Cosmo Vittelli is dedicated to pretenses of composure and self-possession. He also has a major gambling problem, and when he loses at an underground casino run by mobster Mort, he isn’t able to pay up. Mort then offers Cosmo the chance to pay back his debt by knocking off a Mafia-protected bookie.

If its neo-noir synopsis sounds generic, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie is anything but in form: the film is perhaps Cassavetes’ most radical work when it comes to structure and texture. Loose, raw and ahead of its time, we present the director’s preferred re-cut of his fatalistic masterpiece.