A Woman Under the Infuence

The art of uncomfortability. Cassavetes goes further than anyone to personalize his projects. This film, set in his own house, starring his family and friends, made by other friends, was produced from money off mortgages on his house. The story stars his wife as a manic housewife whose erratic behaviors sends her to a mental hospital. Family and friends make her out to be the problem for the whole family, but a welcome home party turns into a large fight and shows as many problems in the husband as her. A "woman under the influence" may be her under the influence of a controlling husband. The uncomfortability comes in the doco-realism of the story and the focus on the most unnerving moments of the situation. Cassavetes always said he filmed Gena Rowlands to play himself, but I don't understand how that applies here. Cassavetes personalizes this story, but this may be a foreign subject. The reward of the film is in Gena Rowland's performance but the film may have been kept from greatness becauses it focuses so much on the realism that it lacks clarity about the characters.