Faces (1968)

Legendary director John Cassavetes' fourth feature film Faces (1968) was his true breakout as the pioneering maverick of the New Hollywood movement. John Marley and Lynn Carlin star as married couple Richard and Maria Frost, and the film opens with Richard stating his intent to divorce Maria. What follows is a nearly three hour tour of the final 36 hours or so of the marriage as it goes from merely bitter to openly hostile as the couple and the various other friends and family members in their lives reckon with Richard's decision to end the marriage. Richard holds court with all of his fellow businessmen cronies and the ladies of the evening that keep them company, while Maria gets together with her friends—including Cassavetes' longtime wife and creative partner Gena Rowlands—at a bar where they make the acquaintance of aging lothario Chet (Seymour Cassel). Filmed in Cassavetes' handheld vérité style, the film is an achingly intimate look at the lengths people will go to in order to hurt the ones they love and burn every conceivable bridge in sight. This isn't so much a divorce as it is a razing of the lives of two people who once loved each other. One thing the film isn't quite as focused on as we might have liked is nudity. There is a nice shot of Lynn Carlin's bare ass when Seymour Cassel carries her from the bathroom to the bedroom an hour and fifty five minutes in, but that's the extent of the sexy content. Faces really does keep its focus on faces and not on anything much below the belt!