Gena Rowlands, who died Wednesday at the age of 94, was widely regarded as one of the best actresses of her generation, known for her vulnerable portraits of women in states of crisis. Her most acclaimed performances came through her prolific and intensely creative collaboration with her husband, the director, writer and actor John Cassavetes, who gave her parts like the housewife in turmoil in “A Woman Under the Influence.” Even after his death in 1989, Rowlands would continue to work with family members, starring in the directorial efforts of their son, Nick, and her daughter Zoe. And while she became a star of the 1970s with films that broke new ground in independent cinema, in her later years she was introduced to a younger generation, thanks to Nick Cassavetes’s blockbuster tear-jerker, “The Notebook.” Here is where to watch some of her best work.
Perhaps the first true example of the magic Rowlands and John Cassavetes could make together came in the form of “Faces.” (Before that, she had an uncredited role in his debut, “Shadows,” as well as a part in his more conventional “A Child Is Waiting,” starring Judy Garland.) But “Faces,” made on a shoestring budget, was the project that started to reveal how unique their partnership could be. In Cassavetes’s drama about tensions between a married couple played by John Marley and Lynn Carlin, Rowlands is Jeannie, a call girl who becomes entangled with the husband in the equation. In Cassavetes’s tight close-ups and long takes you can see how Rowlands embodies the naturalistic milieu he was developing. When we first meet Jeannie she’s a good-time gal, partying with much older men, singing “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair,” but soon her eyes snap into focus, unwilling to be denigrated, as she develops affection for Marley’s character.