A Woman under the Influence (1974)

Directed by: John Cassavetes | 146 minutes | drama | Actors: Gena Rowlands, Peter Falk, Fred Draper, Lady Rowlands, Katherine Cassavetes, Matthew Laborteaux, Matthew Cassel, Christina Grisanti, OG Dunn, Mario Gallo, Eddie Shaw, Angelo Grisanti, Charles Horvath, John Finnegan, Vincent Barbi, Cliff Carnell, Frank Richards, Hugh Hurd, Leon Wagner, Dominique Davalos, Alexandra Cassavetes, Pancho Meisenheimer, Sonny Aprile, Ellen Davalos, Joanne Moore Jordan, John Hawker, Sil Words, Elizabeth Deering, Jackie Peters, Elsie Ames, NJ Cassavetes

John Cassavetes is a director who prefers to surround himself with a small group of people he knows well for his films. That guarantees the quality of his films. In ‘A Woman under the Influence’ this works very well again. Gena Rowlands (Cassavetes’ wife) and Peter ‘Columbo’ Falk (boyfriend) put on a very raw family drama that is so real and poignant it’s hard not to be impressed.

We immediately see that something is wrong with Mabel. Obsessed with the well-being of her children, she berates her mother who takes the children over for the night. She constantly talks to herself and involves the children in her strange fantasies. While Mabel’s craziness continues to mount, Nick tries to act as normal as possible. At the height of her slump, Mabel is completely unmanageable, and admission is inevitable.

Originally, the script was intended to be a play, but Rowlands persuaded Cassavetes to make it into a movie, because a constant repetition of her role as Mabel would be too exhausting. To understand her choice, the film has to be seen. Playing a fool is difficult, you quickly fall into humor or into overacting. Rowlands knows how to find this fine balance so well that the emotions it evokes in the viewer are sincere. From fear and surprise to pure pity and sadness.

But who is the real madman? While Mabel is locked up, Nick desperately tries to fill the hole Mabel leaves behind. In a gripping scene, we see Nick overshoot when he forces his visibly unhappy children to have fun on a day at the beach. On the way back he makes them drink beer and oracles some crooked wisdom. Nick can’t handle the situation well and even when Mabel returns from the clinic, the future is uncertain.

At odds with the pre-cooked Hollywood formula, Cassavetes made unconventional films in his day. Lots of long close-ups, idiosyncratic camera work, few locations and a choice for realistic, human dramas. Due to his style, he had the greatest difficulty in distributing his films. For ‘A Woman under the Influence’, Cassavetes literally passed several theaters with the film can under his arm without success. The film was not shot until up-and-coming director Martin Scorsese, a big fan of Cassavetes, threatened to pull his latest film ‘Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore’ from a film festival.

Cassavetes is considered a pioneer in bringing human dramas to American cinema. ‘A Woman under the Influence’ is purely human drama and therefore perhaps not always pleasant to watch. But don’t let the long running time and slow scenes put you off. For those who open up, it is an intimate and emotional experience, Cassavetes’ true masterpiece.