A Woman Under The Influence Review

17th Sep 2012

The films of John Cassavettes are different from most other American filmmakers. To me his films always seemed to have a high degree of human drama akin to the films of Ken Loach; the narratives are distinctly un-Hollywood and in many films such as this film there seems to be an almost improv style going on. Indeed he is often considered the father of American independent film breaking from the mould of Hollywood. For anyone who has seen any films by John Cassavettes they are often slow moving and the viewer has to join the dots together in order to work out what is going on. I for one saw this film for the first time many years ago and have to admit that I found it interminably long to get to any point. However, anyone familiar with this filmmaker’s career will have worked out that in fact the opposite is the case and the director is actually rather impatient to get to the point and the viewer must do the work in joining the narrative together (anyone who knows Cassavettes films will know that he also scripted all his films and had a closer than the norm hand in the editing as well as used many family members and loved ones in the film or the crew). His films cannot be viewed passively and require a degree of the viewer involving themselves with the drama happening on the screen. It is also the case that the viewer can equally remain objective and there are no good guys or bad guys here – just people.

The film focuses on the blue collar American family of Nick and Mabel Longhetti (Peter Falk – TV’s Columbo and Cassavettes’ real life wife, Gena Rowlands) who between them have three kids. It begins with Nick unable to get off work to come to spend the evening with his wife much to his chagrin and instead Mabel goes to a bar, gets drunk and brings back a businessman who she spends the night with. Appalled by her own behaviour the next morning, Nick then arrives back home with some of his work colleagues when she cooks them a spaghetti dinner (we are led to believe that this is an Italian-American family). From here on over the course of the next couple of days we can see that Mabel is having a slow meltdown and is descending into madness or at least a nervous breakdown. The snide remarks by Nick’s matriarchal mother (played by Cassavettes real-life mother, Katherine Cassavettes) suggest that there is some background here. It is never revealed throughout the film whether this is a nervous breakdown, whether there is history here or what has led to Mabel’s mental collapse. And in a way it doesn’t matter. The film focuses on how the family copes with the crisis and how the family unit begins to fall apart because of it. Things become so bad that Nick feels he has no option but to have Mabel institutionalized (at the behest of his mother). Nick struggles to cope as a single father and appears to lose it himself. The lengthy last act jumps forward 6 months to Mabel’s release and her welcome home party which doesn’t appear to go well. I shan’t give away the end for those who haven’t seen but this is an engrossing film.

Don’t’ let its length (at almost 2.5 hours) put you off; after an initial slow start you will find that the film drags you in and won’t let you go. I remember after seeing it for the first time (my own impressions matches that of Tom Charity’s who wrote the accompanying booklet essay) that I felt I had been watching a life drama through a view finder. Afterwards I remember feeling a little violated, embarrassed and shocked by the film. But this is not because of anything that we see or particularly happens that the film appears so intimate (some is shot in close hand held) that we feel like we are witnesses. Indeed there are elements to the film which are psychologically shocking and this is where Cassavettes is an incredibly clever filmmaker. His films are not easy to watch; one does get the feeling that he has opened up a mental wound and laid it bare. Much of this is also thanks to his wife, Gena Rowlands emotional performance in which she descends into madness. It doesn’t always work, but when it does it is first rate and fully deserved her Oscar nomination for the role. Rowlands herself said that she was verging on madness constantly playing the character and going crazy every day. For anyone who has not seen this I would strongly urge you to.

A Woman Under the Influence is one of an on-going collection of John Cassavettes films being planned and released by BFI which includes essays and interviews on the disc and in the essays. It is a powerful drama and a reminder that not all that has come from America is big budget, action or horror but instead a drama in which the protagonists are all flawed yet we still hope for a peaceful resolution.