John Cassavetes wrote and directed Opening Night, an emotionally wrenching psychological drama, set in the theater milieu.
The movie stars his wife actress Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, Joan Blondell, Paul Stewart, Zohra Lampert, and Cassavetes himself.
The plot centers on a stage actress who, after witnessing the accidental death of a fan, is haunted by recurring apparition of the deceased woman, spurring a nervous breakdown while she prepares for the premiere of her new play.
Rowlands plays Myrtle Gordon is a famous but troubled middle-aged actress performing out-of-town previews in New Haven, Connecticut of a new play called The Second Woman before its Broadway run.
While leaving the theatre after a performance, Myrtle signs autographs and encounters an obsessive teenaged fan, Nancy, who runs after Myrtle into the street and is struck by a car. Myrtle is unsettled by the incident, and even goes to the girl’s Shiva (Jewish mourning) , though her family greets her coolly.
Myrtle struggles to connect with her character in The Second Woman. Over the course of run, Myrtle departs from the play’s script in myriad ways, including changing lines, throwing props around the set, breaking the fourth wall, and collapsing on stage.
The writer, Sarah Goode, attempts to force Myrtle into facing her age, and Myrtle admits to have been seeing the apparition of Nancy—the teenager killed in the car accident; Myrtle believes it is a projection of her youth.
Myrtle’s state of mind continues to deteriorate, and she begins to drink heavily. She imagines Nancy attacking her, and later she throws herself against the walls of Sarah’s hotel room, breaking her sunglasses and slashing her face. The incident disturbs Sarah, who expresses her wish to have Myrtle replaced in the play, feeling she is psychologically unable to perform. After storming out of a rehearsal, Myrtle visits Sarah’s spiritual medium for help and has another violent encounter with her vision of Nancy, this time “killing” Nancy’s ghost.
Myrtle attempts to seduce Maurice Aarons, her leading man and former lover, but he refuses.
Myrtle fails to show up on time for her call on opening night. When she finally arrives, Myrtle is so drunk that she can barely stand. The audience grows restless, and after pressures from director Manny Victor, Myrtle struggles through the show’s opening scenes, collapsing before her entrance and again on stage.
As the show continues, Myrtle and Maurice go off script and improvise the play’s final act, to the producers’ chagrin, but the audience’s rapturous applause.
A dense, tough film to watch, Opening Night is elevated by the undeniable power of Gena Rowlands’ performance.
Rowlands is seen draped in long, black, specter-like capes and collars, while the primal world around her is colored in bright and bloody reds.
The film is not meant to be a portrait of an alcoholic or chain smoker, which are secondary as symptoms of her own self-destruction. It turns a funhouse mirror onto the crushing rituals of film acting and celebrity culture.
As usual, Cassavetes never offers exact details about what’s wrong with Myrtle. And despite her coming through in the end, there’s no reason to expect that she has really resolved anything.
Lacking a clear resolution or closure, Opening Night differs from mainstream Hollywood cinema, and is closer in spirit to European directors, making complex tales with with ambiguous endings.
As usual, Cassavetes struggled to get Opening Night distributed in the U.S. After some preview screenings, it finally opened on December 25, 1977, at the Fox Wilshire Theater, where it played to empty houses, and closed in February.
Screenings in New York City in March of 1978 were similarly ignored. The film was only picked up by an American distributor in 1991, two years after Cassavetes’ death.
Opening Night was critically panned in the U.S. upon its initial release. For instance, the review in “Variety” noted, “One must question whether more than a handful of moviegoers are interested in the effort, whether audiences have not already seen enough of Cassavetes’ characters … He’s made these films before and not many seemed interested in them.”
When it opened in New York, the film was not reviewed at all in most newspapers and magazines.
Critical Status
In 1978, it was entered into the 28th Berlin International Film Festival, where Gena Rowlands won the Silver Bear for Best Actress.
The film was screened out of competition at the 1992 at the Cannes Film Fest.
Reel/Real Imact
Almodovar uses the film’s accident scene in his 1999 masterpiece, All About My Mother as the tale’s dramatic center.
Cast:
Gena Rowlands as Myrtle Gordon
Ben Gazzara as Manny Victor
Joan Blondell as Sarah Goode
Paul Stewart as David Samuels
Zohra Lampert as Dorothy Victor
John Cassavetes as Maurice Aarons
John Tuell as Gus Simmons
Laura Johnson as Nancy Stein
Lady Rowlands as Melva Drake
John Finnegan as Bobby
Fred Draper as Leo
Katherine Cassavetes as Vivian
Louise Lewis (credited as Louise Fitch) as Kelly
Carol Warren as Carla
Ray Powers as Jimmy
