‘Mabel is not crazy, she’s unusual. She’s not crazy, so don’t say she’s crazy...’
Alcoholism on screen is tricky. It’s a difficult balance between acknowledging that the good times with the devil ether can be life-affirming and truly beautiful but the bad times are, of course, soul-shattering. Perhaps it is when the latter outweighs the former that the insidious disease of alcoholism truly takes hold. A Woman Under the Influence portrays that downward trajectory through the eyes of a mentally unstable woman and her beleaguered husband…
Mabel (Gena Rowlands) struggles to adapt to the crushing mundanity of everyday life. She is desperate to be liked but her illness dictates that she is unable to communicate through the debilitating veil of alcohol and mental illness. Nick (Peter Falk), her loving but clueless husband, has no idea how to care for this woman. His increasingly desperate attempts to force her to be ‘normal’ are both unhelpful and doomed to failure.
From writer-director John Cassavetes (perhaps best known for his role as the male lead in Rosemary’s Baby), A Woman Under the Influence is a stark, powerful and authentic piece of work that recalls the British kitchen sink dramas of the ’60s whilst also being steeped in the bravery of the New Hollywood movement of which Cassavetes was a part. This was a time when the major studios were in flux and for a short while the auteur was allowed to thrive. Even in this environment, Cassavetes struggled to find a distributor for his film and had to remortgage his house to fund the damn thing. Ultimately, he was rewarded with financial success and two Oscar nominations – Cassavetes himself for Best Director and Rowlands for Best Actress. The latter fully deserved the recognition this film brought her. Her performance here is heartbreaking, haunting even. Having spent a lot of time around alcoholics in my years working in the pub trade, I can attest to the realism in Rowlands’ performance. The desperation to be liked, to be ‘normal’, to put others at east, actually has the opposite effect. Her relationship with Falk also rings true and even with a hefty runtime, the documentary shooting style ensures that A Woman Under the Influence remains gripping throughout.
With this film, Cassavetes has created a snapshot of addiction, a tableau of alcoholism, of suffering. This is the kind of powerful, daring cinema that thrived in the ’70s. A true golden age for cinema.