Very well filmed and acted out.

fell asleep in parts of the movie so I had a hard time following the plot. but it was quite intense. The movie projects lots of authentic emotion which is more than can be said for most movies

NOT a brilliant movie. Definitely a confused & tedious one. Everything seems dated, and of course I can think of a zillion other much older films that are not dated & remain fresh & endlessly rewatchable. Gena Rowlands is absolutely BRILLIANT and not in the least dated. With the ghost element could reimagine as rather more mischievous,fun, & genuinely complex inquiry into creative process. Give me Bergman, Fellini, Truffaut, any day of the week.

A tense examination of an artist in freefall. Rowlands is obviously dynamite here and I appreciate how often the movie plays like a horror film.

Transfixing, captivating, moving: what more can a film strive to be? All of these adjectives describe the soul of Cassavetes' picture. It is essential viewing, especially for any actor of theatre. Cassavetes himself is fantastic, more than normally, but Rowlands is the star of the show. She's wonderful, the film won't work without her. Take her out of the equation and substitute in any actress, and the movie won't function as well. In every scene, Rowlands has the (for lack of a better word) hurt needed for the role.

It took me about two years to force myself to get through the whole thing. There are so many intense moments of shame and a constant unveiling of uncomfortable truth the full way through, without entirely focusing on the film, you'll have to give up and walk away. But focusing on Opening Night is very rewarding. The character studies are magnificent, ringing just as true as the truth is uncomfortable. Expecting moralistic lessons and not receiving them is great. Opening night is full of deep characters who defy expectation, and ingratiated themselves even while they made me squirm. I'm glad I finally watched it the full way through in one sitting with proper attention.

2021.7 Watched in HKUST's film library with sea view. Amazing lead actress and inspiring plot. The energy of Myrtle is infectious. We know she would finally make the play but still, my mood went up and down with the situation of the character.

"Life imitates art and also I'm getting old so now I drink a lot and faint all the time and everyone tells me how good I am at acting," - Myrtle Gordon. Opening Night is pulling me like a rope in a tug-of-war; on the one hand, Gena F'in Rowlands in a career performance. On the other, painfully self-referential narratives and the depiction of actors as tortured arbiters of emotional depth. Nothing is a bigger turn-off in a film than if the director tries to present the medium and those who operate in it as some sort of enlightened caste, and in Opening Night the script basically draws Rowlands' Gordon as Van Gogh meets Hemingway, between the drinking, mental instability, and world-class artistic talent. But the thing is, Rowlands is a generational acting talent that totally embodies roles, here throwing herself into a demanding, drain-circling performance with tremendous dedication and capability; it's a fantastic achievement that draws upon genuine improvisational capability. However, it's still tough to ignore the plot - Myrtle is forced to confront her mortality in a role that she is uncomfortable about fitting due to her age, which is compounded by the accidental death of a young fan; it's basically an excessively dramatized version of a cashier automatically applying a senior's discount at a restaurant, and then deciding that the best response is a complete mental breakdown. Underneath all of it is this awe for 'the craft' as Myrtle channels her confusion and pain into more convincing and unorthodox performances, equating worldly suffering and acting capability. Despite an inspired take on the protagonist and well-designed cinematography to complement it, Opening Night isn't one of the more complete Cassavetes films to me. (3.5/5)

