Celebrated for bringing depth and nuance to roles ranging from a drug-addicted art dealer (High Art, Lisa Cholodenko, 1998), to a dying mother meeting her daughter for the first time (Monica, Andrea Pallaoro, 2023), Patricia Clarkson is no stranger to complex emotional terrain. Perhaps that is why she feels somewhat comfortable in the volatile world of A Woman Under the Influence, John Cassavettes’ 1974 masterpiece. The film centers around Mabel Longhetti, brilliantly rendered by Gena Rowlands, as a deeply loving, profoundly unstable housewife and mother of three.

We explore the extraordinary power and nuance of Rowland’s performance, the layered collaboration of Cassavettes, Rowlands, and Falk, and learn the extent to which the film was indeed a family affair. For this iconic film, we could not ask for a better guide than the woman Cooper once dubbed the “Unofficial Queen of Sundance”, Patricia Clarkson.

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