john cassavetes open night be fantastic and fascinate while fantastic because it play with the deep fear we have inside our imagination and fascinating because it never cease surprising u . with it very long duration of two hour and twenty minute and anyone who appreciate character would not be able to take their eye off the screen . the story of an unstable actress and myrtle gordon and ( gena rowlands ) try to put herself together for a play and fight her demon while open night be not only about a woman on the verge of a breakdown but also about the complexity of the life of theater actor and the theatrical world . all of cassavetes character here be experienced people that know about the world of theater while so half of the film take place on a stage and either where the performer do their job or at backstage and where producer and writer and director do their job . cassavetes be so harsh with his character that this unkindness turn towards the audience and but the audience in the cinema . because there be another audience and in the theater of the film and that doesn not know what be really happen and laugh because they think everything be performance . and that essentially what it be while it just that the audience in the theater doesn not get to see backstage the way we do . they do not experience gena rowlands exuberance before she go out to that stage and but most importantly while they do not know the reason why she act the way she do . i always think that it would be difficult to be friend with an actor . myrtle ( rowland ) say she an actress and that the only thing she know how to do while and i imagine that if i have a friend who be a professional performer and it would be really difficult to tell when he say the truth because i would know he an actor and he can fake anything at any time . a lot of the thing that myrtle do during the awful experience the film put her through we suspect if she be real while the rest of the character suspect too . there be the writer and sarah ( joan blondell ) and who can not understand why myrtle doesn not understand the character she write for her . there the director and manny ( ben gazzara ) and who can not accept the fact that his best actress might be lose it while the producer david ( paul stewart ) who doesn not know where to stand and myrtle co star maurice ( cassavetes himself ) and who can not deal with the love they have for each other . when she witness the death of a teenager and a fan while all of this come together and affect myrtle and but no one know if her delusion be for real . they do not say anything because they do not want to upset her and but the movie enters in a state of subconsciousness that only myrtle accepts . at time and we can tell that everyone have have it . during these moment and cassavetes brilliant script depict a scary brutal honesty in the word the character say in a discussion backstage while and not only what everyone tell myrtle but also what she say to them . here be people who be not afraid to speak their mind and constantly change what they be think and just like cassavetes way of make cinema . and in this aspect and the performance be more important here than in shadow and because the character be involve in a big picture while a big story that step out of the trivial . but in another aspect and the actual way of make cinema and this movie be no different from shadow . there a beautiful thing in the way al ruban camera shoot the character . when someone talk and the camera doesn not focus on him and it shoot the person who be listen while so we can see how he or she react to the thing the other one say . sometimes they do not care and sometimes they be happy and sometimes devastate . improvisation might still be there and though and among all these wonderful performance . near the end and there an unexpected scene where cassavetes and rowlands start talk and non stop . whether this be improvise or not be not something we have to wonder . we have just get to watch while and watch both of them exchange life experience and see word come truly alive in a conversation that mean a lot more than what it show it doesn not get more natural than that .