Film Octavio Carbajal Gonzalez Review

A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

Octavio Carbajal González
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A Woman Under the Influence is one of the most famous films directed by John Cassavetes, the father of American independent cinema. Cassavetes used to make his own films behind the back of the big industry and financed them with the earnings of his career as an actor. For this reason, he could afford to make a more difficult and risky type of cinema, since his proposals were absolutely unfeasible in Hollywood. His work usually dealt with crude and direct portrayals of human feelings and relationships between people. Above all, Cassavetes constantly avoided forced drama and aimed for a realism that focused on the little moments of everyday life.

The plot of A Woman Under The Influence is minuscule, Cassavetes places his main focus on the psychology of the characters and not in the structure of a traditional story. Nick Longhetti (Peter Falk) is a middle-aged construction worker who is married to Mabel (Gena Rowlands), a housewife with whom he has three young children: Angelo (Matthew Labyorteaux), Tony (Matthew Cassel) and Maria (Christina Grisanti). The main problems of the couple are the angry temperament of the man and the psychological volatility of the woman. Mabel suffers from a borderline personality disorder that leads her to behave in a very erratic and unsettling way. The starting point is Mabel’s mental instability, she is exposed as a woman with heavy ups and downs, accompanied by extravagant attitudes. She adores her husband and her children, and loves to host social gatherings. But in her continual attempts to be a good mother and wife, she causes violent and uncomfortable situations. Cassavetes is also concerned with creating a detailed portrait of Nick, a man who tries to have a balanced home but is unable to set an exemplary attitude. After Nick breaks his promise of spending an evening with his wife due to a work emergency, Mabel goes out and ends up having casual sex with a stranger that she met in a bar. The next morning, after working all night, Nick shows up at the house with his co-workers. They end up having a communal meal, in which Nick seems to test his wife’s ability to behave according to social conventions. It all results in an awkward moment due to Mabel’s obsession with one of the co-workers, and her insistence on dancing with all of them. Nick stops her with a loud yell that ends the meeting. Later, we see that Nick constantly mistreats Mabel, he is the stereotypical macho and tempered husband who loves his wife but loses his nerves too easily.

Due to a series of events in which Mabel’s mental instability exacerbates, Nick decides to go with a trusted psychiatrist and friend of the troubled family, Doctor Zepp (Eddie Shaw). Finally, they decide to admit her in a psychiatric hospital. During his time alone as the head of the family, Nick tries to heal the children’s sadness, caused by the departure of their mother. However, Nick’s nervousness and lack of patience with the little ones becomes evident. Mabel is confined for six months, and Nick has the unfortunate idea of ​​organizing a big party to welcome her back. However, he regrets this and throws everyone out at the last minute, leaving only the closest members of the family. When Mabel returns from the hospital, we discover that her joviality has disappeared. She has become a scared, cold and insecure woman. And that’s when Nick discovers that he loves the old, the real Mabel, even if she had that point of madness. Cassavetes, an expert in dissecting relationships and feelings between people, outlines here the great contradiction of marital relationships: you love and accept your partner’s personality, but at the same time you want to change or adapt him/her to your own tastes. Nick loves Mabel because of her strange personality, but he also wants to get rid off what is considered madness in her behaviour. But that’s not possible, because Mabel is largely defined by that.

Cassavetes’ style enriches the story with an outstanding level of realism. The audience sneaks into the main characters’ house and witness their personal miseries and conflicts. However, he completely flees away from melodrama and focuses on the little details. For example, we see nothing about the harsh therapy that Mabel faced in the hospital. This fact would be instantly highlighted in a conventional film, but the director is not interested in that. There are some scenes that would be solved immediately in most films, but Cassavetes stretches them until the point of reality: the meal with the workers that Nick invites to his house or the final party that celebrates the return of Mabel. These are long scenes in which apparently nothing happens, but the key is hidden in those trivial dialogues and silences. The closed camera shots make us empathize with the characters, we have the sensation of entering into their private worlds. This becomes evident when Mabel returns to the house after being admitted: she enters into the dining room and we expect that she’ll be greeted by her children. But instead of showing us the happy faces of the little ones, Cassavetes concentrates the scene in a close-up of Mabel falling into tears. This immediately results in a very intense and emotional scene. Mabel’s multiple close-up scenes with her children are unforgettable, since they exude an unprecedented purity that accentuates the feeling of intimacy.

As he already did and would continue to do throughout his filmography, Cassavetes sketched a crude, sincere and accurate portrait of human relationships with authentic realism. And as it happens in the real world, we don’t get a specific ending or a definitive answer to the problems. Mabel and Nick will continue together despite the fact that these conflicts are still present in their lives: life simply goes on.

by Ovctavio Carbajal González

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