Film Screening: John Cassavetes' "A Woman under the Influence"
Speakers): André Fischer
Oscar-nominated for Best Actress and Best Director this film portrays the struggle of a working-class family for normality. The construction worker Nick Longhetti (Peter Falk) and his wife Mabel (Gena Rowlands) have three children. Although they have a loving relationship Mabel’s behavior, somewhere between unusual and mentally ill, seems to cause the instability in the family. After several critical events Nick decides to commit her to a mental institution. It soon becomes clear that the family’s problems are not to be fixed this way. John Cassavetes’ almost hyper-realist masterpiece shows a dysfunctional marriage from close distance and reveals the narrow conventions of social normality and cinematic realism.