Gena Rowlands Filmography

Broken English

Actors: Parker Posey, Melvil Poupaud, Drea de Matteo, Gena Rowlands, Justin Theroux

Synopsis: A single thirtysomething whose friends all seem to be romantically involved, happily married, or with child meets an eccentric Frenchman who shows her just what an amazing place the world can truly be in director Zoe Cassavetes' entry into the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. As if it wasn't Read More

Paris, je t'aime

Synopsis: Twenty acclaimed filmmakers from around the world look at love in the City of Lights in this omnibus feature. Paris Je T'aime features eighteen short stories, each set in a different part of Paris and each featuring a different cast and director (two segments were produced by two filmmakers in Read More

Edge of Outside

Synopsis: A documentary produced for the Turner Classic Movies cable station, Edge of Outside surveys the careers of various filmmakers who have attempted to bring their uncompromised visions to the screen. Interspersing clips of classic films, the filmmakers take a look at the careers of such famous Read More

The Book of Joe

Actors: Peter Falk, Gena Rowlands

Quartier Latin

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, Gérard Depardieu

Synopsis: Gena Rowlands penned and stars opposite longtime friend and Cassavetes collaborator Ben Gazzara in this short film set in the titular section of Paris. The two play a long-separated married couple, reunited on the eve of their divorce. Directed by Gérard Depardieu and Frédéric Auburtin, Quartier Read More

The Skeleton Key

Actors: Kate Hudson, Gena Rowlands, Peter Sarsgaard, John Hurt, Joy Bryant

Synopsis: A young woman discovers a terrible secret while caring for an elderly man in this supernatural thriller. Caroline (Kate Hudson) is a care provider for the aged who is hired away from the hospice where she works by Violet Devereaux (Gena Rowlands). Violet needs someone to help take care of her Read More

The Notebook

Actors: Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner, Gena Rowlands, James Marsden

Synopsis: Directed by Nick Cassavetes, this adaptation of author Nicholas Sparks' bestselling novel revolves around Noah Calhoun's (James Garner) regular visits to a female patron (Gena Rowlands) of an area nursing home. Rather than bore her with the inanities of everyday life, Calhoun reads from an old Read More

Broadway: The Golden Age

Actors: Edie Adams, Bea Arthur, Elizabeth Ashley, Alec Baldwin, Kaye Ballard

Synopsis: Directed by Rick McKay, who traveled across five continents during the documentary's production, Broadway: The Golden Age is both a celebration of current Broadway stars and a tribute to Broadway legends past. Through a plethora of interviews and vast amounts of archival footage, McKay presents a Read More

Taking Lives

Actors: Angelina Jolie, Ethan Hawke, Tchéky Karyo, Olivier Martinez, Gena Rowlands

Synopsis: A female detective on the trail of a psychotic killer discovers love in a dangerous time in this thriller, based on the novel by Michael Pye. Illeana Scott (Angelina Jolie) is a special agent with the FBI who has a reputation for using offbeat methods, but also boasts a strong record as a criminal Read More

The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie

Actors: Gena Rowlands, Kevin Zegers, Brenda James, Justin Chatwin, Heather Wahlquist

Synopsis: Paul Johansson's The Incredible Mrs. Richie stars Gena Rowlands as the title character. The film stars Kevin Zegers as Charlie Proud, a young man on the path to juvenile delinquency. Having had enough of Charlie's troublemaking, school principal Mr. Dewitt issues the boy an ultimatum. Charlie must Read More

Hysterical Blindness

Actors: Uma Thurman, Gena Rowlands, Juliette Lewis, Justin Chambers, Ben Gazzara

Synopsis: Two aging single women in 1980s New Jersey enact a depressing routine of deluded barroom romance in this made-for-cable drama. At least 15 years after her father walked out on her, Debby (Uma Thurman) still has issues with men. She spends her evenings carousing with best friend, Beth (Juliette Lewis Read More

Charms for the Easy Life

Actors: Gena Rowlands, Mimi Rogers, Susan May Pratt, Geordie Johnson, Kenneth Mitchell

Synopsis: Charlie Kate Birch (Gena Rowlands) is a peculiarly powerful Southern matriarch, an anachronism in the early 20th century. She's a self-educated woman who makes a good living as a midwife and holistic healer. One day, she saves a black man who's been lynched, and he thanks her by giving her a Read More

