#LadyRowlands

[doomonfilm]

Thoughts : A Woman Under The Influence (1974)

Stanley Kubrick might be my favorite director, but John Cassavetes has far and away had the most influence on me.  He laid down the gameplan that I have been following since I became hip to him : use your talents to earn the revenue that will fuel your passion.  Most know Cassavetes as an actor (television and film) and an influential member of the New York creative scene from the 1950s until his passing in 1989.  Those who are really hip know about his collection of passion projects, with the most famous of these 5 films probably being A Woman Under the Influence.

Mabel (Gena Rowlands) and Nick (Peter Falk) are a Los Angeles couple trying to resolve their trouble in paradise.  Mabel is a housewife and mother of three whose strange mannerisms and unpredictable tendencies continually get her into situations and worry her loved ones.  Nick is a construction worker who wants to live a normal life, but work pressures and his concerns about the well-being of his wife (or her ability to raise and protect their children) keep him under constant stress.  After a series of particularly ‘peculiar’ behaviors, Nick decides to have Mabel committed to an institution in order to protect her from herself.  This action not only creates divides within the family, it forces Nick to take a long and hard look at his ability to love and be loved.

If you don’t completely feel drained after watching this film, you may lack empathy.  The amount of dedication that Rowlands and Falk put into their performances is massive, and every bit of that blind faith and unconditional commitment to the performances is amplified in the final product.  Large portions of this film were shot in Cassavetes and Rowlands’ home, and both of their mothers play mothers in the film (Lady Rowlands getting the pleasure of playing mother to real life daughter Gena).  This blurring of the lines between story and reality helps make the actors much more comfortable and natural, seeing as many of the people in this film are friends and acquaintances that spend time in the home already.   There is no room for falseness, indication in the acting, or ‘cutting corners’... everything about this film hits you right in the feels.

The slight ambiguity of the story makes it equally as intriguing as it is uncomfortable.  It is never and truly really made clear why Mabel does what she does, or what the motivating factors are.  The only facts we know is that she is a passionate person who will willingly go wherever those passions lead her, regardless of who is affected by those actions.  Her kids are extremely loving, but a bit overly sensitive and not quite fully adjusted to the ‘normal’ world.  Nick is literally being torn into two pieces by his emotions right in front of our eyes... you can hear how much he loves Mabel, even when he shows it in his frustrated yelling; but you can also see how hard it is for him to stand up to his boss with an authoritative voice while being unable to let his coworkers hear him mention his wife.  Throw in a doctor with his own self interests, and family members who seemingly have been DYING to share their opinion on the matter, and you are taken into a vortex of misplaced love and anger quicker than you can prepare yourself.

Gena Rowlands gives a command performance as Mabel, towing a line between pure unhinged method acting in the moment and extremely calculated choices meant to emulate a female lion ready and willing to protect her cubs.  Peter Falk gives one of the most emotionally conflicting everyman performances I can recall.  The construction worker crew is made up of many famous character actors and Casavettes regulars, and the family in the film is also comprised of Casavettes regulars and actual members of the Casavettes, Rowlands and Cassel families.

John Cassavetes found a direct line to emotional realism with his 5 independent releases, and A Woman Under the Influence serves as a wonderful midpoint of that collection.  It is the first color film of the group, the first to usher in a post-1960s feel, and possibly the most directly personal of the group outside of the enigmatic The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (which I will definitely come back to soon).