FREE ON YOUTUBE John Cassavetes - A Woman Under The Influence

FREE ON YOUTUBE (DU FINDEST DEN GANZEN FILM FREI AUF YOUTUBE) John Cassavetes is, of course, on our author's shelf. Take the test: Watch a Cassavetes movie for just a few seconds - and you know immediately: This is a Cassavetes movie! You recognize Cassavetes characters, Cassavetes dialogues and so on. Above all, Cassavetes films are very, very much talked about. Cassavetes movies are really afraid of silence. His characters are desperately looking for love. But they can neither give nor accept love. Cassavetes movies aren't interested in the well-known formulas of Hollywood studio productions, but in the spontaneity of life. Everything feels spontaneous, although of course Cassavetes didn't make a "Mumblecore". But he only worked with his family and friends, who probably knew his dialogues as well as he did. Cassavetes avoids something like a story arc. He is the opposite of a "storyteller". He never invented his characters. He let them arise through life itself. Cassavetes wife Gena Rowlands plays Mable, his friend Peter Falk Nick Longhetti, the man of Mabel. They live so close together with their family that there is no privacy whatsoever. The bathroom even has a "private" sign to suggest something like that. Mabel behaves strangely and drinks too much. In the end it becomes clear that Nick is just as crazy as Mabel. Seen this way, they fit perfectly. Mabel doesn't have any privacy. Her house belongs to the family at all times. Or annoying, unexpected visitors. Only in the hallway can she be a bit alone. Smoking, drinking, trying to think. There is always noise and chaos in the house. Mabel, under the influence of pills and alcohol, tries to create something like happiness in the midst of chaos. Especially the children are constantly asked to sing, to pretend, to be happy. This family is dysfunctional in the sense that it works according to its own broken rules. Cassavetes does not offer a solution. That wouldn't be a Cassavetes film! The turmoil will go on and on, even long after the credits are over. That's all we can say for sure. None of the characters will succeed in giving or accepting love. Alcohol and drugs prevent that. And sex and self-doubt. And, as with real auteur films, the view of the artist, the "auteur", is of particular interest. In this case it's quite simple. John Cassavetes alter ego is always the figure of his wife Gena Rowlands.