The Criterion Closet, every cinephile’s utopia, is now a traveling circus for all physical media collectors to visit across various cities in the country. Before hitting the road, the Criterion Collection’s physical media room, storing all their prestigious titles on Blu-ray, was a welcome home for actors and directors promoting their new projects. Not only can they indulge in their cinephilia, but creative artists invited to the closet can walk away with the ultimate swag for film buffs: classic and contemporary movies on physical media, restored in pristine fashion.
For those who watch the Criterion Closet videos posted by the home media distribution company (they are certainly a must-watch), you’re more than likely to find guests whipping out A Woman Under the Influence from the shelf and waxing poetically about its greatness. As their eyes light up at the sight of John Cassavetes‘ groundbreaking domestic drama starring Gena Rowlands, you’ll understand how formative the 1974 film is for a generation of filmmakers and actors who aspired to break new ground and explore the most vulnerable crevices of the human body.
‘A Woman Under the Influence’ is Beloved Thanks to Gena Rowlands’ Lead Performance
For a certain cohort, the Criterion Closet is a close approximation of the red carpet, and it has received its fair share of A-list attention to warrant that comparison. Winona Ryder, Zoë Kravitz, Channing Tatum, Cillian Murphy, Jamie Lee Curtis, and more have all stopped by to reveal their knowledge of arthouse cinema and film history, as well as to round out their physical media collection.
What do all the aforementioned stars have in common? They all selected A Woman Under the Influence from the shelf, or, in some cases, Criterion’s curated collection featuring five of John Cassavetes’ most essential works, which also includes Shadows and Opening Night. “Gena Rowlands’ performance in this is one of the best things I’ve ever seen,” Zoë Kravitz said while visiting the closet with her Blink Twice star, Channing Tatum. Jamie Lee Curtis noted the comparisons between her character in The Bearand Mabel Longhetti (Rowlands) in Woman Under the Influence. “It makes me really proud to think that something that I did as an artist would be in the sphere of the work of Gena Rowlands,” she said.
The overwhelming reverence paid to A Woman Under the Influence, and particularly its earth-shattering lead performance, tells you everything you need to know about its enduring power. The film was a culmination of Cassavetes’ daring, revolutionary independent style of filmmaking that laid the groundwork for the brand of cinema that subverted escapist tropes and offered something genuine and humane. Told through documentary-like honesty, the film follows Mabel, a lonely wife and mother stuck inside the house performing menial tasks while her husband, Nick (Peter Falk), is working at a construction site. Retrospectively cited as an insightful portrayal of mental health, Mabel exhibits symptoms of manic depression, joyous and exuberant one minute, and then hostile and upset a minute later.
Gena Rowlands’ Performance in ‘A Woman Under the Influence’ Broke New Grounds
Rowlands, who died in 2024, mounted a case for giving the finest screen performance in history in A Woman Under the Influence. Being directed by her husband, Cassavetes, she taps into the human condition with more intimacy than anyone had ever seen on screen in 1974, characterizing Mabel as an open wound overlooked by society. Cassavetes’ close-up, handheld photography allows Rowlands to chew the scenery and roam around freely, adding another layer of personality and curiosity to the enigmatic Mabel. Her ability to shift from affection to rage practically breaks the form of screen acting, and a film like this is allowed to be loose and light on plot with such a layered, dynamic performance.
Upon release, Hollywood was undergoing a revolution led by a new breed of movie stars who were physically unconventional leading men who sought troubled, deeply complex roles like Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and Jack Nicholson. New Hollywood reflected the dark and unpredictable times in America, but these films are primarily male-driven and focused, and rarely were women allowed to reach the psychological depths of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver or Randall McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The frequency at which women artists select A Woman Under the Influence inside the Criterion Closet reflects how much of a North Star Gena Rowlands’ performance truly is, as her turn embodies the feeling of disillusionment and constant pressure of the female experience in banal or perilous circumstances.
It would be easy for any sobering domestic drama to broadly demonize Mabel as “crazy,” but A Woman Under the Influence celebrates the character’s mercurial tendencies. In a sterile, conformist world, we should love her because of her unwavering, autonomous free spirit. Reflecting present times more than ever, Criterion should make sure to keep printing Blu-rays of the film, because their guests will continue taking copies.
- Release Date
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November 18, 1974
- Runtime
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155 minutes
- Director
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John Cassavetes
- Writers
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John Cassavetes
Cast
