A Woman Under the Influence (1974)



I'd never seen all of a Cassavetes film before, but we watched A Woman Under the Influence today. I really enjoyed it, but I really didn't understand it. Here's what the wiki says: "[The film] tells the story of a young wife and mother's uninhibited, erratic, psychotic behavior which leads her violent, confused husband to commit her for psychiatric treatment, leaving the family even more dysfunctional than before." I guess that's what it's about. It was mostly Gena Rowlands acting totally insane and Peter Falk yelling and screaming at her. It was depressing and disturbing and made me uncomfortable in parts, which means it was powerful and affected me in some way. It didn't really have a plot, per se... but that's ok I suppose. I felt the same way about it that I felt about There Will Be Blood, in that they were both character driven films about a person [or persons] tearing apart everything around them and hurting the people they love the most. Have you seen this? Care to have a conversation about it? Call me and let's talk about it.
- posted by Mason @ 11:35 PM