Wild Iris

Actors: Gena Rowlands, Laura Linney, Emile Hirsch, Fred Ward, Lee Tergesen

Synopsis: A woman tries to make sense of her relationship with her mother -- who also happens to be her boss and landlady -- in this dramatic comedy. Iris (Laura Linney) has never had an especially warm relationship with her mother Min (Gena Rowlands), but after her husband committed suicide, Iris was Read More

The Weekend

Actors: Deborah Kara Unger, Jared Harris, D.B. Sweeney, Gena Rowlands, Brooke Shields

Synopsis: In an exclusive neighborhood in upstate New York, family and friends gather to commemorate the AIDS-related death of Tony (played in flashbacks by D.B. Sweeney), a much-loved young man. The gathering takes place at the country home of Tony's half-brother John (Jared Harris) and John's moody wife Read More

Light Keeps Me Company

Actors: Woody Allen, Bibi Andersson, Harriet Andersson, Richard Attenborough

Synopsis: This moving, finely-wrought portrayal of legendary cinematographer Sven Nykvist was directed by his son Carl-Gustav Nykvist -- a noted filmmaker himself. Spanning from long forgotten kiddie flick in 1945 to Woody Allen's Celebrity (1997), Nykvist's career came to an abrupt end when he was Read More

The Color of Love

Actors: Gena Rowlands, Penny Bae Bridges, Louis Gossett, Jr.

Synopsis: When the daughter of widowed Southern dowager Georgia Porter (Gena Rowlands) is killed in an accident, Georgia learns to her horror that she is the grandmother of an African-American child named Jacey (Penny Bae Bridges). At first, Georgia's inbred racism holds sway, and she does everything she Read More

Playing by Heart

Actors: Ellen Burstyn, Sean Connery, Anthony Edwards, Dennis Quaid, Gena Rowlands, Ryan Phillippe, Jay Mohr, Jon Stewart, Gillian Anderson, Angelina Jolie, Madeleine Stowe

Synopsis: Sophomore writer/director Willard Carroll weaves together an all-star cast in interlocking stories about finding love in Los Angeles. The film's theme is spoken by young club-hopper Joan (Angelina Jolie). Taken by the mysterious Keenan (Ryan Phillippe), she tells him that "talking about love" is Read More

The Mighty

Actors: Sharon Stone, Elden Henson, Kieran Culkin, Gena Rowlands, Harry Dean Stanton

Synopsis: In the tradition of My Left Foot (1989), Peter Chelsom directed this emotional drama of outcasts, adapted from the Rodman Philbrick's popular young-adult novel Freak the Mighty. Although burly, slow-paced eight-grader Maxwell Kane (Elden Hensen), who narrates, is learning disabled, he Read More

Hope Floats

Actors: Sandra Bullock, Harry Connick, Jr., Gena Rowlands, Mae Whitman, Michael Paré

Synopsis: Actor/director Forest Whitaker (Waiting to Exhale) helmed this romantic drama about a one-time high-school beauty queen who returns to her hometown of Smithville, TX. The Steven Rogers screenplay begins in Chicago, where blonde Connie (Rosanna Arquette, uncredited) appears on a trashy daytime talk Read More

Paulie

Actors: Jay Mohr, Gena Rowlands, Tony Shalhoub, Tia Texada, Cheech Marin, Bruce Davison

Synopsis: In the Babe tradition of talking animatronic animals, this comedy adventure gets underway when animal-research-lab janitor Misha (Tony Shalhoub) expresses concern for a Blue-crown Conure parrot named Paulie (voice of Jay Mohr) caged in a dank basement. Misha settles back as Paulie tells his life Read More

Best Friends for Life

Synopsis: Carolinian Sarah Cooper (Linda Lavin) and Texan Harriet Cahill (Gena Rowlands) are lifelong friends who are both widowed at virtually the same time. Although Sarah is financially well off, Harriet is struggling to make ends meet. In her efforts to help Harriet, Sarah is shocked to find out that Read More

Grace and Glorie

Synopsis: Adapted from a play by Tom Ziegler, the made-for-TV Grace and Glorie stars Gena Rowlands and Diane Lane as the title characters. Disenchanted with her empty existence in New York City, stylish but lonely Gloria "Glorie" Greenwood heads to the country, where she becomes a hospice worker in the Read More

She's So Lovely

Actors: Sean Penn, Robin Wright Penn, John Travolta

Synopsis: Written by the late John Cassavettes in 1987 and filmed by his son Nick a decade later, the comic drama She's So Lovely (originally and more appropriately titled She's De Lovely in honor of the Cole Porter composition central to the movie) stars real-life couple Sean Penn and Robin Wright-Penn as Read More

