Opening Night |  | Actors: Joan Blondell, Briana Carver, Katherine Cassavetes, Fred Draper, John Finnegan
Studio: Geneon [Pioneer]
Category: DVD
Buy New: $31.64
as of 11/24/2009 01:10 CST details
New (4) Used (9) Collectible (1) from $14.98
Seller: allgamesomefunk
Rating:  9 reviews
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Language: English (Original Language)
Genre: 0
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
ESRB: Teen
Region: 0
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 2
Picture Format: Academy Ratio
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 144 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
UPC: 130230027918
EAN: 0013023002791
Theatrical Release Date: 1977
Release Date: April 14, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
Gena Rowlands stars in John Cassavetes's drama of an aging, alcoholic stage actress in the days leading up to her latest Broadway opening. Just barely keeping herself together, she cracks after a young fan is killed while running after her limousine, continuing to see visions of the woman. Hitting the bottle even harder while her friends turn their heads and haul her off to spiritualists, she finally staggers in, barely able to stand, for her opening night performance. Like all of her collaborations with her writer-director husband, Rowlands is a woman on the verge of collapse, this time a lonely alcoholic whose very life is a performance. Overlong at 144 minutes, the film's long, loose scenes build through uncomfortable small talk and slow, tentative confrontations. Some of the scenes are edgy and thrilling, though many find this facet of Cassavetes pretentious and self-indulgent. Ultimately it's a matter of taste: if you like his style, you'll love this discomforting drama. Joan Blondell costars as the sardonic but confident playwright and longtime Cassavetes star Ben Gazarra is Rowland's smiling but pitiless manager. Cassavetes has a small role as her self-contained costar, keeping to himself until forced to deal with her onstage in a finale that is either an inspired ad-lib or the loopiest climax to a Broadway drama ever written. --Sean Axmaker
Description
Gena Rowlands plays a nervous actress on the brink of a breakdown as she prepares for the opening night of her Broadway play. The entire movie takes place in the few days prior to the opening and shows the backstage turmoil of a doomed production. Rowlands begins to fall apart when an adoring fan dies in an accident and she is forced to look hard at her life. Starring: Gena Rowlands, John Cassavetes, Joan Blondell, Ben Gazzara.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
 Awesome Performance by Gena Rowlands March 23, 2009
R.L.
I just saw this film on cable TV today, and it affected me enough to look it up on Amazon. Rowlands' complex portrayal of a famous actress who overly identifies with her character in a play--reflecting her own mid-age insecurities (no surprise for mid-40s starlets), is one of the finest I have seen on the screen. I knew she was good, but I never realized how good. Her drunken opening night performance was incredible, though her transformation from dead drunk in the first scene to cold sober? in the last seemed a bit unreal. Was it the black coffee?
Ben Gazzara, Cassavetes' buddy, played the harassed and empathetic director,and I thought he gave a convincing performance. Joan Blondell was quite good as the persevering writer (how much of the opening night performance was her script is debatable); Paul Stewart, an ex-patriot of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater, was the producer. Stewart and Blondell performed like old pros. John Cassevetes had enough to do as the film's writer and director to contribute as much as an actor. And there were even glimpses of Peter Falk,the third actor of this triumvirate of acting buddies who made a bunch of movies together largely reflecting, one suspects, their own lives. Unfortunately, only Peter and Gena are left. I wish these talented people hadn't smoked so many cigarettes. We miss them.
