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Plot Summary
Broadway actress Myrtle Gordon (Gena Rowlands) rehearses for her latest play, about a woman unable to admit that she is aging. When she witnesses the accidental death of an adoring young fan, she begins to confront the personal and professional turmoil she faces in her own life. Featuring a moving performance by Rowlands (and with some scenes shot on stages with live audiences reacting freely to the writing and performing), John Cassavetes’ Opening Night exposes the drama of an actress who at great personal cost makes a part her own.
Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
95%- Reviews Counted: 22
- Fresh: 21
- Rotten: 1
- Average Rating: 7.8/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Fresh: Gena Rowlands turns in another virtuoso performance as the troubled actress. Cassavetes' highly personal work will please his coterie of enthusiasts, but for general audiences it will be viewed as shrill, puzzling, depressing and overlong.
Fresh: The scenes in which Myrtle consults first one and then another spiritualist are typical of Cassavetes's genius in filming madness.
Fresh: Juggling onstage and offstage action, Cassavetes makes this a fascinating look at some of the internal mechanisms and conflicts that create theatrical fiction.
Fresh: As per usual it features a superb cast, including the ever-present Gena Rowlands, who successfully improvise their way the film.
Customer Reviews
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Opening Night is one of the longest films Cassavetes ever directed, clocking in at 144 minutes in length. It is evident that he poured in his heart and soul into the film, and was almost speaking to the audience about himself as a filmmaker and as a human being, as well as about his wife as an actress and as a human being.
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