Gena Rowlands Under the Influence

The death of Gena Rowlands last month, at age 94, gave me pause. I had always admired her devotion to her husband, the actor and writer/director John Cassavetes. Married from 1954 until his death in 1989, she was an important part of his work as an indie auteur. Together they collaborated on ten films, two of which (1974’s A Woman Under the Influence and 1980’s Gloria) brought her Oscar nominations for Best Actress. They also raised three children, all of whom now have acting and directing careers of their own. In 2004 she was featured in the popular weepie, The Notebook, as the older version of Rachel McAdams’ character, under the direction of son Nick Cassavetes. But she also performed admirably in the films of others, like Woody Allen’s somber Another Woman and Lasse Hallström’s comedic Something to Talk About. In 2007 her voice elevated the role of the wise Iranian grandmother in the English-language version of Marjane Satrapi’s marvelous animated Persepolis.

 It was heartbreaking to learn that Rowlands lived with Alzheimer’s disease for five years before she died. This news reinforced my vivid memories of Rowlands coping with another mental disorder in A Woman under the Influence. At first it’s not clear that there’s anything wrong with Mabel Longhetti, other than stone-cold fury against her husband Nick (Cassavetes regular Peter Falk). She seems entitled to be aggravated: though a loyal husband and father, Nick  appears (like so many men) to be devoted above all to his work and his work buddies. The well-liked boss of a construction crew, he perhaps can’t help it when the city demands he and his guys labor all night to solve an emergency leak problem, thus forcing him to cancel on a long-planned “date night” with his pretty wife. Still, it’s particularly oblivious of him to show up the next day with his entire crew, expecting that Mabel will host an impromptu lunch party.

 The anger that’s inside Mabel can show up in some surprising ways. When Nick is gone on that overnight emergency, she heads for a local bar, drinks much too much, and picks up a willing stranger. Then, after Nick arrives home with his work gang, she goes overboard as a charming hostess, obsessively flattering and flirting with the guys. But it’s at a children’s backyard party that she seems to come totally unglued, leading to a manic insistence that all the kids exercise their creativity by shedding clothes and manners. This precipitates a chaotic homecoming by Nick, who slaps her, gets into a physical altercation with another parent, and eventually summons a doctor with a large syringe.

 We never see Mabel’s hospitalization, but stick with Nick trying to hold the family (including his own judgmental mother) in check. The film’s final act involves Mabel’s shaky return home, after Nick is finally dissuaded from throwing her a large surprise party. As some critics griped at the time, the movie is long (2 ½ hours) and ultimately bleak. But it takes advantage of Cassavetes’ penchant for keeping the camera locked in place. This makes for extended takes that give us an unflinching view of Mabel’s disintegration, as witnessed by those around her. She’s a woman whose talent for role-playing masks the fact that she doesn’t know who she is. It’s a bold, spontaneous-seeming performance.

 Cassavetes and Rowlands largely financed and distributed this film themselves, shooting on the cheap with faculty and students from the new American Film Institute. That’s why I was gratified to see the names of several of my eventual Roger Corman pals in the crew credits. (Hi, Mike Ferris!)