A Woman Under the Influence ***** (1974, Gena Rowlands, Peter Falk, Fred Draper) – Classic Movie Review 10,327

Writer-director John Cassavetes’s savage dissection of the American family, the brilliant 1974 drama A Woman Under the Influence, stars his wife Gena Rowlands as a disintegrating housewife and mother and Peter Falk as her no-more-sane husband, noisily wrestling with money worries, demanding offspring and the shocked disapproval of the neighbours.

It is a movie that strips away social niceties to focus on a relationship in turmoil, and the two principals turn in fittingly shrill, agonised performances.

Cassavetes’s high-risk, improvisational style gives the movie a wonderfully loose-jointed energy and makes for a ride, which, while admittedly overlong and occasionally uneven, is altogether unique and totally exceptional.

It was nominated for two Oscars: Best Actress and Best Director. Rowlands won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama.

Also in the cast are Katherine Cassavetes, Lady Rowlands, Fred Draper, Matthew Cassel, Matthew Labyorteaux, Christina Grisanti, George Dunn [O G Dunn], Mario Gallo, Eddie Shaw, Angelo Grisanti, Charles Horvath, James Joyce, John Finnegan, Vince Barbi, Cliff Carnell, Frank Richards, Hugh Hurd, Leon Wagner, Dominique Davalos, Xan Cassavetes, Pancho Meisenheimer, Sonny Aprile, Ellen Davalos, Joanne Jordan, John Hawker, Sil Words, Elizabeth Deering, Jackie Peters, Elsie Asmes and Nick Cassavetes.

A Woman Under the Influence is directed by John Cassavetes, runs 155 minutes, is made by Faces Films, is released by Faces International, is written by John Cassavetes, is shot by Mitch Breit and Caleb Deschanel, is produced by Sam Shaw, is scored by Bo Harwood and is designed by Phedon Papamichael.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,327

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