Unhook the Stars

Actors: Tom Proctor, Gena Rowlands, Marisa Tomei, Gérard Depardieu, Jake Lloyd, Moira Kelly

Synopsis: The great overlooked actress Gena Rowlands was cast in the starring role of Mildred in this film directed by her son, Nick Cassavetes. Rowlands appeared in several of John Cassavetes's remarkable films, notably A Woman Under the Influence. Mildred is a wealthy widow who lives with her daughter Ann Read More

Something to Talk About

Actors: Julia Roberts, Dennis Quaid, Robert Duvall, Gena Rowlands, Kyra Sedgwick

Synopsis: The feminist outrage of Thelma & Louise (1991) screenwriter Callie Khouri blended superbly with director Lasse Hallstrom's predilection for stories about idiosyncratic families in this effective comedy-drama. Julia Roberts stars as Grace King Bichon, a prim small-town wife who is incensed when she Read More

The Neon Bible

Actors: Gena Rowlands, Jacob Tierney, Diana Scarwid, Drake Bell, Denis Leary

Synopsis: A young boy comes of age in rural Georgia during the 1940s in Terence Davies' challenging, visually powerful drama. Acclaimed for his nostalgic, beautifully photographed reflections on England's past (The Long Day Closes, Distant Voices, Still Lives), Davies looks beyond his home country to Read More

Parallel Lives

Synopsis: Directed by Linda Yellen, this made-for-cable movie originally aired on the Showtime network and featured a star-studded cast including Dudley Moore, Liza Minelli, and James Belushi. The plot centers around several fraternity and sorority graduates who have decided to regroup at their alma mater. Read More

Silent Cries

Ted and Venus

Actors: Bud Cort, James Brolin, Kim Adams, Carol Kane, Pamella D'Pella

Synopsis: Bud Cort's directorial debut is a dark comedy about a romantic obsession that leads to tragedy, featuring a wide array of cameo performances including James Brolin, Carol Kane, Rhea Perlman, Martin Mull, Andrea Martin, Woody Harrelson, Timothy Leary, and Gena Rowlands. Cort is Ted Whitley, a local Read More

Night on Earth

Actors: Gena Rowlands, Winona Ryder, Giancarlo Esposito, Rosie Perez, Roberto Benigni, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Lisanne Falk, Béatrice Dalle

Synopsis: Jim Jarmusch's deadpan comedy-of-the-night is a collection of five vignettes taking place in the enclosed space of a cab ride, each occurring simultaneously in five different cities and five different time zones -- Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki. The Los Angeles episode Read More

Crazy in Love

Synopsis: Set amidst the glorious greens and blues of one of the many islands of Washington's Puget Sound, this made-for-cable television family drama centers on three generations of women and their lovers. The main story centers on one insecure bride who though madly in love with her spouse, still cannot Read More

Once Around

Actors: Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, Danny Aiello, Laura San Giacomo, Gena Rowlands

Synopsis: Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom made his American movie debut with this romantic comedy, starring Holly Hunter as Renata Bella, an aimless Bostonian thirtysomething who attends a seminar for aspiring condo salespersons. Here she meets hotshot salesman Sam Sharpe (Richard Dreyfuss), who Read More

Face of a Stranger

Synopsis: In this touching drama, based on a magazine article by Mary Stuart, a wealthy socialite finds herself impoverished following her husband's sudden death. Across the street from her tiny apartment, there lives a bag lady in large cardboard box. The women, realizing that they have more in common than Read More

My Shadow

Synopsis: An unlikely friendship develops between two seemingly dissimilar women in this made-for-television adaption. Gena Rowlands stars as Pat Foster, the wife of a wealthy Seattle businessman. When he dies unexpectedly, her finances are put into jeopardy and she suddenly feels empathy for a homeless Read More

Montana

Actors: Gena Rowlands, Richard Crenna

Synopsis: Novelist Larry McMurtry scripted this contemporary western, which examines cattle ranchers Hoyce and Bess Guthrie (Richard Crenna and Gena Rowlands) as they struggle to keep their marriage afloat after a power company offers to buy their land. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Another Woman

Actors: Gena Rowlands, Mia Farrow, Ian Holm, Blythe Danner, Gene Hackman

Synopsis: Grad-school administrative head Marion Post (Gena Rowlands) is in the midst of writing a book. The walls are thin in the apartment she's taken for work purposes, and soon Marion begins listening to the sessions conducted by her neighbor, an analyst. One of the patients is Hope (Mia Farrow), whose Read More