Opening Night – Won't last The Season More massive 'home movies' overindulgence from Cassavetes. Again, this one appears to have been made to provide work for his drinking buddies and immediate family – it also seems to play out more like an extended commercial for Booze and King-size cigarettes. Within his predictable formulaic approach, his pals and family consume massive quantities of alcohol, courtesy of J& B, with endless shots of the bottle labels placed in prime positions of each shot (often with the label facing directly to camera to make sure you get the message) They also smoke back to back, endless cigarettes and whatever else – in fact, it looks more like these movies might have been designed to keep everyone in free grog and smokes (this, from what we are constantly told, is a sadly accepted, excessive pastime in Hollywoodland) The scripts for any one of these films would be lucky to have handfuls of fully written dialogue pages, yet most all painfully run for well over two hours - with endless repetitive scenes that could easily have been wrapped up far more convincingly in 80-90mins maximum. Those who don't mind spending time with a chap who sadly drank and smoked himself into an early grave – might last the distance, others might be warned to seek more ‘accessible' entertainment. Apologies to the fans but ticket sales suggest John was actually a better actor than movie-maker, and it's a pity we did not see more of him in quality mainstream shows such as ‘Edge Of the City', etc.

A tense examination of an artist in freefall. Rowlands is obviously dynamite here and I appreciate how often the movie plays like a horror film.

The fact that I find a film with a premise I care so little about - an aging actress losing it in a variety of ways - so engrossing is a testament to Cassavetes' genius.

Insightful to an actresses' dilemmas, but it was a bit much for me.

I could go on and on about this richly intriguing and intelligent film. But I won't...youll just have to see it immediately.

Its not good enough to fight through the unruly script.

Definitely have to dig into this guy's work. Very distinct powerhouse feel to it.

Phew, I need to process this and probably rewatch it to have something meaningful to say but... Gena Rowlands forever. This is definitely another for the ol female anxiety movie list.

Engrossing portrait of a middle-aged theatre star succumbing to mental breakdown after witnessing the sudden death of a young autograph hound during previews of a new play. Like a lot of Cassavetes' work it suffers from improvisational self-indulgence, but the truths it exposes, the fear of ageing, the loneliness at the heart of all existence, are eternal.

At nearly two and a half hours, Husbands is a story without a story, depicting three men practically entirely in their very unhealthy friendship.

Johnn Cassavetes just didn't give any fucks. He made serious movies for serious moviegoers looking for something profound and challenging. In that respect, Cassavetes was the antithesis of Hollywood: intimate, tough, but entirely compelling. Opening Night finds Cassavetes once again tailoring a role for his muse and wife Gena Rowlands. Lucky for him, she's a phenomenal actress. Here, as in A Woman Under The Influence, Rowlands plays a woman of great conviction who is losing her shit. What makes this movie different from that previous movie is this time Rowlands character is a narcissistic, dive like actress. After the accidental death of a fan in her proximity, Rowlands' Myrtle begins to unravel. She is forced to confront the chaos and loneliness of her life. She attends the girls' wake, she sees her wherever she goes, and she begins to lash out at everyone around her. Soon, the real issues come to the fore: aging and obscurity. Myrtle fears, as she gets older, not only will her roles dry up but she'll be typecast into certain, matronly roles. It's surprising how relevant this movie is today, where we cast 20 year olds as Harrison Ford's love interest and Marisa Tomei as a grandmother. Myrtle at one point says "Age doesn't have anything to do with anything," then follows that up with, "When I was 18, I could do anything," thus revealing that age does in fact matter to her. Opening Night finds Cassavetes and Rowlands at their most free and uninhibited, resulting in a funny, painful, profound film about aging and the artistry of aging.

Myrtle Gordon (Rowlands) is a theatre actress, who is headlining a play named "The Second Woman", directed by Manny Victor (Gazzara), written by Sarah Goode (Blondell) and co-stars Maurice Aarons (Cassavetes) and Gus Simmons (Tuell). Myrtle is not a nice woman, middle-aged, unmarried, and quite a big name in her line of work in light of the crazed groupies waiting for an autograph at the theatre, she is self-absorbing and emotionally unstable, especially when a young fan Nancy (Johnson) died in a horrific road accident after expressing her frenzied admiration. Myrtle's world begins to unravel, to a point where it seems to inevitably endanger the entire project on the opening night when Myrtle arrives seriously late and is beastly drunken. continue reading my review on my blog: http://wp.me/p1eXom-1X6