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Shadows (1959)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writer:
John Cassavetes (writer)
Release Date:
11 November 1959 (USA)
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Plot:
Cassavetes' jazz-scored improvisational film explores interracial friendships and relationships in Beat-Era (1950s) New York City. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
Nominated for 3 BAFTA Film Awards.
Another 2 wins
&
1 nomination
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NewsDesk:
(5 articles)
The gutting of Miramax, Pt. II: Is this the end of New York movie culture?
(From EW.com - The Movie Critics. 2 November 2009, 3:58 PM, PST)
Husbands and Wives
(From IFC. 18 August 2009, 7:10 AM, PDT)
(From EW.com - The Movie Critics. 2 November 2009, 3:58 PM, PST)
Husbands and Wives
(From IFC. 18 August 2009, 7:10 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
True Colors?
more (25 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | Ben Carruthers | ... | Ben |
| Lelia Goldoni | ... | Lelia |
| Hugh Hurd | ... | Hugh |
| Anthony Ray | ... | Tony |
| Dennis Sallas | ... | Dennis |
 | Tom Reese | ... | Tom (as Tom Allen) |
| David Pokitillow | ... | David |
| Rupert Crosse | ... | Rupert |
| David Jones | ... | Davey (as Davey Jones) |
| Pir Marini | ... | Pir the Piano Player |
| Victoria Vargas | ... | Vickie |
| Jack Ackerman | ... | Jack, Director of Dance Studio |
| Jacqueline Walcott | ... | Jacqueline |
| Cliff Carnell | ||
| Jay Crecco |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
81 min | UK:87 min | USA:87 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
This caused a stir as it fairly explicitly showed an unmarried couple in a post-coital position and its suggestion that a young woman would actively seek out sex.
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Quotes:
Movie Connections:
References Les bijoutiers du clair de lune (1958)
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Soundtrack:
Beautiful
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FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (25 total)
Message Boards
Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Shadows (1959)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
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| Woman at Party | mcdunley |
| Lelia and Ben are black? | lonelybirthday |
| Spike lee | eduardoyoung21 |
| Which came first? | literatelover |
| Marquee Shots | 42ndStreetMemories |
| real mad chick song | jarrodzlatic |
Recommendations
If you enjoyed this title, our database also recommends:
Show more recommendations
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| Lackawanna Blues | Mr. & Mrs. Bridge | Giant | Come See the Paradise | West Side Story |
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Like all Cassavetes, Shadows makes every movie in recent memory seem irrelevant to your life and how to live it. The theme of 1959's Shadows centers around race and its effects on relations between men and women. As in life, this falls a distant second to the theme of the pervasive and exhausting need for love. Shadows is often billed as the story of a 'black woman who passes as white.' Cassavetes' film illustrates how these stark delineations between races harms those who exist in the shadows in-between. Lelia is a light-skinned part-African woman in New York who falls for an infantile racist white man. When Lelia's boyfriend meets her darker brother Hugh, her lover's true colors are revealed. Hugh is a dignified and caring protector who refuses to let racism erode his positive nature, though he faces blatant economic persecution in his work. Lelia's second brother, a charismatic jazz musician played by the beautiful Benito Carruthers, is also light-skinned. We painfully watch as his displacement in both 'white' and 'black' social groups gives rise to self-loathing and isolation. Ben wandering New York alone, hiding behind a series of dark sunglasses, is an enduring image from the film. One crushing scene shows Ben promising Lelia's lover that he will convey the sickly reasoning behind the rejection to his sister. Ben's palpable pain is relevant to people of every 'shade.' The dismissal of the possibility of love, based solely on race or other peripheral facts, is tragic across the whole spectrum of social relationships.