| Gloria | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | John Cassavetes |
| Written by | John Cassavetes |
| Produced by | Sam Shaw |
| Starring | Gena Rowlands Julie Carmen Buck Henry John Adames |
| Cinematography | Fred Schuler |
| Edited by | George C. Villaseñor |
| Music by | Bill Conti |
| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | Columbia Pictures |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 122 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $4 million[citation needed] |
| Box office | $4.9 million[2] |
Gloria is a 1980 Americanneo-noircrimethriller film written and directed byJohn Cassavetes. It tells the story of a gangster's former girlfriend who goes on the run with a young boy who is being hunted by the mob for information he may or may not have.[3][4] It starsGena Rowlands,Julie Carmen,Buck Henry, and John Adames.
The film had its world premiere at the37th Venice International Film Festival, winning theGolden Lion, the festival's top prize, in a tie withAtlantic City byLouis Malle.
InNew York City, in theSouth Bronx, Jeri Dawn is heading home with groceries. Inside the lobby of her apartment building, she passes a man whose dress and appearance are out of place. The woman quickly boards the elevator.
She is met in her apartment by her husband Jack Dawn, an accountant for a New York City mob family. There is a contract on Jack and his family, as he has been acting as an informant for theFBI. Suddenly, the family's neighbor, Gloria Swenson, rings their doorbell, asking to borrow some coffee. Jeri tells Gloria there is an impending hit on her family and implores Gloria to protect her children. Gloria, formerly a mobster's girlfriend, tells Jeri that she doesn't like kids but begrudgingly agrees. The Dawns' daughter Joan refuses to leave and locks herself in the bathroom. While the family attempts to get Joan, Gloria takes their young son Phil, and an incriminating accounts ledger, to her apartment, narrowly missing the hit squad.
After hearing loud shotgun blasts from the Dawns' apartment, a visibly shaken Gloria decides that she and Phil must go into hiding. After quickly packing a bag they leave the building, just as a police SWAT team is entering with heavy weapons. Meanwhile, a crowd of onlookers and news reporters has gathered in front of the building, and a cameraman captures a picture of them leaving.
Gloria and Phil take a cab intoManhattan, where they hide out in an empty apartment belonging to a friend of hers. The following morning, Phil sneaks out of the apartment and sees his photograph on the front page of several newspapers. Later on, Gloria watches the news on television, which reports the mob hit and names her as Phil's suspected abductor.
The next morning, realizing they are not safe where they are, Gloria and Phil sneak out of the apartment just as a group of gangsters close in on them. The gangsters know Gloria and confront her on the sidewalk outside, exhorting her to give up Phil and the ledger. In desperation, Gloria shoots her revolver at the car of five gangsters, which takes off and flips over. Gloria realizes both her fate and Phil's are now deeply intertwined, and that they will have to leave New York to survive.
Gloria goes to the bank to empty her safe deposit box, and the two settle for the night at aflophouse. She confronts another group of gangsters at a restaurant; she asks for immunity in exchange for the ledger. "Only Mr. Tanzinni can agree to that", says one of the goons, so she takes some of their guns and flees.
The next day, Gloria tells Phil that she plans to send him away to a boarding school. Offended by her intentions, Phil claims he is an independent grown man who can manage alone. Gloria decides to abandon him and have a drink. She is soon filled with guilt for leaving the child and rushes back to look for him; however, he has been captured by some wiseguys. Gloria rescues him, killing one mobster in the process, and fleeing from two others via a taxi and the subway, where several by-standers help her escape.
The two eventually make it to a hotel room, where Gloria laments the mob's strength and ubiquitous presence, explaining to Phil that she was once the mistress of Tanzinni himself. She meets with Tanzinni, relinquishes the ledger, and then flees, killing one gangster as another shoots down upon her elevator car. Phil waits several hours, then flees to Pittsburgh via rail. At a cemetery, Phil and Gloria (the latter disguised as the former's grandmother arriving in a limousine after miraculously surviving her ordeal) reunite.
John Cassavetes did not originally intend to direct his screenplay; he planned merely to sell the story toColumbia Pictures. However, once his wife,Gena Rowlands, was asked to play the title character in the film, she asked Cassavetes to direct it.[citation needed]Gloria is John Adames' only film role.[5]
A sequel was in the works before Cassavetes's death.[1]
Onreview aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film has a 91% approval rating based on 33 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "A comparatively commercial entry from director John Cassavetes,Gloria's pulpy pleasures are elevated by his observant touch and Gena Rowlands' galvanizing star performance."[6]
Reviewing for theChicago Sun-Times,Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and described it as "tough, sweet and goofy", as well as "fun and engaging but slight". He believed the overly silly nature of the script is redeemed by "Cassavetes' reliance on a tried-and-true plot construction" and the acting performances, particularly that of Rowlands, who he said "propels the action with such appealing nervous energy that we don't have the heart to stop and think how silly everything is".[7] In a retrospective review,Slant Magazine praised Rowlands' performance and said that "the supporting cast pales in comparison to Rowlands".[8]
The film is recognized byAmerican Film Institute in these lists:
The Japanese filmmakerAkira Kurosawa citedGloria as one of his favorite films.[10][11]
The film was remade in 1999under the same title with a screenplay bySteve Antin. The remake was directed bySidney Lumet. It starredSharon Stone and Jean-Luke Figueroa.[12]
Other films inspired byGloria includeErick Zonca's 2008 filmJulia, starringTilda Swinton[13] andLuc Besson's 1994 filmLéon: The Professional.[12] In 2013,Paul Schrader was planning his own remake of the film, starringLindsay Lohan.[14] And, in 2018,Taraji P. Henson starred in a loose remake entitledProud Mary.
The film is notable for the performance ofchild actor John Adames (also known as Juan Adames), for which he won the first everGolden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor, shared withLaurence Olivier for his role inThe Jazz Singer.[8] Adames, who had been cast after anopen call, was between five and seven years old when cast, and his character Phil Dawn was six.[15][16][17] He did not have any subsequent film roles afterwards.[15]
Adames' performance was criticized by contemporary reviewers, who according to criticRay Carney, expected Adames to be "cute and cuddly", and when he was not, they judged that Cassavetes had failed.[18] Eric Henderson ofSlant magazine posited that the criticism was due to Adames' vocal delivery, which he compared to "whatPaddy Chayefsky would sound like impersonatingAlvin Chipmunk".[8]
Roger Ebert praised Adames' performance, calling him "well cast".[7] Writing forFilm Comment in 2017, Shonni Enelow revisited Adames' performance as the "crucial positive negative" that "makes the film work".[15]
| Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | Best Actress | Gena Rowlands | Nominated | [19] |
| Boston Society of Film Critics Awards | Best Actress | Won | [20] | |
| Cahiers du Cinéma | Best Film | John Cassavetes | 10th Place | |
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama | Gena Rowlands | Nominated | [21] |
| Golden Raspberry Awards | Worst Supporting Actor | John Adames | Won[a] | [8] |
| Stinkers Bad Movie Awards | Worst Performance by a Child in a Feature Role | Nominated | [22] | |
| Turkish Film Critics Association Awards | Best Foreign Film | 3rd Place | ||
| Venice International Film Festival | Golden Lion | John Cassavetes | Won[b] | |
| OCIC Award (Honorable Mention) | Won | |||
Authority control databases: National |
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