Damned good September 15, 2008
Cosmoetica (New York, USA)
John Cassavetes' 1977 film Opening Night is, what critics usually call the work of such a significant artist, `overlooked'. It is an excellent film, in its own right, and one of the best portraits of a midlife crisis ever put to film. It's not a perfect film, in that, at two hours and twenty four minutes it's about a half hour too long, and there's a bit too much emphasis on the drunkenness of the lead character Myrtle Gordon, played by Gena Rowlands, the wife of Cassavetes, long after we've gotten the point. But only Woody Allen's masterpiece, Another Woman, which also starred Rowlands, eleven years later, is a better portrait of the internal conflicts of an aging woman. Yet, Rowlands did win the Best Actress Award at the Berlin Film Festival for this portrayal, and it was well deserved. Often this film, written by Cassavetes, is easily compared to his earlier- and inferior- film, A Woman Under The Influence, but it's a spurious comparison. Rowlands' character in that film is severely mentally disturbed from the start, as well as coming from a blue collar background, while her characters in this film and in Allen's film are both artists who are haunted by apparitions. In this film it's the ghost of a dead young woman who can be seen as Myrtle's younger doppelganger, while in Allen's film it's her character's own past.... Many critics have taken this film to be a portrait of an alcoholic, seeing Myrtle surround herself with enablers, such as a stage manager who tells her, during opening night, `I've seen alot of drunks in my time, but I've never seen anyone as drunk as you who could stand up. You're great!', but this is wrong, for alcohol isn't her problem- nor is her chain smoking. They are merely diversions from whatever thing is really compelling her to her own destruction, and much to Cassavetes' credit, as a storyteller, he never lets us find out exactly 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 of consequence. This sort of end without resolution links Cassavetes directly with the more daring European directors of the recent past, who were comfortable in not revealing everything to an audience, and forcing their viewers to cogitate, even if it hurts.
Yet, the film recapitulates perfectly the effect of a drunk or fever lifting out of the fog, and as such the viewer again is subliminally involved in its drama. Whether or not Myrtle Gordon does recover, after the film's universe irises about her is left for each and every viewer to decide, and as we have seen before that lid closes, one's choices do matter.
"I'm not acting" October 28, 2007
bel_78 (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Opening night" (1977), written and directed by John Cassavetes, is a strange and emotional film that will make an impact on you. This story shows a human being during a period of deep emotional turmoil, and professional confusion.
The main character is Myrtle Gordon (played by a wonderful Gena Rowlands),a famous actress that is unable to cop with the death of a young admirer, killed in an accident near her. As if that were enough, Myrtle is afraid of really playing her part in a new play, due to the fact that she is supposed to be a woman that is getting old, something that she knows is true in real life. How does Myrtle cope with her fear of aging, and her remorse for not being there for her fan? What if she feels she is not able to act anymore? Too many questions, and answers that can be found in this film.
On the whole, I can say that I really enjoyed "Opening night". Watching this movie is not easy, but once you finish it you realize why it is worthwhile to do so...
Belen Alcat
If you can, watch "Opening night" before "All about your mother", as Almodovar's movie was partly inspired on this film.
 "An Actress Under the Influence." December 21, 2005
Wing Lee (Toronto, Ontario)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
While I watching Opening Night, I was instantly reminded of Annette Benning's "Being Julia", a film with some similarities. It's certainly also a star showcase piece Gena Rowlands, who seems to deliver her best and most vulnerable performance under the direction of her late husband John Cassavetes. It's an elaborate "soap-operaish" drama about the reality of an aging stage Diva. Rowland's character once said," When I was 18, I could do anything...". She's on the verge of nervous breakdown, dued to her lack of self-esteem and confidence in starring in her new play. She doesn't feel comfortable playing the new role, because she worried that if she's convincing enough that her audiences would accept her for just being one kind of character. During the course of two days before the opening night, she gets into feuds with the playwright, director, and producer. She is haunted by the ghost of her youth, whom she couldn't let go of, and embrace her real age. Ultimately, she had to abuse alcohol and chain-smoking before going on stage. Perhaps that was the only way she could forget herself and get into character in order to deliver a mesmerizing performance.
This is certainly one of Rowland's best performances of her career. This film also features some fine supporting performances.
Behind-the-scenes info for Cass buffs January 26, 2005
M. Reed
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
For a fascinating behind-the-scenes info about Opening Night and a list of books about Cassavetes' work, go to Ray Carney's website dedicated to John Cassavetes (found through any search engine).
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
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