MOVIEmeter
SEE RANK
Down 1,185 this week

A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

 -  Drama | Romance  -  18 November 1974 (USA)
7.9
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 7.9/10 from 8,536 users  
Reviews: 81 user | 67 critic

Mabel, a wife and mother, is loved by her husband Nick but her madness proves to be a problem in the marriage. The film transpires to a positive role of madness in the family, challenging conventional representations of madness in cinema.

Director:

Writer:

0Check in
0Share...

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 964 titles created 10 Mar 2012
 
a list of 10000 titles created 2 months ago
 
a list of 1553 titles created 11 months ago
 
a list of 3595 titles created 1 month ago
 
a list of 1001 titles created 31 Dec 2011
 

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

A Woman Under the Influence (1974) on IMDb 7.9/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of A Woman Under the Influence.
Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 9 wins & 4 nominations. See more awards »

Videos

Photos

Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.9/10 X  

When a woman dying of cancer in turn-of-the century Sweden is visited by her two sisters, long repressed feelings between the siblings rise to the surface.

Director: Ingmar Bergman
Stars: Harriet Andersson, Kari Sylwan, Ingrid Thulin
Scenes from a Marriage (TV mini-series 1973)
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.2/10 X  

Ten years of Marianne and Johan's relationship are presented. We first meet them ten years into their marriage. He is a college professor, she a divorce lawyer. They say that they are ... See full summary »

Stars: Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson, Gunnel Lindblom
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X  

A man and a woman move in to neighboring Hong Kong apartments and form a bond when they both suspect their spouses of extra-marital activities.

Director: Kar Wai Wong
Stars: Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Ping Lam Siu
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.1/10 X  

A waifish prostitute wanders the streets of Rome looking for true love but finds only heartbreak.

Director: Federico Fellini
Stars: Giulietta Masina, François Périer, Franca Marzi
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.9/10 X  

A hot-tempered farm laborer convinces the woman he loves to marry their rich but dying boss so that they can have a claim to his fortune.

Director: Terrence Malick
Stars: Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8/10 X  

Oilman Jan is paralyzed in an accident. His wife, who prayed for his return, feels guilty; even more, when Jan urges her to have sex with another.

Director: Lars von Trier
Stars: Emily Watson, Stellan SkarsgÄrd, Katrin Cartlidge
L'eclisse (1962)
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8/10 X  

A young woman meets a vital young man, but their love affair is doomed because of the man's materialistic nature.

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Stars: Alain Delon, Monica Vitti, Francisco Rabal
Lolita (1962)
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

A middle-aged college professor becomes infatuated with a 14-year-old nymphet.

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Stars: James Mason, Shelley Winters, Sue Lyon
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.1/10 X  

19-year-old Tomek whiles away his lonely life by spying on his opposite neighbour Magda through binoculars. She's an artist in her mid-thirties, and appears to have everything - not least a... See full summary »

Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Stars: Grazyna Szapolowska, Olaf Lubaszenko, Stefania Iwinska
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X  

Emmi, a woman truly in the second half of life, falls in love with Ali, a Berber guest worker more than ten years younger. When they both decide to marry, everybody seems to be against them... See full summary »

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Stars: Brigitte Mira, El Hedi ben Salem, Irm Hermann
Jules and Jim (1962)
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8/10 X  

Decades of a love triangle concerning two friends and an impulsive woman.

Director: François Truffaut
Stars: Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre
Before Sunset (2004)
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X  

It's nine years after Jesse and Celine first met; now, they encounter one another on the French leg of Jesse's book tour.

