GLORIA
US, 1980, 123 minutes, Colour.
Gena Rowlands, John Adames, Julie Carmen, Buck Henry, Tom Noonan.
Directed by John Cassavetes.
Gloria seems a strange choice for a film by John Cassavetes. He tended to make films which were strong on character and sombre interactions rather than gangster films. However, he wrote the screenplay for this film.
Once more he works with his wife, Gena Rowlands. They worked together from the 1960s with such films as Faces, Minnie and Moskowitz, A Woman Under the Influence, Opening Night, Love Streams. John Cassavetes financed his films by appearing in more mainstream productions like Rosemary’s Baby.
Gena Rowlands received a number of Oscar nominations for her roles with her husband, including Gloria.
The film is basically a New York gangster film, a chase film. A young boy is being pursued after his father is murdered, by the Mafia who want a book with information that he is carrying. Gloria is a neighbour, formerly in a relationship with one of the gangsters, and she attempts to save the young boy as they flee from pursuers throughout the city.
The film builds up attention but, as with all Cassavetes’ films, the focus is on characters and relationships.
Sidney Lumet made a new version of Gloria in 1999 with Sharon Stone in the central role.
1. An enjoyable film? Mainstream gangster story - with differences?
2. The work of John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands? Cassavetes' interest in characters and style rather than plot-line? Behaviour, emotion? Meaning? Cassavetes' offbeat and non-mainstream work? His collaboration with his wife Gena Rowlands?
3. The acclaim for this film? An Oscar nomination for Gena Rowlands?
4. The credits sequence and its tone: the song, the focus on mother son relationships, children's paintings?
5. The film as a piece of Americana: New York, the helicopter opening, the Bronx, the suburbs, lifestyle, poverty, Puerto Ricans, gangsters, money and crooked deals, the mob, violence, the police? The context for mother-son relationships? The portrait of a woman and self-assertion?
6. The conventions of the gangster and chase film, expectations? The transition to characters and meaning? The effect of audience involvement in Gloria's and Phil's plight?
7. The situation: Jack Dawn and his ledger, his wife, the children, the gangsters' threats, the explosions? Tension? Emotional response to the gangsters' actions? To Gloria's taking Phil? The setting for Gloria’s violent treatment of the gangsters?
8. Mother-son relationship, mutual needs, clashes? Each asserting conventions of male-female roles? The man as protector, seducer? The woman as violent, killer? The mutual help and helplessness? Phil's telling Gloria that there was too much killing? Her attempts to get rid of him, the growing dependence, the delight in the mother-son relationship? The ironies of this relationship in the gangster and the on-the-lam context?
9. The hiding in hotels and rooms? The conventions of being on the lam? Gloria trying to deal with Phil - the cat, the television, talk etc.?
10. The sketch of the gangsters, the chase and pursuit? Gloria’s confrontation with the carload - and shooting? Her reliance on the gun? The encounter with Tony Tanzini, his betraying her, shooting?
11. Gloria's relationship with Tony? Her going to see him? Giving him the ledger? His tricking her?
12. Gloria's decisions about Tony, about Phil, using her money and savings, getting Phil to Pittsburgh? The humour of her final disguise?
13. The range of supporting characters - a gallery of offbeat people?
14. The film's contribution to women in cinema, self-assertion, relationships?
