Opening Night **** (1977, Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, John Cassavetes, Joan Blondell, Paul Stewart, Zohra Lampert)- Classic Movie Review 9,089

Gena Rowlands is splendid as an ageing actress devastated when her biggest fan dies in an accident on her opening night, in John Cassavetes’s appealing 1977 drama film Opening Night.

A long (it runs 144 minutes), personal film requires you to be in touch with writer-director John Cassavetes’s particular style, but the 1977 drama film Opening Night is beautifully done all round, extremely appealing and touching. It stars Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, John Cassavetes, Joan Blondell, Paul Stewart and Zohra Lampert. Also, Cassavetes provides cameo spots for some of his faithful old pals, Peter Bogdanovich, Seymour Cassel and Peter Falk.

But it is brava for Gena Rowlands, who is splendid as Myrtle Gordon, an ageing actress devastated when her biggest fan dies in an accident on her opening night, and for trusty old Joan Blondell as Sarah Goode, the play’s sympathetic author.

Gena Rowlands won the Silver Bear award for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival for Opening Night.

Also in the cast are Laura Johnson, John Tuell, Ray Powers, John Finnegan, Louise Lewis, Fred Draper, Katherine Cassavetes, Lady Rowlands, Carol Warren, Briana Carver, Angelo Grisanti, Meade Roberts, Eleanor Zee, David Rowlands and Peter Lampert,

Opening Night is directed by John Cassavetes, runs 144 minutes, is made by Faces Distributing Corporation, is released by Faces Distribution (1977) (US) and Miracle Films (1978) (UK), is written by John Cassavetes, is shot in Metrocolor by Al Ruban, is produced by Sam Shaw (executive producer), Al Ruban (producer) and Mike [Michael] Lally (associate producer), is scored by Bo Harwood, and is designed by Bryan Ryman.

Gena Rowlands with her husband John Cassavetes.

Virginia Cathryn Rowlands (June 19, 1930 – August 14, 2024) is a four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner. Her work with her actor-director husband John Cassavetes in ten films includes A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Gloria (1980), gaining her Oscar nominations as Best Actress.

She won the Berlin Silver Bear for Best Actress for Opening Night (1977) and is also remembered for Woody Allen’s Another Woman (1988), The Neon Bible (1995) and her son Nick Cassavetes’s film, The Notebook (2004),

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9,089

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