A woman under influence

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Movie
German title A woman under influence
Original title A Woman Under the Influence
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1974
length 155 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director John Cassavetes
script John Cassavetes
production Sam Shaw
music Bo Harwood
camera Mitch Breit
Al Ruban
cut David Armstrong
Sheila Viseltear
occupation

A Woman Under the Influence is a 1974 drama directed by American independent director John Cassavetes . The film is about a mentally unstable woman who suffers a nervous breakdown and her family.

action

Mabel Longhetti has been married to construction worker Nick for ten years, with whom she has three children. For some time now, she has been suffering from psychological problems, especially since, due to her role as a housewife and mother, she has mostly had to suppress her own needs. When Nick has to cancel a planned weekend for two at short notice because of a broken pipe, the frustrated Mabel gets drunk in a bar and spends the night with a strange man.

The next morning, Nick invites his work colleagues to breakfast. When eating, Mabel causes confusion and embarrassment with her conspicuous and strange behavior. Although Nick apparently still loves his wife and always assures his friends that she is not crazy, but only "a little unusual ", she is becoming increasingly strange to him.

One day, when Mabel throws a party for her children and their friends, there is - again because of their behavior - a tangible argument with the father of a neighboring child. Nick then decides to have his wife admitted to a mental hospital. In the days that followed, he too became more and more irritable and tense.

After six months, Mabel is released from the hospital. Several friends and relatives have prepared a reception at home. She feels overwhelmed by the situation and doesn't know how to behave. Nick advises her to just be "herself" . At dinner together, however, it becomes clear that Mabel still has major problems.

After the guests leave, she makes a suicide attempt. Nick overpowers her at the last moment - he knocks Mabel down and threatens to kill her and the children. Finally he calms down and reconciliation occurs. When Mabel asks her husband at the end of the film if he loves her, he hesitates for a long time and then suggests clearing the table.

background

A woman under the influence was originally designed as a play. However, this idea was dropped because Gena Rowlands feared that she would not be physically and mentally up to the nightly portrayal of a mentally unstable woman.

In order to finance the production of the low-budget film , Cassavetes took out a mortgage on his house. As in his previous projects, he cast numerous roles with friends, such as Peter Falk, or family members, such as his wife Gena Rowlands, his mother Katherine Cassavetes and his mother-in-law Lady Rowlands. The shooting dragged on for two years. The dialogues were partly improvised .

Finding an interested rental company turned out to be extremely difficult . Nobody wanted to show the film. Cassavetes asked the then up-and-coming director Martin Scorsese to forego two screenings of his film "Italianamerican" at the New York Festival and thus to offer his film a forum. The reviews were consistently positive, but due to their experience with the more commercially unsuccessful films by Cassavetes, no company dared to distribute them. This led to the fact that Cassavetes finally decided to rent the film with their own company at great financial expense. The film became a surprising financial success.

According to John Cassavetes, the film is about two people who "just have no concept of how to deal with their feelings for one another" who are unable to communicate with one another. Of all of his films, A Woman Under the Influence was the director's personal favorite.

Awards and nominations (selection)

Trivia

In one scene, Nick is asked by his son if he can whistle. Nick then whistles the melody of the nursery rhyme This old Man . The same melody later becomes a recurring theme in Peter Falk's parade role as Inspector Columbo , who also whistles it.

criticism

The lexicon of international film praised: "Independently produced and partly improvised actor film, which reveals the neuroses, disappointments and violent fantasies of an average American family hidden behind the facade of normality. Actually convincing and cinematically brilliant."

Film critic Nora Sayre wrote in the New York Times : "The most terrifying scenes are extremely compelling, and this is a thought-provoking film that starts serious discussion."

literature

  • Ray Carney (Ed.): Cassavetes on Cassavetes . Publishing house of the authors, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-88661-256-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ray Carney (ed.): Cassavetes on Cassavetes . Verlag der Autor , Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-88661-256-2 , pp. 465f.
  2. ↑ A Woman Under the Influence in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used , accessed November 26, 2008
  3. ↑ 'A Woman Under Influence' Stars Gena Rowlands as Frenetic Wife: The Cast , nytimes.com , accessed April 22, 2020