The film “A Woman Under the Influence” is an unconventional art house film. And it is also one of the first fifty films to be preserved in the U.S. National Film Registry. Showing real people and real issues may be difficult to watch, but is culturally significant. The main character is Mabel, a loving housewife and mother to three children who is having mental health issues. Her husband Nick loves her but is concerned her actions will hurt the family and has Mabel sent to a mental health institute. This film was difficult to watch, and the ending is all too real. Roger Ebert describes it as, “There is no safe resolution at the end of a Cassavetes film. You feel the tumult of life goes on uninterrupted, that each film is a curtain raised on a play already in progress. The characters seek to give love, receive it, express it, comprehend it. They are prevented by various addictions: booze, drugs, sex, self-doubt.” Cassavetes created a film that would never be considered conventional in it’s time. Cassavetes had no Hollywood funding, he mortgaged his home, and borrowed money from friends including Peter Falk who plays the husband, Nick. When the film was completed there wasn’t even a distributor. It was shown at college campuses and small art theaters. “It was the first time in the history of motion pictures that an independent film was distributed without the use of a nationwide system of sub-distributors.” Not only was the production unconventional but the plot itself. In 1974 your major motion picture competition was crime/action flicks and comedies such as 007: The Man With the Golden Gun, Blazing Saddles, The Longest Yard, and The Godfather Part II. Not many people wanted to see a mentally ill housewife struggle through everyday life.
In many scenes there isn’t any music. Like the family dinner scene. This is so awfully powerful, it takes me back to every awkward family Thanksgiving I’ve ever been to. But with borderline personality disorder this is someone’s everyday reality. In the 1970’s the definition of mental health was radically changing. Just a year before this film came out being a homosexual was removed from the list of mental illnesses. Nick Longhetti makes it very clear that “Mabel is not crazy, she’s unusual. She’s not crazy, so don’t say she’s crazy.” Before 1974 you could be unfairly asked “Have you ever been mentally Ill?” on federal government employment forms. Mabel even describes that while at the mental institute she underwent electroshock therapy. This is frightening news because in some cases it was “used in mental hospitals to control difficult patients and to maintain order on wards.” Now called electroconvulsive therapy, doctors use muscle relaxants and anesthesia to take away most of the pain. And some patients even do electroconvulsive therapy voluntarily. Unfortunately in 1974 we weren’t as progressive as we are now and Mabel definitely suffered during her time at the institute. Even though she had been there for 6 months when she arrives back home the communication breaks down almost instantly. While unconventional in the past A Woman Under the Influence has helped reach out and communicate the importance of identifying and treating mental illness at a time when Mabel’s condition didn’t even have a name.
Hello Sydney,
I agree that A Woman Under the Influence is certainly not a conventional film. From the way Cassavetes struggled to produce and then distribute the film, it is clear that he was not employed within one of the major film companies. The idea of being committed to a mental health hospital and experiencing electroconvulsive therapy for any number of mundane reasons is horrifying, especially as this occurred only forty years ago. Putting the issue of mental health into perspective with the real medical systems of the ’70s was a fascinating touch, which really helped to bring the reader into the setting of the movie. Utilizing this approach would be helpful in my writing, as it gives the reader an insight into the minds of audiences when the film was first released.
Hey,
I like this film in particular, although it is hard to watch because it is a very powerful topic, I like how realistic it is. I like how you explained how the film had trouble being distributed because oh the topic the filmmaker made the movie about. I like how you explained mental illness wasn’t so common in that era and the pain patients would endure when they would get sent away to institutes.
Hey Sydney,
This was my second movie choice and after hearing about hearing how eerie of a film this is I am going to have to look into it. I found it interesting that the film is so unconventional and has such a different take on life than almost any other film made in it’s time and maybe even today. I enjoy how personal you make your writing and hope to make mine more connected to me in the future.
Hi Sydney,
You used a great cover picture, I was about to use it but you beat me to it! I also wrote about this film and touched on the subject of mental illness. I really liked how you went in depth as to what happened in psych wards during the time that Mabel was submitted, it was very informative. Your transition from the film to your piece on mental health and wards was seamless.