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IMDbPro

Opening Night

  • 19771977
  • PG-13PG-13
  • 2h 24m
IMDb RATING
7.9/10
11K
YOUR RATING
Opening Night (1977)
A renowned actress teeters on the edge of a breakdown as she counts down the days toward a big Broadway opening.
Play trailer4:45
1 Video
42 Photos
Drama
A renowned actress teeters on the edge of a breakdown as she counts down the days toward a big Broadway opening.A renowned actress teeters on the edge of a breakdown as she counts down the days toward a big Broadway opening.A renowned actress teeters on the edge of a breakdown as she counts down the days toward a big Broadway opening.
IMDb RATING
7.9/10
11K
YOUR RATING
    • John Cassavetes
    • John Cassavetes
  • Stars
    • Gena Rowlands
    • John Cassavetes
    • Ben Gazzara
    • John Cassavetes
    • John Cassavetes
  • Stars
    • Gena Rowlands
    • John Cassavetes
    • Ben Gazzara
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 42User reviews
    • 40Critic reviews
    • 69Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Videos1

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 4:45
    Watch Official Trailer

    Photos42

    Opening Night (1977)
    Gena Rowlands in Opening Night (1977)
    Opening Night (1977)
    Opening Night (1977)
    Opening Night (1977)
    Opening Night (1977)
    Opening Night (1977)
    Opening Night (1977)
    John Cassavetes in Minnie and Moskowitz (1971)
    John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands in Opening Night (1977)
    Gena Rowlands in Opening Night (1977)
    Shadows (1958)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Gena Rowlands
    Gena Rowlands
    • Myrtle Gordon
    John Cassavetes
    John Cassavetes
    • Maurice Aarons
    Ben Gazzara
    Ben Gazzara
    • Manny Victor
    Joan Blondell
    Joan Blondell
    • Sarah Goode
    Paul Stewart
    Paul Stewart
    • David Samuels
    Zohra Lampert
    Zohra Lampert
    • Dorothy Victor
    Laura Johnson
    Laura Johnson
    • Nancy Stein
    John Tuell
    John Tuell
    • Gus Simmons
    Ray Powers
    • Jimmy
    John Finnegan
    John Finnegan
    • Bobby
    Louise Lewis
    Louise Lewis
    • Kelly
    • (as Louise Fitch)
    Fred Draper
    Fred Draper
    • Leo
    Katherine Cassavetes
    • Vivian
    Lady Rowlands
    • Melva Drake
    Carol Warren
    • Carla
    Briana Carver
    • Lena
    Angelo Grisanti
    • Charlie Spikes
    Meade Roberts
    • Eddie Stein
      • John Cassavetes
      • John Cassavetes
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Husbands
    7.1
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    Minnie and Moskowitz
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    Opening Night
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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Peter Falk, Seymour Cassel, and Peter Bogdanovich all make cameos in the opening night scene.
    • Goofs
      A bus rolls by the New Haven theater with an ad for KBIG FM 104, a Los Angeles station.
    • Quotes

      Maurice Aarons: I thought that small talk was too small, I thought big talk was too pretentious, I thought music was noise, and I thought art was bullshit.

    • Connections
      Featured in At the Movies: Other People's Money/Ernest Scared Stupid/City of Hope/Life Is Sweet (1991)

    User reviews42

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    10/10
    10/10
    It was once suggested by Pauline Kael, never a fan, that Cassavetes thought not like a director, but like an actor. What Kael meant was his supposed lack of sophistication as a filmmaker; to take that comparison further, to me, it never feels like Cassavetes is directing himself in a film, it feels like Cassavetes implanting himself inside his own creation, like Orson Welles. Cassavetes is just as much of a genius as Welles, but far more important as a true artist (as opposed to a technician or rhetorician). This is like a cross between Italian passion (though Cassavetes was actually Greek) and Scandinavian introversion. Never before have inner demons been so exposed physically.

    It's about the mystery of becoming, performing, and acting. Like a haunted Skip James record, it's got the echoes of ghosts all around. Rowlands' breakdowns, which are stupefying and almost operatic, surprising coming from Cassavetes, are accompanied by a jumpy, unsettling piano. Who is this dead girl? The metaphysical possibilities are endless, and it's amazing to find this kind of thing in a Cassavetes film, just the overt display of intelligence (there is also a brief bit of voice-over at the beginning). But then, he always was intelligent, he just never flapped it around for easy praise. This is not "Adaptation"; here, the blending of reality and fiction and drama is not to show cleverness but to show the inner turmoil and confusion it creates.

    There's so much going on. The pure, joyous love when Rowlands greets her doorman; the horror when she beats herself up... The scene where the girl talks about how she devoted her life to art and to music is one of the most effective demonstrations of understanding what it means to be a fan of someone. You can see some roots of this in "A Star Is Born," and Almodovar borrowed from it for "All About My Mother." I think the ending is a little bit of a disappointment because of the laughing fits, but the preparation leading up to it is almost sickening. (You can shoot me, but I think the alcoholism, despite its urgency in many of the scenes, is a relatively small point about the film.)

    It's a living, breathing thing, and it feels like a process: it could go any direction at any time. Like "Taste of Cherry," we are reminded that "you must never forget this is only a play." Yet it is dangerous: when Rowlands says that line, is it great drama? How will the audience take it? Is she being reflexive or does she just not care? Her (character's) breakdowns are incorporated into the performances, and ultimately the film, in such a way that it's like witnessing a female James Dean. 10/10
    helpful•55
    12
    • desperateliving
    • Mar 8, 2005

    Details

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    • Release date
      • April 17, 1978 (Sweden)
      • United States
      • English
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Faces Distribution
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 2 hours 24 minutes
      • Mono

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