Opening Night (1977)

Director:

John Cassavetes

Writer:

John Cassavetes (writer)

Release Date:

17 April 1978 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

An actress suffers an emotional uproar in her personal life after a fan dies trying to see her.

Plot Keywords:

Actress | Theater | Drunkenness | Hit By Car | New York City

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Gena Rowlands	...	Myrtle Gordon
John Cassavetes	...	Maurice Aarons
Ben Gazzara	...	Manny Victor
Joan Blondell	...	Sarah Goode
Paul Stewart	...	David Samuels
Zohra Lampert	...	Dorothy Victor
Laura Johnson	...	Nancy Stein
John Tuell	...	Gus Simmons
Ray Powers	...	Jimmy
John Finnegan	...	Prop man
Louise Lewis	...	Kelly (as Louise Finch)
Fred Draper	...	Leo
Katherine Cassavetes	...	Vivian
Lady Rowlands	...	Melva Drake
Carol Warren	...	Carla

Runtime:

144 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG-13

Company:

Faces Distribution

Quotes:

Sarah Goode: Just please tell me what this play doesn't express.
Myrtle Gordon: Hope.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Todo sobre mi madre (1999)

10/10

It was once suggested by Pauline Kael, never a fan, that Cassavetes thought not like a director, but like an actor. What Kael meant was his supposed lack of sophistication as a filmmaker; to take that comparison further, to me, it never feels like Cassavetes is directing himself in a film, it feels like Cassavetes implanting himself inside his own creation, like Orson Welles. Cassavetes is just as much of a genius as Welles, but far more important as a true artist (as opposed to a technician or rhetorician). This is like a cross between Italian passion (though Cassavetes was actually Greek) and Scandinavian introversion. Never before have inner demons been so exposed physically.

It's about the mystery of becoming, performing, and acting. Like a haunted Skip James record, it's got the echoes of ghosts all around. Rowlands' breakdowns, which are stupefying and almost operatic, surprising coming from Cassavetes, are accompanied by a jumpy, unsettling piano. Who is this dead girl? The metaphysical possibilities are endless, and it's amazing to find this kind of thing in a Cassavetes film, just the overt display of intelligence (there is also a brief bit of voice-over at the beginning). But then, he always was intelligent, he just never flapped it around for easy praise. This is not "Adaptation"; here, the blending of reality and fiction and drama is not to show cleverness but to show the inner turmoil and confusion it creates.

There's so much going on. The pure, joyous love when Rowlands greets her doorman; the horror when she beats herself up... The scene where the girl talks about how she devoted her life to art and to music is one of the most effective demonstrations of understanding what it means to be a fan of someone. You can see some roots of this in "A Star Is Born," and Almodovar borrowed from it for "All About My Mother." I think the ending is a little bit of a disappointment because of the laughing fits, but the preparation leading up to it is almost sickening. (You can shoot me, but I think the alcoholism, despite its urgency in many of the scenes, is a relatively small point about the film.)

It's a living, breathing thing, and it feels like a process: it could go any direction at any time. Like "Taste of Cherry," we are reminded that "you must never forget this is only a play." Yet it is dangerous: when Rowlands says that line, is it great drama? How will the audience take it? Is she being reflexive or does she just not care? Her (character's) breakdowns are incorporated into the performances, and ultimately the film, in such a way that it's like witnessing a female James Dean. 10/10