Opening Night 1977

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Juggling onstage and offstage action, Cassavetes makes this a fascinating look at some of the internal mechanisms and conflicts that create theatrical fiction. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The scenes in which Myrtle consults first one and then another spiritualist are typical of Cassavetes's genius in filming madness. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Rowlands sings a different kind of mad song in Opening Night, playing a diva-like actress preparing a part about aging that haunts her, at times literally, with a vision of lost youth. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: At once a lament to the ravages of age and an examination of those tiny foibles which separate reality from dramatic artifice, it's a baffling and intricate film which, although light on conventional pleasures, still manages to provoke and beguile. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: Gena Rowlands turns in another virtuoso performance as the troubled actress. Cassavetes' highly personal work will please his coterie of enthusiasts, but for general audiences it will be viewed as shrill, puzzling, depressing and overlong. Read more