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John Cassavetes: Five Films
715515111713Oct 22, 2013Opening Night (Criterion Collection)
Actress Myrtle Gordon is a functioning alcoholic actress who is a few days from the opening night of her latest play, concerning a woman distraught about aging. One night a car kills one of Myrtle's fans who is chasing her limousine in an attempt to get the star's attention. Myrtle internalizes the accident and goes on a spiritual quest, but fails to finds the answers she is after. As opening night inches closer and closer, fragile Myrtle must find a way to make the show go on.
SPECIAL FEATURES
New, high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
New conversation between actors Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara
New interview with producer and director of photography Al Ruban
Audio interview with director John Cassavetes from the 1970s
Trailers
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Cast View all
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Gena Rowlands | Myrtle Gordon |
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John Cassavetes | Maurice Aarons |
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Ben Gazzara | Manny Victor |
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Joan Blondell | Sarah Goode |
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Paul Stewart | David Samuels |
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Zohra Lampert | Dorothy Victor |
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Laura Johnson | Nancy Stein |
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John Tuell | Gus Simmons |
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Ray Powers | Jimmy |
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John Finnegan | Bobby |
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Louise Lewis | Kelly |
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Fred Draper | Leo |
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Katherine Cassavetes | Vivian |
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Lady Rowlands | Melva Drake |
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Carol Warren | Carla |
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Briana Carver | Lena |
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Angelo Grisanti | Charlie Spikes |
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Meade Roberts | Eddie Stein |
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Eleanor Zee | Sylvia Stein |
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David Rowlands | Doorman |
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Sharon Van Ivan | Shirley |
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Jimmy Christie | News Stand Operator |
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James Karen | Bellboy |
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Jimmy Joyce | Bartender |
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Sherry Bain | Barmaid |
Crew
| Director | John Cassavetes |
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| Writer | John Cassavetes | |
| Producer | Mike Lally, Al Ruban, Sam Shaw | |
| Musician | Bo Harwood | |
| Photography | Al Ruban | |
Personal
| Quantity | 1 |
|---|---|
| Seen | |
| Added Date | Jun 21, 2021 00:51:31 |
| Modified Date | Jun 12, 2022 00:35:14 |
Notes
Father's Day 2021 gift from Beth
John Cassavetes was a genius, a visionary, and the progenitor of American independent film, but that doesn’t begin to get at the generosity of his art. A former theater actor fascinated by the power of improvisation, Cassavetes brought his search for truth in performance to the screen. The five films in this collection-all of which the director maintained total control over by financing them himself and making them outside the studio system-are electrifying and compassionate creations, populated by all manner of humanity: beatniks, hippies, businessmen, actors, housewives, strippers, club owners, gangsters, children. Cassavetes has often been called an actor’s director, but this body of work-even greater than the sum of its extraordinary parts-shows him to be an audience’s director.
While in the midst of rehearsals for her latest play, Broadway actor Myrtle Gordon (Gena Rowlands) witnesses the accidental death of an adoring young fan, after which she begins to confront the chaos of her own life. Headlined by a virtuoso performance by Rowlands, John Cassavetes’s Opening Night lays bare the drama of a performer who, at great personal cost, makes a part her own, and it functions as a metaphor for the director’s singular, wrenched-from-the-heart creative method.
Links
| TheMovieDb.org |