Mabel

Given the title of the movie, Mabel is nominally the central character, but we spend at least as much time with Nick and we see nothing of Mabel during her confinement in hospital. Two things I was thinking about when considering Mabel was first, would she have faired better in a different cultural setting? At times she seems, if not completely happy, at least in pursuit of joy. She wants people to dance and sing, and she plays enthusiastically with children, appreciating their unfettered glee in the moment. If Mabel lived in a more expressive culture, say Spain, would she have faired better? Perhaps escaping the label of abnormal, ill? Second, would she have done better with a more supportive and capable spouse? Likewise, would Nick have avoided his violent disintegration if he had been married to the sort of normal woman he no doubt expected?

Irreducible Characters

One of the things that struck me while watching “A Woman Under the Influence” (and was even stronger as I reflected back on the film) was the arc of the character development. These characters are slowly unwrapped for us as we see deeper and deeper into their relationship. We first see Nick in a sympathetic light and only slowly realize that he doesn’t know how to deal with Mabel and her condition and only after that do we see how abusive he is. Likewise, our first view of Mabel reveals her to be full of anxiety and probably fragile. With time we see how poorly she can cope with her life and how debilitating her problems are be they the excessive fixation on her kids or her inappropriate intimacy with strangers. I like this gradual development since it keeps you focused on the characters as individual instead of just pigeonholing them as “abusive husband” and “hysterical wife”.

Under the Influence of Cassavetes

Did everybody get a chance to see the film? I watched it on a Criterion disk, but looking at Criterion’s site, I see that they only have released a box set of Cassavetes and not his individual movies. That might be why Netflix didn’t have it. If all of you didn’t see it, we can move on to a different movie.

This can be a first reactions thread. I have been reading about Cassavetes for years in the writings of serious film bluffs and the occasional academic. In such circles he is highly regarded and oft mentioned. But as we found with Netflix, his movies are not much in circulation as general audiences don’t seem interested in watching them. Based on the single one I just saw, I think I have an explanation for that. I found “A Woman Under the Influence” to be an excellent film and I have a high appreciation for it, but I didn’t enjoy watching it. Most movies that I consider excellent I’d be happy to watch over and over even if they are difficult. “Woman” was just too draining though. I plan on watching other Cassavetes work, but it will be a while before I come back to this one.

Mad in the 70s

For several years now I’ve been intending to watch some of John Cassavetes films. But somehow I’ve never gotten around to doing so. Cassavetes might not have produced movies popular with the movie going public, but from what I’ve been reading, he seems to have had a lasting impact on people who make movies and people who write about them.

For our next club film, we can watch “A Woman under the Influence” from 1974. It promises to be an intense movie.

Since we are coming to the end of the year, shall we start discussion of this one on January 1st?