Opening Night (1977)

Pedro Almodovar lovingly paid tribute to Cassavetes' ninth feature in All About My Mother (1999). Featuring one of Cassavetes' signature fractured women - an actress grappling with aging and the vagaries of life in the theatre - Opening Night was largely ignored in the U.S. on its initial release but is now considered one of his major works. The emotional rawness Cassavetes elicits from his actors comes to the fore in Gena Rowland's performance as Myrtle Gordon, an actress for whom the boundaries between her on-stage persona and her personal life are painfully blurred.