John Cassavetes cast his wife Gena Rowlands in 10 of his films, but this harrowing 1974 drama remains a high point of both artists’ storied careers. Alongside Cassavetes’ friend Peter Falk, the late, great actor portrays a Los Angeles housewife struggling – with her brain, with her husband, with motherhood – with full-bodied commitment. She is fragile, terrifying, and sympathetic in her interactions with Falk, who loves, abuses, understands, and misunderstands her all at once. AFS screens the picture as part of its Essential Cinema: Women of the Seventies series, and rightfully so: A Woman Under the Influence leaves you with a pit in your stomach over 50 years later. – Carys Anderson
July 29 & August 2