Light of Day

Actors: Michael J. Fox, Gena Rowlands, Joan Jett, Michael McKean, Thomas G. Waites

Synopsis: A brother and sister grapple with family and lifestyle issues in this rock-n-roll drama. Real-life rocker Joan Jett stars as Patti Resnick, an unwed mother who sings and plays guitar in a Cleveland bar band with her brother Joe (Michael J. Fox). Estranged from her parents and struggling to make Read More

The Betty Ford Story

Actors: Gena Rowlands, Josef Sommer, Nan Woods, Concetta Tomei, Jack Radar

Synopsis: Gena Rowlands won an Emmy for her towering portrayal of former first lady Betty Ford. After surviving breast cancer, the feisty Ford earns the love and admiration of the entire country. This makes it all the harder for her to keep private her biggest personal battle -- against alcohol and Read More

An Early Frost

Actors: Aidan Quinn, Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, Sylvia Sidney, John Glover

Synopsis: Originally telecast November 11, 1985, An Early Frost was the first TV movie to deal with the subject of AIDS. Aidan Quinn plays a personable young gay lawyer who is stricken with the HIV virus. As his health deteriorates, Quinn finds that his physical agony is secondary to his mental anguish. Ben Gazzara Read More

Love Streams

Actors: Gena Rowlands, John Cassavetes, Diahnne Abbott, Seymour Cassel, Margaret Abbott

Synopsis: In this emotional roller coaster ride, Robert Harmon (John Cassavetes) is a street-wise, sometimes obnoxious writer currently working on a book about the seamier side of buying/selling love, and Sarah Lawson (Gena Rowlands) is an emotive wife and mother struggling through a divorce and custody Read More

I'm Almost Not Crazy: John Cassavetes

Actors: John Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, Seymour Cassel, Menahem Golan

Synopsis: Filmed in 1984, I'm Almost Not Crazy: John Cassavetes was released in 1989, the year of the subject's death. Filmmaker Michael Ventura follows Cassavetes around as the actor/director labors on his final film, Love Streams. This is warts-and-all material; Cassavetes makes no attempt at diplomacy if Read More

Thursday's Child

Actors: Rob Lowe, Jessica Walter, Don Murray

Synopsis: Thursday's Child is full of woe in this made-for-TV drama. Rob Lowe was given "and introducing" billing in the role of a teenaged athlete in dire need of a heart transplant. As Rob's parents Gene Rowlands and Don Murray prepare to face the possibility that they may lose their son, his aunt Jessica Read More

Rapunzel

Synopsis: In one of Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre productions, the actress stars as the title character who is rescued by a prince (Jeff Bridges) from her imprisonment in a tower. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Tempest

Actors: John Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, Susan Sarandon, Vittorio Gassman, Raul Julia

Synopsis: This comedy is set upon a remote Greek island and is very loosely based on Shakespeare's classic play. The tale centers on a middle-aged New York architect who abandons his wife and moves to the island with his teen-age daughter and his new lover, a Greek singer, in hopes of finding meaning in his Read More

Gloria

Actors: Gena Rowlands, John Adames, Buck Henry, Julie Carmen, Lupe Garnica

Synopsis: Gloria (Gena Rowlands), a self-involved woman in her forties who was once a mobster's mistress, is asked to look after Philip (Juan Adames), the son of her Mafia-connected Puerto Rican neighbors. This temporary set-up becomes permanent when the neighbors are killed in a mob hit. Philip has in his Read More

Strangers: The Story of a Mother and a Daughter

Synopsis: The made-for-television movie Strangers: The Story of a Mother and a Daughter concerns a bitter widow (Bette Davis) who is upset about the unexpected return of her estranged daughter (Gena Rowlands). Davis won an Emmy for her performance. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

The Brink's Job

Actors: Peter Falk, Peter Boyle, Warren Oates, Gena Rowlands

Synopsis: In 1950, a Brink's armored truck in Boston was robbed by a highly organized gang decked out in Halloween masks. The Brink's Job is an occasionally humorous account of that "perfect crime." Peter Falk stars as the mastermind behind the robbery, who assembles a bunch of two-bit hoods who in any Read More

A Question of Love

Actors: Josh Albee

Synopsis: A Question of Love is the deceptively bland title for this controversial made-for-TV film. Gena Rowlands plays a divorced nurse who is doing her best to raise her young sons (Keith Mitchell and Josh Albee) without their dad's help. Rowlands' ex-husband Clu Gulager files for full custody of the Read More

