DIRECTOR
John Cassavetes
FORMAT
35MM
RUNTIME
2h 24m
RATING
PG-13
CAST
Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, Joan Blondell, Paul Stewart, Zohra Lampert, John Cassavetes
SYNOPSIS
7:30 PM show introduced by film critic Amy Nicholson.
In a role equally as fragile and mercurial as A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE’s “Mabel”, Gena Rowlands is OPENING NIGHT’s “Myrtle”: a successful actress going kind of crazy in a play about aging crazily.
John Cassavetes’ hymn to that berserk business of performing, OPENING NIGHT is enhanced by its intense “old Hollywood” pedigree as Ben Gazzara, Joan Blondell, Paul Stewart and Cassavetes himself are the backing band for Rowlands’ knife-edged soloing.
From the first scene, the narrative is peppered with turn-on-a-dime ambiguity. Whole swathes of action take place “onstage” in front of a real-life audience watching the in-character cast — with a permeable membrane between stage and “reality” so tangible it hurts.
Azazel Jacobs writes: “I was 19 working as a projectionist/ticket seller and popcorn maker at Le Cinematographe, a lower Manhattan movie theater, when I first saw the films of John Cassavetes. Each screening was introduced by a lead, and as I waited in the hallway with Seymour Cassel, Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowlands, I was completely unaware to the gift of the moment. I was only able to watch the films after closing time, and each one left me knocked out. I just did not know film could do this. With so many favorites, it's more according to mood, and OPENING NIGHT captures theater in a way only film could, with its use of time, point of view, and in Joan Blondell, who carries film’s history in every frame.”
In a role equally as fragile and mercurial as A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE’s “Mabel”, Gena Rowlands is OPENING NIGHT’s “Myrtle”: a successful actress going kind of crazy in a play about aging crazily.
John Cassavetes’ hymn to that berserk business of performing, OPENING NIGHT is enhanced by its intense “old Hollywood” pedigree as Ben Gazzara, Joan Blondell, Paul Stewart and Cassavetes himself are the backing band for Rowlands’ knife-edged soloing.
From the first scene, the narrative is peppered with turn-on-a-dime ambiguity. Whole swathes of action take place “onstage” in front of a real-life audience watching the in-character cast — with a permeable membrane between stage and “reality” so tangible it hurts.
Azazel Jacobs writes: “I was 19 working as a projectionist/ticket seller and popcorn maker at Le Cinematographe, a lower Manhattan movie theater, when I first saw the films of John Cassavetes. Each screening was introduced by a lead, and as I waited in the hallway with Seymour Cassel, Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowlands, I was completely unaware to the gift of the moment. I was only able to watch the films after closing time, and each one left me knocked out. I just did not know film could do this. With so many favorites, it's more according to mood, and OPENING NIGHT captures theater in a way only film could, with its use of time, point of view, and in Joan Blondell, who carries film’s history in every frame.”
CAST
Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, Joan Blondell, Paul Stewart, Zohra Lampert, John Cassavetes
SYNOPSIS
7:30 PM show introduced by film critic Amy Nicholson.
In a role equally as fragile and mercurial as A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE’s “Mabel”, Gena Rowlands is OPENING NIGHT’s “Myrtle”: a successful actress going kind of crazy in a play about aging crazily.
John Cassavetes’ hymn to that berserk business of performing, OPENING NIGHT is enhanced by its intense “old Hollywood” pedigree as Ben Gazzara, Joan Blondell, Paul Stewart and Cassavetes himself are the backing band for Rowlands’ knife-edged soloing.
From the first scene, the narrative is peppered with turn-on-a-dime ambiguity. Whole swathes of action take place “onstage” in front of a real-life audience watching the in-character cast — with a permeable membrane between stage and “reality” so tangible it hurts.
Azazel Jacobs writes: “I was 19 working as a projectionist/ticket seller and popcorn maker at Le Cinematographe, a lower Manhattan movie theater, when I first saw the films of John Cassavetes. Each screening was introduced by a lead, and as I waited in the hallway with Seymour Cassel, Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowlands, I was completely unaware to the gift of the moment. I was only able to watch the films after closing time, and each one left me knocked out. I just did not know film could do this. With so many favorites, it's more according to mood, and OPENING NIGHT captures theater in a way only film could, with its use of time, point of view, and in Joan Blondell, who carries film’s history in every frame.”
In a role equally as fragile and mercurial as A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE’s “Mabel”, Gena Rowlands is OPENING NIGHT’s “Myrtle”: a successful actress going kind of crazy in a play about aging crazily.
John Cassavetes’ hymn to that berserk business of performing, OPENING NIGHT is enhanced by its intense “old Hollywood” pedigree as Ben Gazzara, Joan Blondell, Paul Stewart and Cassavetes himself are the backing band for Rowlands’ knife-edged soloing.
From the first scene, the narrative is peppered with turn-on-a-dime ambiguity. Whole swathes of action take place “onstage” in front of a real-life audience watching the in-character cast — with a permeable membrane between stage and “reality” so tangible it hurts.
Azazel Jacobs writes: “I was 19 working as a projectionist/ticket seller and popcorn maker at Le Cinematographe, a lower Manhattan movie theater, when I first saw the films of John Cassavetes. Each screening was introduced by a lead, and as I waited in the hallway with Seymour Cassel, Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowlands, I was completely unaware to the gift of the moment. I was only able to watch the films after closing time, and each one left me knocked out. I just did not know film could do this. With so many favorites, it's more according to mood, and OPENING NIGHT captures theater in a way only film could, with its use of time, point of view, and in Joan Blondell, who carries film’s history in every frame.”