Opening Night (1977)

Opening Night is an American drama film written and directed by John Cassavetes. The film is about a Broadway actress named Myrtle Gordon as she rehearses for her latest play, which is about a woman who is unable to admit that she is ageing. She then witnesses the death of a very obsessive, adoring young fan and begins to confront the personal and professional turmoils the she faces in her own life.

Apparently Pedro Almodóvar repeats the film's accident scene in his own film All About My Mother as the centre of the dramatic conflict.

John Cassavetes struggled to distribute Opening Night in America as a number of preview screenings had negative effects. It opening on December 25th, 1977, at the Fox Wilshire Theatre in Los Angeles where it was played to almost empty rooms and closed in February, having never been commercially shown elsewhere. Screenings in New York in March were also ignored and disliked. The film was only picked in 1991, two years after Cassavetes' death, by an American distributor. 

It was then entered into the 28th Berlin International Film Festival where Gena Rowlands, who played lead, won the Silver Bear for Best Actress.

Film critic Dan Schneider wrote about the film's narrative structure:

"Many critics have taken this film to be a portrait of an alcoholic...But this is wrong, for alcohol isn’t her problem - nor is her chain smoking. They are merely diversions from whatever thing is really compelling her to her own destruction, and much to Cassavetes’ credit, as a storyteller, he never lets us find out exactly what's wrong with Myrtle, and despite her coming through in the end, there's no reason to expect that she has really resolved anything of consequence. This sort of end without resolution links Cassavetes directly with the more daring European directors of the recent past, who were comfortable in not revealing everything to an audience, and forcing their viewers to cogitate, even if it hurts."

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