Ray Carney

Ray Carney, also known as Raymond Carney, is an American "interdisciplinary arts scholar" primarily known for his work as a film theorist. His primary field of study is the works of actor and director John Cassavetes. He teaches at Boston University and has written several books on Cassavetes.http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/aboutrc/bookstore.shtml

Rowlands's response

Gena Rowlands has stated that no such film ever existed. She does believe, however, that as Cassavetes's widow, and the owner of several of her husband's films, including the released Shadows, she has legal ownership of any work-in-progress. And so, she has started a number of legal proceedings to confiscate the film from Carney and destroy it.

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Carney cites U. S. copyright law, which states that a work in progress or an alternate version of a work is not protected by the same copyright as the finished product, and so is in the public domain. He also has discovered documentation that gives ownership of the Ur-Shadows not to Cassavetes (and ultimately Rowlands) but to the cast and crew.

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Carney and Rowlands have always had a testy relationship. Carney was a close friend of Cassavetes in the director's final years, and used a number of private conversations, as well as documented sources, to form his book, Cassavetes on Cassavetes. Cassavetes on Cassavetes, widely acclaimed by both aspiring filmmakers and established figures such as Harmony Korine and Xan Cassavetes (his daughter), presents its subject warts and all, the good side and the bad. Rowlands did not read the book, but heard about some of the more unseemly aspects of her husband's personality covered within, and, according to Carney, began discrediting Carney's work, going so far as to have him fired from the Criterion Collection Cassavetes box-set-- after his work as scholary advisor had been completed. http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/discoveries/discint.shtml#hunka

Related Topics:
Harmony Korine - Xan Cassavetes - Criterion Collection

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Carney, for his part, admires Rowlands greatly as an actress, but has also called her an idiot who has no idea what she's talking about when she interpets her husband's films. Carney compares Rowlands to Norma Desmond, the Gloria Swanson character in Sunset Boulevard, and accuses her of whitewashing her husband's life, denying bouts of depression and doubt.

Related Topics:
Gloria Swanson - Sunset Boulevard

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Rowlands has not spoken to the press about the matter, but some, such as Jonathan Rosenbaum, have suggested that it might have less to do with trying to destroy or supress the film and more to do with Carney's name being attached with its find; Carney's caustic personal style, coupled with his usurping of the name Cassavetes for his own website http://www.cassavetes.com, has irritated members of the Cassavetes estate. The argument, again neither confirmed nor denied by Rowlands, is that they'll be more than happy to release the film once it has been distanced from Carney.

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However, past actions taken by Rowlands make Carney's supporters quite skeptical: for example, she asked that ten minutes be removed from her husband's film, Husbands, that she found offensive, including the famous and controversial vomiting scene. After the premiere of the Ur-Shadows at the Rotterdam Film Festival, an apologia was issued at the behest of the Cassavetes estate, which states that the Ur-Shadows was an unauthorized working cut never meant to be shown to the public, and that only the official and complete version of Shadows was meant to be seen.http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/en/film/6382.html This flies in the face of "more than happy to release it" once Carney's name has become detached from the find.

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The legal proceedings involving Ur-Shadows has been very costly for Carney, both emotionally and financially. Rowlands, he argues, being a major Hollywood star with substantial finances at her disposal, has nothing to lose in this case; Carney, a University professor whose lawyer's bills costs "thousands of dollars an hour", says he stands to lose both his house and his job. Carney remains resolute that he will never surrender the film to Rowlands.

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