In our last column, we discussed the movie career of French superstar Alain Delon, who passed away in August at the age of 88. Yet in that same week America lost a remarkable movie and television actress, Gena Rowlands, who died at the age of 94 and starred on Broadway in the early 1950s in “The Seven Year Itch,” playing the role made famous by Marilyn Monroe in the 1955 film. From the late 1950s until she retired in 2015, the prolific actress starred in 59 movies and guest-starred in 47 episodic television shows. Ten of her most powerful films were directed by her late husband, John Cassavetes, including “Faces” (1968) and “Opening Night” (1977), which we have written about previously. Many younger readers know Rowlands for her role as the older version of the Rachel McAdams character in the film “The Notebook” (2004), based on the 1996 best-selling novel by Nicholas Sparks.
Today, a few of our favorite Gena Rowlands films…
Take One
I was introduced to Gena Rowlands in the modern-day Kirk Douglas western “Lonely Are the Brave” in 1962. The film is an ode to a cantankerous cowboy, living in the wrong century, who attempts to avoid a mountain dragnet by a persistent sheriff, played by the wonderful Walter Matthau. Douglas takes on jeeps, airplanes, helicopters and modern communications with only his rifle, pony, and self (apologies to “Rio Bravo”). Rowlands plays Kirk’s former lover, now married to his best friend, and she dominates the first third of the film. The screenplay was written by the legendary blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo, a Douglas favorite. Douglas often stated this was his best film.
Often forgotten when reviewing Rowlands’ greatest roles is a small independent family drama from 1996 called “Unhook The Stars,” directed by Rowlands’ son Nick Cassevetes (who also directed “The Notebook”). The story centers on a lonely, obsessed widow with two grown children who encounters an abused, free-spirited (and vulgar) alcoholic mother of a 6-year-old introverted boy. She becomes Auntie Millie to the child and awkwardly attempts to depart life lessons while not realizing how much the boy has become a part of her life. The relationship is heartbreaking at times, and Rowlands’ performance is brilliant in avoiding schmaltz. The film co-stars Marisa Tomei and an impressive Jake Lloyd (before his Luke Skywalker role in “Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace”) as the sympathetic child.
Take Two
Though Rowlands found herself in a number of diverse roles throughout her career, her most fruitful and enduring collaborative relationship was with her real-life partner, John Cassavettes. Cassavettes was a true outsider in Hollywood—he self-financed his own movies, retained total creative control, and often ended up with projects that seem outside of the conventional norm when compared with other films of the era. This is nowhere more evident than in “A Woman Under the Influence,” his 1974 masterpiece which featured Rowlands as a housewife pushed to the point of a mental breakdown. Her performance jumps off the screen. In a decade full of memorable characters, Rowlands as “Mabel,” playing opposite an equally extraordinary Peter Falk as her working-class husband, commands every moment of the film while careful never to chew the low-budget scenery around her. Although she lost the Oscar to Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” Rowlands performance has been idolized and scrutinized for years, and everyone from Cate Blanchett, to Charlize Theron, to Jennifer Lawrence are indebted to her for their respective Oscar statues.
For all of the magic of Cassavettes’ independent filmmaking, he could occasionally work within the studio system too. His talents with a real budget are on full display in “Gloria,” a script he initially just planned to sell to Columbia Pictures, and later signed on to direct when Columbia cast Rowlands in the lead role. In the film, she plays a down-on-her luck ex-girlfriend of a notorious Bronx mobster who comes into custody of a young boy hunted by the cronies of her ex. She’s a terrible fit for a young child, but soon finds that her affinity for the boy cracks her city-hardened emotional crust. Rowlands is electrifying in the main role (securing another Oscar nod), but it’s Cassavettes’ gritty and accurate depiction of 1980 New York that makes this one a real stunner. Especially because Rowlands looks so damn cool prowling the city and dodging its seamy characters.
One final curio to check out is Cassavettes’s final independent film, “Love Streams,” in which he himself stars opposite his wife (this time as brother and sister) as they develop a platonic relationship after individual heartbreaks. The film is overlong and often meandering, but it’s full of gorgeously surreal sequences and tender moments, many of which are amplified by the very real deterioration of Cassavettes’ health, and the knowledge from both leads that this could be their final creative collaboration. It makes for a touching tribute to her former husband, and the capstone of his bold career.
(This column is written jointly by a baby boomer, Denny Parish, and a millennial, Carson Parish, who also happen to be father and son.)
