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Actress Myrtle Gordon is a functioning alcoholic who is a few days from the opening night of her latest play, concerning a woman distraught about aging. One night a car kills one of Myrtle's fans who is chasing her limousine in an attempt to get the star's attention. Myrtle internalizes the accident and goes on a spiritual quest, but fails to finds the answers she is after. As opening night inches closer and closer, fragile Myrtle must find a way to make the show go on.
Die erste Vorstellung, Opening Night - Die erste Vorstellung, 오프닝 나이트, 開幕之夜, La sera della prima, Noche de estreno, Premiärkvällen, 首演之夜, Премьера, Premiera, Премиерата, Noite de Estreia, Premier, Noite de Estréia, Νύχτα πρεμιέρας, Nit d’estrena, Прем'єра
the hybridization of written word and improvisation evokes the truest emotions. it's the antithesis of an algorithm. yes, you can predict that myrtle will drink a lot and freak out, but it's impossible to know what she'll say, how she'll behave. she's alienating and selfish and frustrating, and best of all, she's real. an empathetic, not sympathetic, portrait of an aging woman rebelling against the two roles actresses are allowed to play: sexy or matronly. it's a false dichotomy, and myrtle/gena rowlands is living proof.
people often ask me which cassavetes movie to start with, and i think this one is easily his most accessible, thematic, and compelling. nothing makes me feel like that scene where john and gena are…
All actresses should get to play an actress and they should get to do it opposite the director they have a longstanding professional and romantic relationship with
someone hire me as a film programmer so i can bill this and Her Smell (2019) together as a double feature called ABCDEFG: Aging Blonde Creatives Do Extreme Freak-Outs, Great!
The insolubility of Cassavetes is intoxicating. It gives his work the impression of formless (hah) improv (also no) peppered with what is called "realism" because people aren't heard so clearly all the time and a handheld camera moves in close to study facial expressions and gestures. But that vague notion of what a JC film is is slowly torn apart as one settles into their first Cassavetes and nothing but a memory on subsequent discoveries. Were OPENING NIGHT not so dense and dependent on some grasp of Cassavetes to process, it might save the trouble of that learning curve. Its opening shots, announced without credits or fanfare as Rowlands' Myrtle moves swiftly from backstage to stage and the camera jumps…
An actress revolts. There's two things that really stand out for me about Opening Night. One is how easy it would be for this to be a very dry film about performing, theatre, aging and the relationship between actors and directors, yet Cassavetes never let it go down easy or theoretical, he remains thornier and never giving us an easy out. Things don't add up as much as move in as many directions as it can. And that brings to the other thing, how Opening Night is constructed, not methodical exactly because that is never the method, but how attentive and careful the build up and release of the film is. It always takes me by surprise when the actual…
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