| Overview: | Cassavetes' most commercially successful feature and a benchmark of American independent cinema, A Woman Under the Influence is a devastating drama starring Gena Rowlands as Mabel Longhetti, a mother of three whose blue collar husband Nick (Peter Falk) toils as a construction worker. Their simmering differences lead to a series of domestic dramas that eventually culminate in Mabel's nervous breakdown and six-month stay in a psychiatric hospital. Once released, Mabel and Nick must confront their uncertain futures.
A characteristically honest and uncompromising look at emotional breakdown, mental illness and suburban alienation, "A Woman Under The Influence" boasts one of cinema's most memorable performances from Rowlands, who won a Golden Globe and also earned an Academy Award nomination. Cassavetes was also recognized by the Academy, and his long-takes, extreme close-ups, "improvisational" approach to dialog (actually scripted) and attentiveness to mood and emotion as opposed to narrative pay dividends. Distributed by Cassavetes himself to avoid studio interference, this is a truly astonishing, maverick work.
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