, but I feel so sorry for him I could weep.
I feel sorry for all of the best of them: Antonioni and Fellini and Rosi—of course, they are not at all what they seem from a distance. -
I love Ben Gazzara and this, along with Saint Jack, is his best work.
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[THIS REVIEW REFERS TO THE 1978 RE-EDIT OF THE FILM]
Not a studio-ordered hackjob, but an artist refusing to abandon his work, trying his hardest to "get it right."
He does.
By stripping the film down to its bare essentials, Cassavetes is able to re-focus the narrative and hone in on the central character. As a result, Ben Gazzara's Cosmo Vittelli truly emerges as one of the great tragic heroes in modern American cinema; in a unique thriller that really pops.
Ugh.
Well... I went there, so there's no turning back now.
Anyway, in this leaner form, a neat balance is struck between the world of the nightclub and the seedy underworld of the film's central thriller plot. We watch…
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[THIS REVIEW REFERS TO THE ORIGINAL 1976 VERSION OF THE FILM]
John Cassavetes' strange, existential gangster film is anchored by Ben Gazarra's iconic lead performance as Cosmo Vittelli - a nightclub owner who gets into dangerous debt with the mob. It is also dripping with atmosphere and a palpable mood.
It's really one of the richest and most unusual crime films of the seventies, so it's too bad it doesn't really work all the time.
Because of its slightly unfocused nature, it is not entirely successful as the noir piece it aspires to be. Particularly in its original 135-minute form. But, as a tradeoff, the way the world of that nightclub is presented makes the film fascinating and often mesmerizing.…
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Ben Gazzara's performance here is one of those that so captures an actor's essence that it would be pointless to think about anyone else in the role. Beyond all the Cassavetes grace notes-- the dingy texture of the nightclub, the evident affection for his cast of outcasts and rogues, the dread-inducing inevitability of the title-- there's Gazzara, a wannabe big-shot who lacks the means, the common sense, and the luck to lead the kind of life he feels he deserves. His gregariousness becomes tragic.