What love is capable of
On October 12, 1974, at the New York Film Festival, the premiere of John Cassavetes’s film "A Woman Under the Influence" was held.
The history of this film demonstrates what love is capable of.
It all started with the fact that the actress Gena Rowlands asked her husband, director John Cassavetes, with whom by that time they had been married for about 20 years and had three children, to write for her a play about the difficulties that women face. The wife’s desire is law for a loving husband, and after some time John handed his play to Gena.
Later, Gena Rowlands recalled:"I couldn't believe John wrote it. I don't mean to be sexist because I don't really believe that women can't write for men and vice versa. But I really couldn't believe that a man would understand this particular problem."
However, along with amazement, John’s play aroused fear in Gena. The role, written for Gena, was filled with such intensity and emotionality that Gena realized that playing her on stage every day is fraught with serious nervous overloads and, as a result, urgent hospitalization. She immediately informed her husband of these concerns. Well, a loving husband immediately decided to remake the play into a screenplay and make a film on it.
The script, written by John Cassavetes, has not been accepted by studio producers. Whatever film studio John applied to, there was one answer everywhere: "No one will watch a movie about a crazy middle-aged lady." In short, funding for the project proposed by Cassavetes was everywhere denied.
Another would probably have stopped such an answer. But not such a loving husband as John was. For the sake of his wife, he even went so far as to violate the basic commandment of the American film business: "never use your own money." However, this very own money was not there. At least in sufficient quantities. John mortgaged his house and approached friends and family to help him.
The main contribution to the budget of the future film was made by John's friend - actor Peter Falk, who shortly before appeared in the television series by Cassavetes about the eccentric lieutenant Columbo. Falk has invested half a million dollars in making the film. Well, with the help of other friends and relatives, they managed to scrape together a total of a million dollars.
In a more than modest budget, the ensemble had to be formed of non-professional and semi-professional actors: relatives, friends, students of the American Institute of Cinematography, in which John taught at that time. All the actors, including Gena Rowlands, were shot in their own clothes (which had to be sent to dry cleaning after the day of filming for the night), they were also made up and combed themselves. Even in the space for filming a film studio, John was denied, had to rent a dilapidated house near Hollywood Boulevard. And under such conditions, the film was successfully completed.
But with the filming the problems of John as the author of the film did not end. Distributors together refused to rent a space for the picture. But a loving husband could not be stopped by this as well. He himself began to go around theaters, offering to show his film. Well, the students, of course, helped him. Major cinemas refused to John, but small cinemas, especially on student campuses, accepted film. One student later recalled: “It was the first time in the history of motion pictures that an independent film was distributed without the use of a nationwide system of sub-distributors”.
So, in a roundabout way, the film reached the New York Film Festival and, as a participant in the festival, caught the eye of film critics. One of them, Joseph Gelmis of Newsday, wrote that it was "an emotional blockbuster that should touch a nerve in every family that shelters an adult who's never grown up."
American film critic guru, Roger Ebert noted in his laudatory review that the meaning of “A Woman Under the Influence" is that this movie "give us insights not only into one specific, brilliantly created, woman but into some of the problems of surviving in a society where very few people are fully liberated". Maybe this is exactly what American producers and distributors “sensed” and therefore created all sorts of obstacles in the way of creating the film and its distribution? Subsequently, Roger Ebert awarded the film 4 stars out of 4 possible and included it in his list of "Great Movies".
In 1975, the film of Cassavetes received two Oscar nominations: for Best Actress and Director. In both nominations, the film lost, but lost to very worthy rivals: respectively, Ellen Burstin in Martin Scorsese's film “Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore” and Francis Ford Coppola for the film “The Godfather, Part II”. But on the other hand, Gena Rowlands received 4 other honorary awards for her best leading female role, including Golden Globe and the award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
And financially, the film of Cassavetes turned out to be very successful: with a budget of $ 1 million, its box office the first year in the United States and Canada was more than $ 13 million. Thus, the failure of American producers as businessmen was once again demonstrated: after all, the main thing that is required of a businessman is the ability to correctly calculate risks and forecast demand. But Peter Falk turned out to be more insightful than all American film producers: for the sake of participating in this film, he refused to participate in the film "Day of the Dolphin", which turned out to be very average and did not gain the fame that the "A Woman Under the Influence" received. In addition, as the main sponsor of the picture, he was in financial gain.
The film was highly praised not only by film critics, but also by the audience: 71% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users rated the film 8 or higher. According to FilmGourmand, the film "A Woman Under the Influence" has a rating of 8.393 and occupies 365th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
