A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE Guest Artistic Director

Cassavetes casts his wife Gena Rowlands as Mabel Longhetti, a wife and mother whose tendency toward oddball behavior and over-the-top displays of affection lead her husband Nick (a brilliantly unhinged Peter Falk) to have her committed. – Mike Dougherty

Nick and Mabel love each other and they have kids. How we care about Mabel, who is tender, uneven and sometimes crosses over the edge of sanity into madness. Gena Rowlands expresses the fragile sensibility of a leaf in the wind. She fights hidden, inner demons; who knows which ones? How much we care about Nick trying to make things smooth even when it is impossible. Peter Falk plays the desperately normal and good guy. When Nick brings home his co-workers, Mabel organizes a pasta party and tries so hard to please them that Nick is embarrassed and angered. Cassavetes approaches the complexity of anxiety, impatience, unexpected desires, love and the disorder of souls with an incredibly light and understanding touch. – Agnès Varda