Opening Night

Actors: Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, John Cassavetes, Joan Blondell, Paul Stewart

Synopsis: John Cassavetes' Opening Night stars Gena Rowlands (Mrs. Cassavetes) as end-of-tether Broadway actress Myrtle Gordon. She is about to open in a play written by her old friend Sarah Goode (Joan Blondell), but a series of pre-show setbacks and disasters threaten to destroy not only the production Read More

Two-Minute Warning

Actors: Charlton Heston, John Cassavetes, Martin Balsam, Beau Bridges, Marilyn Hassett

Synopsis: Larry Peerce directed this tired disaster movie about a mad sniper loose in a football stadium. At the beginning, the sniper picks off a cyclist for practice and then takes roost in the top tower of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Sent in to stop the terror is Captain Peter Holly (Charlton Heston Read More

A Woman Under the Influence

Actors: Gena Rowlands, Peter Falk, Matthew Cassel, Matthew Laborteaux, Christina Grisanti

Synopsis: John Cassavetes' harrowing masterpiece charts the emotional meltdown of a suburban housewife and its effects on her blue-collar Italian family. Gena Rowlands stars as Mabel Longhetti, a mother of three whose husband Nick (Peter Falk) works as a construction worker; a mismatched couple like so many Read More

Minnie and Moskowitz

Actors: Jack Danskin, Sean Joyce, Gena Rowlands, Seymour Cassel, Val Avery, Timothy Carey, Katherine Cassavetes

Synopsis: Can a straight-laced woman find happiness with a scruffy hippie who has a bad habit of getting beaten up? Minnie Moore (Gena Rowlands) was a prom queen in high school but has become disillusioned with life now that she is a divorcée who has just turned 40. Her marriage ended badly, and her current Read More

Machine Gun McCain

Actors: John Cassavetes, Britt Ekland, Peter Falk, Gabriele Ferzetti, Salvo Randone

Synopsis: Hank McCain (John Cassavetes) is the imprisoned gangster who gets out of jail with the help of the mob. The syndicate wants him to take part in a heist of a Las Vegas casino. The plan is discussed and soon abandoned by the mob, but Hank decides to go ahead with the robbery. Disguised as a Read More

Faces

Actors: John Marley, Gena Rowlands, Lynn Carlin, Seymour Cassel

Synopsis: Faces is right: this definitive John Cassavetes film consists almost exclusively of tight, uncomfortable close-ups. It takes place in the fourteenth year of the marriage of Richard (John Marley) and Maria (Lynn Carlin). Neither husband nor wife is content with the conditions that prevail; Maria Read More

Tony Rome

Actors: Frank Sinatra, Jill St. John, Richard Conte, Gena Rowlands, Simon Oakland

Synopsis: Frank Sinatra brings a sneering Rat Pack ethos to his first hard-boiled detective role in Tony Rome. Tony is an ex-cop who lives on a houseboat off Miami, accepting fees for private-eye work. His former partner, Ralph Turpin (Robert J. Wilke), asks Tony for help in locating Diana Pines (Sue Lyon) Read More

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Murder Case

Actors: John Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, Murray Matheson, Ben Wright, Brendan Dillon

Synopsis: This episode marks a rare joint appearance by John Cassavetes and his wife, Gena Rowlands. Married to Charles Justin (Murray Matheson), an elderly diamond merchant, young Diana Justin (Rowlands) decides to finance a stage play with her husband's money -- and hires an ex-lover of hers, actor Lee Read More

Bonanza: She Walks in Beauty

Actors: Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Gena Rowlands

Synopsis: The fifth season of Bonanza commenced on September 22, 1963 with the episode titled "She Walks in Beauty." Gena Rowlands guest-stars as Ragan Miller, whose ravishing good looks have brought her nothing but misery and disastrous romantic relationships. Despising all men, she merely uses them to get Read More

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: The Lonely Hours

Actors: Nancy Kelly, Gena Rowlands, Joyce Van Patten, Juanita Moore, Jesslyn Fax

Synopsis: A woman calling herself Vera (Nancy Kelly) displays a great deal of affection toward the baby son of her landlady, Louise Henderson (Gena Rowlands). Curiously, although the infant is named Lonnie, Vera insists upon referring to him as Michael. What seems innocent enough on the surface is quickly Read More

A Child Is Waiting

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Judy Garland, Gena Rowlands, Steven Hill, Bruce Ritchey

Synopsis: Produced by