Product Description

A tough-minded, moving film about a working-class housewife's mental breakdown caused by imposed social rules. This insightful study of sexual politics earned both Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes an Oscar nomination. Gena Rowlands, Peter Falk, and Matthew Cassel.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #83851 in DVD
• Released on: 1998-03-24
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 155 minutes

Amazon.com
John Cassavetes's long, free-form drama is best appreciated as a good showcase for Gena Rowlands, playing a woman whose sanity literally appears to be shattering as different aspects of her personality eclipse others at various times. Peter Falk plays her struggling, blue-collar husband, trying to understand the phenomenon and sometimes losing his patience. As with most of Cassavetes's works as a director, one can't help but find one's attention drifting in and out (especially at two and a half hours), but Rowland's performance is a key reason the film has been declared a "national treasure" by the Library of Congress. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Great movie, awful DVD
See the other reviews for words on the great performances and natural energy of this film; I want to warn everyone off this sub-standard DVD version.

First off, the disc is 2-sided -- the last 45 minutes of the movie are on side 2 and the side break is extremely abrupt. The film is only about 2-1/2 hours long, it should comfortably fit on a dual-layer disc. Second, the film is presented in full screen, not letter-boxed in any way. Finally, the first side has some strange defect where the chapter/time elapsed are not available or displayed.

This is supposed to be a "Special Edition"!

GREAT MOVIE, NOT THE GREATEST DVD
Regarding the movie - it's cinema verite style (in other words, kitchen sink realism) will make you feel distinctly uncomfortable and "there" in the room with Falk and Rowlands and their troubled relationship. For this reason alone, the film is amazing. Peter Falk is unbelievably strong. Anyone who sees him as just "Columbo" needs to cop a load of this movie. There are very few actors alive or dead who could deliver this kind of raw, honest performance - De Niro, Hoffman, Pacino, you name it. The problem I have with the DVD is, aside from the fact that there are absolutely no special features or anything, it is double-sided. Meaning, half way through the movie, you have to take out the disc and turn it over. I don't know if a lot of DVD's are double-sided but that was kind of a bummer for me. To other people, this may not be a big deal, though.

An Important Film!
I've been a Casavettes & Gena Rowland's fan for years and "Woman Under Influence" is probably their greatest achievement. It is a complex, tough movie, terrifying at times (you actually want them to stop a scene already since it is so painful) and the film works on different levels from other films we're used to seeing - that we cannot always concieve at first. I remember seeing it the first time, not totally understanding it, but was drawn to see it again - as I still do since it came out on video. Mabel is unforgettable - with Gena giving the performance of a lifetime (what a face that woman has!) - and Peter Falk is also wonderful. John Casavettes was before his time, had a remarkable eye, capable of conveying feelings and emotions thru scenes and thru his actors that we choose not to see or simply refuse to acknowledge they exist."Woman Under Influence" isn't easy, but worth going thru.