The Ritual Structuring of Experiences: “Husbands” by John Cassavetes

Elżbieta Durys

Abstract

Durys interprets Husbands in terms of a peculiar ritual. When we receive Cassavetes’ films through metaphorical and symbolic aesthetics known from Welles and Hitchcock, by conceptualising experienced impressions, we lose sight of what is most essential in them. Cassavetes - as Durys says after Raymond Carney - wants to make us reject these reception schemes, and waits for the meanings to emerge from a course of action. One cannot help giving up interpretations. In case of Husbands, the film about a reaction of three men to the death of a mutual friend, the anthropological key seems to be especially adequate. Citing the literature of the subject, Durys describes the place of a ritual in a contemporary and civilized world. She defines the ritual as a need, rooted deeply in human psyche, to tame an inevitable process of transition. In this context the heroes’ binge of alcohol drinking and a trip to Europe become both a peculiar funeral ceremony and the ritual of transition to the higher degree of maturity, which allows them to consciously make an effort to live real lives.