A Woman Under the Influence

“Talk about empathy, both in the film but also just having empathy for the actors and what they're going through. There's a film school in this box set.”

Barry Jenkins

Director, Writer

“Woman and Opening Night show Gena Rowlands at her best. These films contain performances that will never be matched, but are also structural innovations.”

James Franco

Actor, Comedian, Director

“The most honest on-screen depiction of mental illness ever. Cassavetes perfectly nails the heartbreak and frustration that eclipses a family when a loved one's sanity slips away. It's at times both gut-wrenching and oddly hilarious, and Cassavetes manages to make gorgeous cinema with colours and composition.”

Michael Imperioli

Actor, Writer

“"You can just feel the closeness of the actors and the crew and the people making the film. Again, it's so incredibly alive and spontaneous, and that sort of weird, intimate, long-lens voyeuristic stuff and their fights, it's just absolutely incredible."”

Bo Burnham

Comedian, Director

“My introduction to his work as a director was A Woman Under the Influence, which I bought a single version of for our mother, who is petrified of the DVD and will never watch it.”

Josh Safdie

Director, Writer

“It had a huge influence then on me, once I discovered him, as it does on everybody who discovers Cassavetes.”

Cillian Murphy

Actor

“Gena Rowlands is I think the greatest actress who I've ever seen. Gena had a huge impact on me doing what I'm doing.”

Winona Ryder

Actor

“There's nothing like Gena Rowlands. There's just nothing, and it makes me really proud to think that something that I did as an artist would be in the sphere of the work of Gena Rowlands.”

Jamie Lee Curtis

Actor

“But it's just, like, drenched with love. It's just brilliant.”

Claire Danes

Actor

“That is an extraordinary performance about madness. I just love this movie.”

Jodie Foster

Actor, Director

“John Cassavetes is a hero of ours. He's the model of everything I wanted to be, which was: act in Hollywood movies, take that money, blow it on your independent films that you make with your family and friends.”

Mark Duplass

Actor, Director, Writer, Producer

“Jenna Rollins is in my mind best actor that there has ever been, the sequence in this film where she is out on the street waiting for her children to arrive home is one of my favorite scenes in any film.”

Charlotte Wells

Writer, Director

“A Woman Under the Influence is of course a very influential film. It's also formative for me as a filmmaker.”

Isabel Sandoval

Director

“Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands are an incredible collaborative duo.”

Cailee Spaeny

Actor

“His movies felt like early improv movies and they're just so real and natural. The performances obviously by Gena Rowlands are so incredible.”

Aubrey Plaza

Actor, Comedian

“A Woman Under the Influence is probably up there.”

Boyd Holbrook

Actor