Yep ! I really love both films. I think her performance in " A woman under the Influence" is more emotionally raw, whilst " Opening Night" made three years on had a more varied & professional feel to her performance, probably due to the mix of film & theatre environments.

It is my favorite performance given by an actress. As great as she is in A Woman Under the Influence, she's even more amazing and convincing in Opening Night. It just doesn't get the recognition Influence had because it didn't make any money, or get much of a release.
"Well it's like cranes in the sky. Sometimes I don't want to feel those metal clouds."

Maybe I love Gena in "Opening Night" so much because I was, for a long time-an actor in the Theatre, myself. The film is a masterpiece. The acting, writing phenomenal camera work. And the diffusion of onstage/ offstage "reality's. Brilliant. IMHO Gena has never been more subtle, and /or heartbreaking. And the doppelgnger effect of the "young girl." SO ambiguous-sothrilling. One more thing and then I'll shut up. Cassavetes use of the color red in this movie is quite simply astonishing. Most directors use the color VERY sparingly ( think Speilberg in "Jaws" where the color red signified blood-and only blood-or Ingrid Bergmans RED dress in "Autumn Sonata-"The Red Shoes" the ruby slippers, et al) Careful boys-careful. And yet here-in "Opening Night" JC practically drenches every frame in some form of vermillion. Hot. Very hot. I love John and Gena. They changed cinema forever~
~

I agree. I always love her, but "Opening Night" is my favorite performance of hers by far.
Every year I root for her to get the SAG Lifetime Achievement "Actor", but they keep giving them to people who have already won everything else.

Agreed. "Opening Night" is my favorite John/Gena collaboration. But h5b4eyI love everything this lady does. She is perfection.

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Nothing equals "Under the Influence", but yesterday I saw her in Woody Allen's "Another Woman" and now I have doubts.
"Darth Vader is
scary and I
The God
father"

I agree, she's better in Opening Night, such a nuanced and tour-de-force performance, but then I saw Love Streams, it's the culmination of her collaborations with Cassavetes, she is phenomenal in that film, such a tormented character.

when she arrives drunk to the play, that part is pure gold
Yes! She says she had no alcohol for that scene too. It is remarkable how well she played that scene.
"Well it's like cranes in the sky. Sometimes I don't want to feel those metal clouds."

i think is "a woman under the influence", but her perfomance in "opening night" is also unique. near the end of the movie, when she arrives drunk to the play, that part is pure gold.
two perfomances like that in such a short period of time, how can anyone do that? only her.