ACCIDENTAL GENIUS cover

ACCIDENTAL GENIUS

by Marshall Fine

Among filmmakers and film buffs, Cassavetes is revered. A major star of live television in the 1950s, he stumbled accidentally into making his first film, Shadows, while leading an acting workshop--and created a template for working outside the system that would produce some of the most piercing and human films of the next thirty years, including Faces, Husbands, and A woman under the influence. Turning his back on Hollywood, he became the prototypical outsider, fighting the system, financing and ultimately distributing his films himself, at a time when there was no apparatus to get a non-studio film into theaters around the country. His life and work are examined in this biography, with cooperation from his wife and muse Gena Rowlands and others of this inner circle, to reveal just how daring and forward-thinking he was.--From publisher description.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?