Director: Richard Linklater
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Vernon Dobtcheff
Edit

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
...
Nick Longhetti
...
Fred Draper ...
George Mortensen
Lady Rowlands ...
Martha Mortensen
Katherine Cassavetes ...
Margaret Longhetti
...
Angelo Longhetti
...
Tony Longhetti
Christina Grisanti ...
Maria Longhetti
O.G. Dunn ...
Garson Cross
Mario Gallo ...
Harold Jensen
Eddie Shaw ...
Dr. Zepp
Angelo Grisanti ...
Vito Grimaldi
Charles Horvath ...
Eddie
James Joyce ...
Bowman
...
Clancy
Edit

Storyline

Peter Falk is a blue collar man trying to deal with his wife's mental instability. He fights to keep a semblance of normality in the face of her bizarre behavior, but when her actions affect their children, he has her committed. Written by BA Jacobson <pcfe2151@cybercom.net>

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Genres:

Drama | Romance

Certificate:

R | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
Edit

Details

Country:

Language:

|

Release Date:

18 November 1974 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Uma Mulher Sob InfluĂȘncia  »

Box Office

Gross:

SEK 2,455,317 (Sweden)
 »

Company Credits

Production Co:

 »
Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

| (TCM print)

Sound Mix:

Color:

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

John Cassavetes, could not find any distributor for this film after completion, and was at one point literally carrying the reels of the film under his arm from one theater to another in hopes of getting one to play his movie. Finally, 'Martin Scorcese' , who had recently become a critically acclaimed director thanks to his film Mean Streets and happened to be a huge fan of Cassavetes' work threatened to pull his film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore from a major New York film festival unless they accepted this film. See more »

Goofs

In the scene at the end of the film when Nick and Mabel are putting the children to bed, the boom mic is visible on the left side of the screen poking out from behind the door frame just after Nick exits the room and Mabel is about to turn off the light. See more »

Quotes

Nick Longhetti: Mabel is not crazy, she's unusual. She's not crazy, so don't say she's crazy.
See more »

Connections

Referenced in Stardust: The Bette Davis Story (2006) See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.

User Reviews

 
Cassavetes's absorbing look at the nature of marriage; Falk and Rowlands are spellbinding
24 December 2004 | by (United States) – See all my reviews

While John Cassavetes is (rightly) revered for this film and other under his belt, wife/key-star Gena Rowlands is the most fascinating and emotionally gripping part to this work, Woman Under the Influence. Her role as Mabel was perfect in a film that sometimes was not even as it just tried for suburban truth. I was constantly curious about where her character was headed, and even more so by how I did not feel any desire at all to pass judgment on her. The moment I would have thought to myself "well, she's too nuts to like" the film would be ruined for me. And that is one of the more intelligent points to the film that Cassavetes gets at.

This is, after all, a character-based film, with story merely in the background. And with his two main characters we get a look at what has been a stereotype for centuries- men are often brutal and stupid, women are crazy. In this filmmakers world, it's just not that black and white, however, but with the grays as pronounced as the highs and lows in a melodrama; it's just the way he sees things, and it's a unique way as well, where the soul and choice are the precedents over comfy dramatic circumstance.

I loved the use of the camera in many scenes, how it felt like they just shot and shot and went from one spot in the house to the next, uncertain but knowing how to observe and look. In fact, the whole film has the feel of a documentary, with the occasional dramatic touch such as a close-up. But what turns it into being something special is that Cassavetes understands that Falk, Rowlands and the others can take his script and make it their own, very personally so. And as it happens, Falk finds some of his most daring work here as Nick, a character who in his own way has become as nuts as Mabel with the everyday grind of living (which for both of them is filled with people, talk, pure humanity).

For those who don't like the easy solutions in dramas, or want to know the basics of the post-modern independent film movement, this is for you. It might seem to drag in spots, but it seems to be even more enveloping if one gives it the time to contemplate over those 'drag' moments.


29 of 42 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
Boring, and I blame it on the direction Rrichboy
What was the purpose of this movie? StrangerandPilgrim
Best Actress Oscar tonyfyffe
What was Cassavetes striving for with this film? lobstersquad
A Woman Under the Influence or Repulsion? sightless
Great Movie. Great Performances. fake_shemp
Discuss A Woman Under the Influence (1974) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?