SIN-E-FILE (Bo Harwood)

"I have the sin of the cinephile"- Jean Luc Godard

I am working on an article about Michael Ventura's excellent on-set diary book Cassavetes Directs: John Cassavetes and the Making of Love Streams, which has totally shaken up all my assessments of this incredibly mysterious and significant filmmaker, and might be the best book on the actual process of filmmaking that I have ever read. I interviewed Ventura over the phone a few weeks back and some of the stuff we talked about has sent me back to the film itself (which is hard to find on DVD in this country) and Ventura's companion documentary, I'm almost not crazy (also, sadly, hard to find). Its been a rewarding and daunting endeavor.

One of the aspects of the work that I am rediscovering is the music. Bo Harwood worked with Cassavetes for 15 years, starting in 1971 with Minnie and Moskowitz. Harwood composed music for the films and wrote and recorded songs (some co-written with Cassavetes) that are both heard in the background as source music and prominently featured. Harwood claims that often Cassavetes used the "scratch track" version of his compositions, rather than let Harwood refine it and re-record it with an orchestra. Some of these scratch tracks were actually recorded in Cassavetes office, with just piano or guitar, and ended up in the final film. Cassavetes appreciated the purity of these pieces and felt like that certain something wouldn't survive the refinement process. This, at times, frustrated Harwood.

Cassavetes applied this approach to many areas of the filmmaking process. Often times using non-professional actors, and even non-professional crew members, and simply riding the wave of sincerity and spontaneity, forming it into his own kind of truth. It takes actual "directing" to do this kind of filmmaking; a constant conscious conducting of moments, accidents and chance. Ventura does an amazing job of documenting this in the book, as it was happening.

Harwood was one of these "non-professionals" that was hired by Cassavetes to do a job that really shouldn't be trusted to a novice. On A Woman Under the Influence the sound man was fired and he asked Harwood, who was already working on the music, to do the sound recording job as well. Bo had never recorded sound for a movie before. Ever. John knew this and didn't care. Bo did it. He has worked as a sound man in movies and TV ever since. There are numerous stories like this. How did Cassavetes know it would be alright? One of the many mysteries about the man.

Watching Love Steams again, and hearing the strangely poignant music of Bo Harwood used so effectively by Cassavetes made me wish there was some way to have access to this music. Over the years I have come across other people who were very excited by this music as well, who were also lamenting its inaccessibility. So, on a whim the other night, I found Bo Harwood's email online and reached out to him. I expressed my appreciation of his work and asked what the possibilities were of somehow, someway having access to it. He was gracious enough to answer. I don't think he would mind if I share part of it with you.

"...Over the years, it never really occurred to me to 'put out' a CD of our music probably because I've just always thought the music is where it belongs. But for some reason, during this last year, I have received a lot of email from people who really appreciate the music and wonder where they can get it. One of these people was Jeffrey 'Luck' Lucas in San Francisco who spurred me several months ago to put something together. So I went to work. The CD has a few improv sessions of John and myself which was how we began our song writing together. Most do not know that John and I wrote a lot of really nice songs that only a hand full of people have heard. The CD has other selections that are more familiar, some raw songs, some fully orchestrated cues. Most of my time has been writing a 26 page history section covering the 15 years I worked with the man. I never get tired of talking or writing about John. I've been invited to a screening of "A Woman Under the Influence" at the San Francisco Film Festival on the 26th. I'm meeting Jeffrey then and been asked to play at a club he's billed at to play some of my new stuff. It'll be a terrific 3 or 4 days and hopefully Jeffrey's record people will take an interest in my CD 'booklet' project..."

What's the chances that a music industry on life-support would take interest in such obscure material? Perhaps such niche work is the only stuff that has a chance in the marketplace. Regardless, this is exciting news for lots of fans. I guess, short of sending record people his way, we have to keep our fingers crossed.

-Peter Rinaldi