Opening Night

Cassavetes’s recurrent exploration of the dynamics between rehearsals and improvisation, stage and reality, actor and character reverberates most deeply here within the haunted corridors of a back-stage melodrama. Embodying his rupturing search for truthful means of expression, a grande dame of American theatre falls into a depressive tailspin when she resentfully takes on the role of an aging woman, all the while confronting her own fear in the ravages of age and mortality. Berlinalewinning Rowlands offers an overwhelming, rawnerved performance, channeling viewers on her emotional wavelength to share her drunken struggle with an existential resolve.

Berlin International Film Festival: Silver Bear for Best Actress