A Woman Under the Influence movie storyline. The Longhettis are a working class family, Nick who heads a city works crew, and Mabel who stays at home looking after their three adolescent children, Angelo, Tony and Maria. Many people who look at the family from the outside believe Mabel is crazy, her behavior which Mabel largely attributes to her exuberance in trying to be who she thinks Nick wants her to be to put their family in a good light in whatever social situation.
Nick too knows the perception others have of Mabel, he who tries to do whatever he needs to to protect her. An incident involving Mabel may cross that line for Nick of what he believes he can handle on his own, versus needing the assistance of medical professionals, all in protecting the children and Mabel from herself, but equally what he believes is the good Longhetti name. Nick’s collective actions in dealing with Mabel before, during and after this specific incident demonstrate how emotionally capable Nick is in his own right.
A Woman Under the Influence is a 1974 American drama film written and directed by John Cassavetes. The story follows a woman (Gena Rowlands) whose unusual behavior leads to conflict with her blue-collar husband (Peter Falk) and family. It received two Academy Award nominations for Best Actress and Best Director. In 1990, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”, one of the first fifty films to be so honored.
About the Story
Los Angeles housewife and mother Mabel loves her construction-worker husband Nick and desperately wants to please him, but the strange mannerisms and increasingly odd behavior she displays while in the company of others has him concerned. Convinced she has become a threat to herself and others, he reluctantly commits her to an institution, where she undergoes treatment for six months. Left alone with his three children, Nick proves to be neither wiser nor better than his wife in the way he relates to and interacts with them or accepts the role society expects him to play.
After six months Mabel returns home but she is not prepared to do so emotionally or mentally, and neither is her husband prepared correctly for her return. At first Nick invites a large group of people to the house for a party to celebrate his wife’s return, but realizing at the last minute that this is foolish, he sends most of them home. Mabel then returns with mostly only close family, including her parents, Nick’s parents, and their three children to greet her but even this is overwhelming and the evening disintegrates into yet another emotionally and psychologically devastating event.
A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
Directed by: John Cassavetes
Starring: Gena Rowlands, Peter Falk, Fred Draper, Lady Rowlands, Katherine Cassavetes, Matthew Labyorteaux, Christina Grisanti, Xan Cassavetes, Dominique Davalos, Elizabeth Deering
Screenplay by: John Cassavetes
Cinematography by: Mitch Breit, Al Ruban
Film Editing by: David Armstrong, Sheila Viseltear
Art Direction by: Phedon Papamichael
Music by: Bo Harwood
Distributed by: Cine-Source
Release Date: November 18, 1974
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