Gena Rowlands, the longtime wife of and collaborator with John Cassavetes, died in August at age 94. With an assist from the Guild Cinema, we are (re)viewing some of her foundational films. Here we tracked down two films that Cassavetes did not direct, though he is the star of the first one. Follow these links to Part 1 of the series and Part 2.
TEMPEST (1982) (A-minus) - Paul Mazursky unspools a thoughtful rumination on middle age as he refashions Shakespeare's play for modern sensibilities. John Cassavetes lets others handle the writing and directing, and he pours his whole being into the role of Phillip Dimitrius, an architect who is fed up with the phonies and the rat race and tosses away everything, including his wife, Antonia, played by Gena Rowlands.
Phillip disappears to a remote Greek island, towing his young teen daughter along and having a meet-cute with a young free spirit, Aretha (Susan Sarandon), who pauses her travels and shacks up with him in his spare mansion on a cliff. They are pestered by the island's self-styled tour director and goat-herder Kalibanos (a euphoric Raul Julia). Friskiness is in the air, as Aretha is endlessly frustrated by Phillip's newfound asceticism, and Kalibanos lusts after everything that moves (that includes his flock), especially horny for the virginal daughter, Miranda (Molly Ringwald in her film debut). (His main point of seduction is a portable TV in his cave with an antenna that picks up "Gunsmoke" reruns. Miranda is sorely missing her new-wave New York lifestyle full of gadgets and entertainment.)
Mazursky expertly weaves a narrative that jerks back and forth in time. Phillip is frustrated with the millionaire behind an Atlantic City casino project, Alonzo (Vittorio Gassman), and he bickers with his wife, embarrassing her in front of their friends at a party. Life on the island, though, is edenic. Phillip lets his grey hair grow out, and he can spend his day in a robe if he wants. Meantime, Antonio has taken up with Alonzo.
Phillip eventually invokes his powers of sorcery to conjure up a storm that lands Alonzo's yacht on the island, forcing a reckoning of the old couple and two new ones. Alonzo's entourage is full of delightful character actors, including Anthony Holland as his physician and Jackie Gayle as a Borscht Belt comic serving as the rich man's jester. Alonzo's son, Freddy (Sam Robards, also in his first screen appearance), tags along and enjoys a few "Blue Lagoon" moments with Miranda.
Rowlands doesn't have much screen time, but she delves into her character's own middle-aged ennui and goes toe-to-toe well with Cassavetes, who has rarely been better. His gravity plays off of Julia's pantomime performance, and Mazursky mixes it all in a loose-limbed 140-minute production that never flags. This one hit me much differently in my early 60s as it did in my 20s, though I'll always swoon the same way to Sarandon (wearing but a white tank top) and Ringwald splashing in the surf and crooning "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?"
NIGHT ON EARTH (1992) (A-minus) - Rowlands stars in the first of five vignettes involving cabdrivers on one night in five cities, from Los Angeles to Helsinki. Jim Jarmusch was at his creative peak -- nestled between "Mystery Train" and "Dead Man" -- and his travelogue is lushly photographed, with stories that are funny and heartfelt.
Rowlands plays Victoria, an on-the-go casting agent addicted to her clunky early-'90s mobile phone. She hops in a cab with the pint-sized chain-smoking tomboy Corky (a scene-chewing Winona Ryder), and they take the first crack at the deadpan dialogue that Jarmusch will unfurl across two hours. L.A., at sunset, has never looked so rich and colorful. Victoria and Corky banter to the point that Victoria, frustrated at the lack of quality candidates for her latest project, starts to see the loquacious Corky as the answer to her prayers.
That sets the table for a series of short stories that grow more complex and sober as the film progresses. Armin Mueller-Stahl is an inept immigrant cabdriver who plays second fiddle to his high-energy passengers YoYo (Giancarlo Esposito) and Angela (an insane Rosie Perez). The scene then shifts to Europe, where we get the somber Parisian driver (Isaach de Bankole) ferrying around his cynical blind fare (Beatrice Dalle from "Betty Blue") on a spiteful journey across the city. Thinks go off the rails in Rome as Roberto Benigni goes ballistic as a hilarious, crazed driver chauffeuring an appalled priest who is slowly succumbing to a heart attack while Benigni's oblivious driver prattles on. The final segment features Matti Pellonpaa as a melancholy driver who tells his heartbreaking tale to three drunken louts as dawn slowly breaks.
Jarmusch juggles it all with smarts and skill and makes it all look effortless. He's never been so light-hearted and slapsticky. But he also sketches out complex characters with heart and soul. And his establishing shots are luscious as he spans the globe, shooting on location. He is buoyed by a fine cast and the music of Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan.
BONUS TRACK
Waits with the theme song for "Night on Earth," "The Good Old World":
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