Watch A Woman Under the Influence For Free

Did you people see the same film I saw?

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

"A Woman Under the Influence" is an unrelentingly harsh film, much like "Requiem for a Dream" or "Leaving Las Vegas", but unlike those, this one is shot like a documentary, and while both of those are a little exaggerated to give a stronger impact, this one is a depressingly realistic portrait of mental illness. Since the film is shot so bluntly, it mostly relies on the performances of the actors for its power, and, man, do they deliver. Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk give 2 of the best performances that I have ever seen as a mentally ill, and possibly alcoholic and morphine addict (although this is only implied), woman and her angry husband who desperately wants her to be normal, to the point of trying to force this upon her.The film starts with Mabel sending her children to her mother in law's house, expecting her husband to come home since he promised her a "love night". He ends up not making it home for the night and Mabel gets black out drunk and takes home a man, seemingly unconsciously. It is implied that she is raped and when she wakes up in the morning she thinks the man is her husband, Nick. It is implied that she has been like this for a while during the next scene at a dinner table. Nick loves her, yet he is very reluctant to get help for her and he doesn't want to believe she needs it ("she cooks, she cleans, what's crazy about that?"). One moment she will be crazy and the other she will be calm. This attachment to her and desperation from her husband has caused her to go unhelped for a long time. Finally when she does get help, Nick becomes incredibly stressed and everyone at his job tries to confront him about it. This only makes him more agitated until eventually he pushes his coworker down a large hill of dirt, on accident (they're construction workers). He breaks many of his bones and Nick leaves to bring his kids to the beach to "have fun", but he is very on edge and is just as forceful to his kids. He eventually gives his kids beer on the ride back because they will "sleep like a rock", and it's this desperation that only makes his wife worse and his kids more attached to his wife. Once his wife comes back, we are very aware of how fragile the whole situation is for both Nick and to a greater extent Mabel. Our greatest fears come true however when we learn that Mabel is still crazy and Nick is still just as angry. The film subverts our expectations and hits us hard with the reality of the situation, and even though Mabel goes back to normal after her breakdown at the very end, we know that she could go right back to being crazy in the next few moments. The fact that Nick can't tell her that he loves her makes this even worse.

The late John Cassavetes and his wife, Gena Rowlands were able to carve an impressive niche into cinema history while Cassavetes was still alive, but the zenith of their work together had to be the 1974 film A Woman Under the Influence an explosive and blistering look at mental illness from a perspective that has been rarely explored on screen.Most films dealing with characters with mental issues take place after the diagnosis has been made and the character is either in therapy or has been committed. This film takes a different tack as we meet Mabel, a suburban housewife and mother of 3 played by Rowlands, whose mental issues initially appear to be something as simple as bipolar personality, something that can be dealt with via medication, but it is clear as we see Mabel interact in various social situations, that there are serious mental issues going on here, but for some reason, no one really wants to talk about it. Her husband Nick (Peter Falk) knows there is something wrong, but is still harboring a great deal of denial about it, despite the fact that he absolutely blows up at anyone else even hinting at the fact that there is something wrong with Mabel. There are moments where we see Nick punishing Mabel for behavior she doesn't know how to control for the sake of his own denial and it is heartbreaking to watch. It is also heartbreaking that Mabel is unsure of what's going on but gauges everything through her children....as long as her children love her, she doesn't care what anyone else says. This film is such a troubling watch because we want Mabel to get help and we see the people in her orbit walking on eggshells around her instead of telling her what she needs to hear. It is almost 2/3 of the way into the film before Mabel is actually committed and even sadder is the fact that when she's released, she really doesn't seem any better.Gena Rowlands delivers the most powerful performance of her career as Mabel, a master class in acting that won her a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination. Rowlands is gutsy and unhinged and absolutely riveting in a role that would be any actress' dream. Mabel is warm and sad and frightening. The scenes where she tries to fight Nick's decision to commit her and her eyes literally roll in the back of her head and the scene where she's in the street screaming at strangers in an effort to find out what time it is because she has to meet her kids' school bus are absolutely devastating. The school bus scene is especially powerful because Mabel appears so mentally shredded you're convinced that she isn't even in the right place to meet the bus and you're surprised when the bus actually shows up. Rowlands so completely commands the screen with this performance that during the 30-45 minutes when her character is not screen (when Mabel has been committed), the film comes to a screeching halt.Peter Falk is explosive in an almost Brando-esque turn as Nick, a husband who is at a loss how to help the woman he loves more than life. Falk has rarely been so powerful on screen and mention should also be made of the director's mother, Katherine Cassavetes, who plays Nick's mother.A once in a lifetime cinematic experience thanks to evocative, in-your- face direction, a pair of devastating lead performances, and a story that leaves you with hope and wonder about what happens after the credits roll.

Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk gave career defining performances in this 1974 film regarding the insanity of the wife and how it affects the family.Falk can be just as wily as he has to contend with wife Rowlands's outrageous behavior.It seems that the situations involved in this marriage just allow for the Rowlands character to go berserk. The film shows how children are affected by the occurrences and how well- intentioned family and friends can also lend to the chaos we observe.Rowlands is just terrific by the contortions she makes sometimes acting as if she is Lucille Ball-like and other times just driven to madness.

Fresh to Cassavetes' canon, A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE is tiresome and exhausting for my first-time viewing, throughout the entire running time (155 minutes), we watch a series of intense clashes between Mabel (Gena Rowlands) and Nick (Peter Falk), sometimes catalyzed by their family members or close friends, and the repercussions includes Mabel exacerbates her mental disability and the collateral damage to their 3 young children. Using intimate and irregular camera-work to demonstrate a fly-on-the-wall authenticity opens a maximum door for thespians to show off their superlative working-class liberation of feelings and emotion, Gena Rowlands, immerses into her character with optimum dexterity, from her quirks of sputtering and word-mouthing, the fervid and persistent advocacy of opera aria to the time-bomb of her squeamish frailty, we never know when will she explode, whilst time is ticking and the wait is taxing both for the players and the spectators. She also shines in her warmer facet during the heartwarming episodes with her kids. Mabel is a dream role any actress would be ever craving for, Rowlands is the performer nonpareil for her concentrated and committed dedication of embodiment without falling into the pitfall of borderline OTT. Falk, a flawless pick for an ordinary blue-collar, bedeviled by his wife's unhinged nature and stumped by the futile and consuming communication, improperly catches the worst moment to throw a surprise party for Mabel, his quandary could be easier to be related by the audiences, besides, his trademark out-of-focus eyes betray his frustration and it is certainly the situation is at his wits' end. This tiny budgeted film is a family workshop, kinfolks and friends constitutes the cast, e.g. both Cassavete's mother Katherine and Rowlands' mother Lady plays the in-laws in the film. Overall the film is a challenging project which unflinchingly debunks the underbelly of the marital bond, "till death us do apart" is so harrowing to listen under this circumstance. During the conjugal tug-of-war, Cassavetes pluckily interposes their children into the game, at the eleventh hour, it is the kids' relentless endeavor thaws the edginess induced by the heavy volley of laborious squabbles. Finally I must bellyache about the befuddling time-line, when Mabel brings a stranger to her house at night, it is the next morning Nick and his workmates come back from working, they have an unpleasant midday dinner, then it is the morning after Mabel's mother brings the children to home before school, right? Then how come later Nick's mother accusing Mabel for adultery at "last night"? Help me out here, it does bugs me, otherwise it is an indeed unique film of its own kind, although it doesn't gratify my satisfaction thanks to the frivolous and dreary altercations, I am always coveting for a bit more from the story plainly extracted from the lifelike experience, other than accentuates the tedious and irksome sensory overkill, it would be nicer if a sensible approach could lead us to a palliative nostrum to set our cerebral phase back to a normal state.