Italian neorealism as a genre, with films like Luchino Visconti’s Bellissima, had a major impact on the style and substance of the New Hollywood Cinema era, which can be seen in John Cassavete’s “A Woman Under the Influence.” Examples abound in overall similarities of the main characters and how they are treated/viewed by those around them, especially with regard to their mental health. Both film directors aimed to capture the spectacle and conflict of real life, that any audience could relate to.

The Italian Neorealistic style, exemplified by directors like Bellissima’s Luchino Visconti, was characterized by the gritty, everyday drama of the working class. But Visconti was a particular artist; he made movies not to entertain, but to provoke thought, create an image of substance, and make a statement. One of Visconti’s most well-known translators, Guido Aristarco, spoke of his film style as, “derived from a need in Visconti for perspective, for determining a provenance and a destination for his characters whose problems he sought to articulate anew.” Luchino did not dissappoint; in his film Bellissima, he brought to life the story of a woman struggling to win acceptance and success for her small daughter, while at the same time dealing with her own lack of acceptance and success in greater society. In multiple instances, neighbors, friends and even her own husband describe the main character as crazy and in the process, give themselves permission to write her off and talk over her as if she isn’t even there. It is in moments like these that Visconti achieves his goal of giving the audience perspective, and perhaps forcing a bit of self-reflection. “he shows the life of the cinema to arise from the same root as the theatre—not merely the love of show and spectacle, but also the urgent real-life performances arising from real-life dramas and conflicts. Anyone and everyone can relate to the challenges that this character undergoes in simply passing through everyday life surrounded by those who are meant to love and accept her.

Several years later, John Cassavetes achieves the same poignant goal in creating his masterpiece, A Woman Under the Influence. Cassavetes provides the audience with a snapshot of the life of a woman, playing the roles of mother and wife as best she can manage. She too is looked down on by society and many of those around her who are meant to provide a circle of support. She is perceived as crazy and is relegated to the nut-house for 6 months while her family struggles without her. As we watch her child-like antics, the audience is left to wonder whether she is really crazy, or simply a bit outside the norm of what is generally considered acceptable. Is anyone that colors outside the lines simply crazy, or do we all struggle to fit inside the mold that society has deemed correct? A Woman Under the Influence forces the audience to struggle with the concept of what is deemed acceptable within relationships by creating a masterful show of the reality that goes on behind closed doors. We can all relate, at least a little, to the main character, Mabel, as she wanders haphazardly through life. As Kent Jones said in his review of the film, “A Woman Under the Influence is the toughest of all great American films. It takes conflicts and dynamics that we all know — all of us — and writes them uncomfortably large.”

Both Luchino and Cassavetes are masters of their craft. While the latter may not have been directly influenced by the former, the similarities in their artistic style are striking and unmistakable. Both of these particular films center around a woman as a wife and mother and her relationship with her children, husband, and how that relationship is judged by society around her. In both films, the woman is called crazy, sometimes by multiple different people in her life. Does she deserve this label? Does anyone? Both are motivated by love, they love their families and are trying to do right by them, seemingly the best they know how. But both suffer abuse at the hands of the ones they love. These issues are real issues that affect real people, shared by so many that struggle with the reality of having relationships with other humans that are emotional, occasionally volatile, raw and overall messy. Real life isn’t a clean, linear progression that fits neatly within a predictable timeline. Real life is more like these two films, Bellissima and A Woman Under the Influence: the characters aren’t perfect, their actions don’t have to always make sense, the storyline is convoluted and sometimes even boring but it’s a snapshot of real life because that’s what real life is.