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Opening Night

A compelling metatheatrical adaptation
by
ABR Arts 04 March 2022

Opening Night

A compelling metatheatrical adaptation
by
ABR Arts 04 March 2022
Leeanna Walsman as Myrtle in <em>Opening Night</em> (photograph by Brett Boardman)
Leeanna Walsman as Myrtle in Opening Night (photograph by Brett Boardman)

Although America produced other alternative filmmakers of his generation like Kenneth Anger and Maya Deren, John Cassavetes (1929–89) would have to be considered the doyen of the movement. Directors as diverse as Martin Scorsese, Jim Jarmusch, Peter Bogdanovich, and Pedro Almodóvar have acknowledged his influence. Technically rough though they may sometimes be, Cassavetes’ films have a raw power that, in the words of Amy Taubin, ‘catch you up, turn you around, bore you a little, startle you, and throw you out upset and confused’. Opening Night (1977), a film that was undervalued when it first appeared and is now perhaps somewhat overvalued, is no exception.

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