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A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE
1974
Director
John Cassavetes
Starring
Gena Rowlands
Peter Falk
Runtime
147 minutes
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This uncompromising portrait of domestic turmoil details the emotional breakdown of a suburban housewife and her family's struggle to save her from herself. Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk give unforgettably harrowing performances as a married couple deeply in love but unable to express their ardor in terms the other can understand. This landmark American film is perhaps the most beloved work from the extraordinary John Cassavetes.
"When I recently swapped top ten favorite films with my mother, it was on both our lists, despite our wildly divergent tastes. For Cassavetes, A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE was a peak in terms of mainstream attention and critical respect, a product of its stealthy accessibility and of the progressiveness of American cinema culture in the early Seventies. The middle film of his nine independent features, the film features a strong weave of melodrama as well as two take-notice performances by its stars (well deserving of their own essays or dissertations, Falk for breaking my heart, and Rowlands for the most fully human screen performance since the advent of sound) but its normative appeal only affirms its effectiveness at subversion. After all, this is a film that treats its first fifty minutes like a preamble, a constantly rolling narrative without discernible shape or sustained conflict, with dozens of unnamed characters moving through confusing, unestablished spaces and then, at who knows what hour of the day, gathering to eat spaghetti in the bedroom. And hold a singing contest. And casually take note of a seasonal increase in baby carriages by attributing it to 'something in the air.' What's going on here? What was I watching? I didn't know, and regardless of whether or not I now have a better sense of the larger design (of the film and of Cassavetes's art), it still doesn't matter. It's like nothing else on film, and I can't take my eyes off of it." Eric Hynes
"When I recently swapped top ten favorite films with my mother, it was on both our lists, despite our wildly divergent tastes. For Cassavetes, A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE was a peak in terms of mainstream attention and critical respect, a product of its stealthy accessibility and of the progressiveness of American cinema culture in the early Seventies. The middle film of his nine independent features, the film features a strong weave of melodrama as well as two take-notice performances by its stars (well deserving of their own essays or dissertations, Falk for breaking my heart, and Rowlands for the most fully human screen performance since the advent of sound) but its normative appeal only affirms its effectiveness at subversion. After all, this is a film that treats its first fifty minutes like a preamble, a constantly rolling narrative without discernible shape or sustained conflict, with dozens of unnamed characters moving through confusing, unestablished spaces and then, at who knows what hour of the day, gathering to eat spaghetti in the bedroom. And hold a singing contest. And casually take note of a seasonal increase in baby carriages by attributing it to 'something in the air.' What's going on here? What was I watching? I didn't know, and regardless of whether or not I now have a better sense of the larger design (of the film and of Cassavetes's art), it still doesn't matter. It's like nothing else on film, and I can't take my eyes off of it." Eric Hynes