A Woman Under the Influence
If you have not seen this film, you have not seen one of the triumphs of independent filmmaking in the history of American cinema. Released in 1974 with no support or distribution from Hollywood, the movie, directed by John Cassavetes, examines the gradual mental collapse of an ordinary American housewife, played by the divine Gena Rowlands (her husband is played by the equally divine Peter Falk). In Under the Influence, we are in the home, the heart of an American humanism (an American sensitivity) that is rarely expressed on the big screen.
by Charles Mudede