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Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780764005404
Format: Color, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 0764005405
Label: Starz / Anchor Bay
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Starz / Anchor Bay
Release Date: October 19, 1999
Running Time: 144 minutes
Sales Rank: 30551
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Theatrical Release Date: 1977
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Gena Rowlands stars in John Cassavetes's drama of an aging, alcoholic stage actress in the days leading up to her latest Broadway opening. Just barely keeping herself together, she cracks after a young fan is killed while running after her limousine, continuing to see visions of the woman. Hitting the bottle even harder while her friends turn their heads and haul her off to spiritualists, she finally staggers in, barely able to stand, for her opening night performance. Like all of her collaborations with her writer-director husband, Rowlands is a woman on the verge of collapse, this time a lonely alcoholic whose very life is a performance. Overlong at 144 minutes, the film's long, loose scenes build through uncomfortable small talk and slow, tentative confrontations. Some of the scenes are edgy and thrilling, though many find this facet of Cassavetes pretentious and self-indulgent. Ultimately it's a matter of taste: if you like his style, you'll love this discomforting drama. Joan Blondell costars as the sardonic but confident playwright and longtime Cassavetes star Ben Gazarra is Rowland's smiling but pitiless manager. Cassavetes has a small role as her self-contained costar, keeping to himself until forced to deal with her onstage in a finale that is either an inspired ad-lib or the loopiest climax to a Broadway drama ever written. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Damned good
John Cassavetes' 1977 film Opening Night is, what critics usually call the work of such a significant artist, `overlooked'. It is an excellent film, in its own right, and one of the best portraits of a midlife crisis ever put to film. It's not a perfect film, in that, at two hours and twenty four minutes it's about a half hour too long, and there's a bit too much emphasis on the drunkenness of the lead character Myrtle Gordon, played by Gena Rowlands, the wife of Cassavetes, long after we've gotten ... Read More
Rating: - "I'm not acting"
"Opening night" (1977), written and directed by John Cassavetes, is a strange and emotional film that will make an impact on you. This story shows a human being during a period of deep emotional turmoil, and professional confusion.
The main character is Myrtle Gordon (played by a wonderful Gena Rowlands),a famous actress that is unable to cop with the death of a young admirer, killed in an accident near her. As if that were enough, Myrtle is afraid of really playing her part in a new play, ... Read More
Rating:  - "An Actress Under the Influence."
While I watching Opening Night, I was instantly reminded of Annette Benning's "Being Julia", a film with some similarities. It's certainly also a star showcase piece Gena Rowlands, who seems to deliver her best and most vulnerable performance under the direction of her late husband John Cassavetes. It's an elaborate "soap-operaish" drama about the reality of an aging stage Diva. Rowland's character once said," When I was 18, I could do anything...". She's on the verge of nervous breakdown, dued to her lack ... Read More
Rating: - Behind-the-scenes info for Cass buffs
For a fascinating behind-the-scenes info about Opening Night and a list of books about Cassavetes' work, go to Ray Carney's website dedicated to John Cassavetes (found through any search engine).
Rating: - The rebellion of the woman in the actress against the author
Quite a strange film of actors playing actors' problems. It is not a masterpiece and yet it deals with an important problem in the acting profession. An actor or an actress must never play her own real life. In this case this actress is unable to play properly because she does not feel the part because it is her own life and she is afraid of having to face the fact that she is aging, that she is no longer 18 and that she is lonely in her life because she is haunted by this girl she used to be. So she has to ... Read More
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