Cast

Gena Rowlands, John Adames, Julie Carmen, Buck Henry

awards

Venice IFF 1980 – Golden Lion, Boston Society of Film Critics Awards 1981 – best actress

Film description

Gloria is a very interesting movie in at least three regards. First, Cassavetes again uses genre formulas to take advantage of gangster films conventions. Second, after several years, he returns to New York and, as it was in the case of Shadows, makes the Big Apple one of the movie’s protagonists. Finally, Cassavetes deconstructs the genre formula, using gangsters to tell a story about maternity.

Taking advantage of the popularity of retro movies and films with child characters, Gloria is Cassavetes’ answer to a request by Gena Rowlands. She drew his attention to the fact that although kids and women – often as mothers – appear in his movies, he has never focused on maternity. Cassavetes addresses the issue in his own way, telling the story of a strange relationship between an old mob woman and a 6-year-old Puerto Rican boy whose family has been killed. Surprisingly, chases, escapes, and shootings in Gloria set up a very important question: what does it mean to be a mother?

In 1999, Sidney Lumet remade Gloria starring Sharon Stone, which was a box-office failure. Interestingly, the original version’s opening scene, with the killing of the Puerto Rican family and the child’s lucky escape, served to inspire Luc Besson’s Leon: The Professional (1994).

Elżbieta Durys