About this episode

Dan and Mike review John Cassavetes' film Opening Night, discussing its significance in independent cinema and its troubled release.

Message Dan and Mike We're reviewing John Cassavetes' Opening Night (1977), starring Gena Rowlands, as part of our dive into the Criterion box set of five Cassavetes films. This is a filmmaker some call the father of independent cinema, and we get into why he had to finance his own work, act in other people's movies to bankroll his next project, and watch this one bomb so badly on release that the studio pulled it from theaters. We talk through the film's play-within-a-play structure, the way...

People in this episode

Hosts: Dan Smith, Mike Smith

Topics covered

• film review
• independent cinema
• Cassavetes films
• play-within-a-play
• film history

Keywords

• Gena Rowlands
• John Cassavetes
• Opening Night
• Criterion
• independent cinema
• film review
• play-within-a-play

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Criterion

Books & works: Opening Night

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