Why Love Streams Is Gena Rowland’s Most Praised Film

With a sensational career spanning nearly seven decades, the late and great Gena Rowlands was a staple in Hollywood and dazzled the masses with her unique and commanding silver screen performances. Known for both her personal and professional relationship with her talented filmmaker/actor husband John Cassavetes, Rowlands was a constant presence in the entertainment industry and worked with some of the cinema’s most celebrated stars, including Frank Sinatra, Kirk Douglas, Judy Garland, and Peter Falk.

Lauded as one of the greatest actresses of the Golden Age of Hollywood, Rowlands collaborated with her prominent husband in 10 films (including seven of his original pictures), with the 1984 drama Love Streams becoming one of the actress’ most praised and celebrated performances. While her other spectacular screen credits consist of hits like A Woman Under the Influence, Another Woman, Opening Night, and The Notebook, the intimate and thought-provoking Love Streams truly captured Rowlands’ power as a performer and showcased her impeccable range. Let’s check out why the drama deserved a second look 40 years later.

Love Streams Is a Fascinating Character Study

John Cassavetes’ 1984 penultimate directorial picture Love Streams is based on the Ted Allan play of the same name and features the gifted filmmaker’s real-life wife and frequent collaborator Gena Rowlands, whom he also acted alongside in the lauded drama. Cassavetes appeared as the alcoholic writer Robert Harmon (who was initially portrayed by Jon Voight in the stage production), as he is visited by his equally-struggling sister Sarah Lawson (Rowlands) as she finds herself going through an ugly divorce with her husband because of her increasingly erratic and unhinged behavior.

Both siblings have strained relationships with their children, and together, they attempt to overcome their nihilistic tendencies and self-destructive behavior, with Robert being forced to face his decadent lifestyle and womanizing ways while Sarah must cope with her crippling depression and the impact of her actions on her young daughter. Love Streams is a poignant and deeply engrossing character study that takes audiences on an epic roller coaster ride of emotions as the brother and sister battle against not only their own detrimental inclinations but also try to pull the other one out of their dark and all-consuming melancholy.

Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes Dominate the Screen

Love Streams was not the first film that the sensational Tinseltown couple worked on together, as Cassavetes and Rowlands had previously collaborated on six acclaimed movies with one another throughout the course of their personal and professional relationship. The duo were married in 1954, and their first joint project with one another was the 1963 drama A Child Is Waiting (which Cassavetes directed). It also touted an all-star ensemble including Judy Garland, Burt Lancaster, and, of course, Rowlands. Together, the silver screen dream team would continue dominating the industry and showcase their admirable skills, with Love Streams being their final project.

Like many of his pictures, Love Streams was shot and edited inside the Cassavetes’ home, and the drama’s visual style was vastly different from the director’s usual approach, as it did not contain his trademark hand-held camera work. When Cassavetes experienced some brief health setbacks, prominent fellow filmmaker and friend Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, Paper Moon) stepped in to help complete a few scenes in his absence. Love Streams allowed both Cassavetes and Rowlands to shine in their respective roles, as they both masterfully fully embraced their complex and deeply troubled characters.

Though Love Streams was not Cassavetes’ final project, most critics and audiences consider it the esteemed filmmaker’s final opus and a brilliant ode to his love and adoration of the cinema. The aptly named 1986 comedy Big Trouble was technically the director’s last picture and was not a pleasant experience for Cassavetes, as he took over duties for Andrew Bergman and did not have much say in the finished product. He would ultimately pass away at 59 following complications of cirrhosis, and Cassavetes’ final screen contribution would be the 1997 romantic drama She’s So Lovely, which he wrote the screenplay for and his son Nick directed.

Love Streams Is an Influential and Critically Acclaimed Hit

Love Streams made its dazzling debut at the Berlin International Film Festival, winning the highly-coveted Golden Bear at the prestigious event. Both critics and moviegoers were blown away by Casavettes’ powerful work both behind and in front of the camera, and they were equally wowed by Rowlands’ uninhibited performance as the profoundly emotional and unstable Sarah Lawson, who is hopelessly devoted to her brother and struggling with her own shattered world.

In their retrospective review of the engrossing drama, Seattle Film Blog raved about Rowlands’ spirited performance and wrote that Love Streams “gives [Gena] Rowlands one of her best roles and she runs with it. Sarah may be a loony, but she sure is fun to watch as she bowls in stockings and does back flips in Robert’s pool.” The chemistry and talent of the prominent Hollywood couple were on full display in the moving film, which explored heavy issues including loneliness, love, family, and the importance of human connection, with Cassavetes fearlessly pushing boundaries and rendering viewers uncomfortable with his unapologetic approach to storytelling and complicated characters.

Rowlands’ Dazzling Cinema Legacy

With an illustrious and enviable acting career spanning nearly seven decades, the late and great Gena Rowlands is, without a doubt, one of the most impressive and unforgettable performers of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Rowlands made her feature film debut in the 1958 comedy The High Cost of Living opposite Jose Ferrer and steadily began her big screen takeover in the ensuing years, memorably appearing in pictures like The Spiral Road, Tony Rome, and Lonely Are the Brave before going on to star in many of her director husband’s most universally-praised triumphs.

Rowlands earned Academy Award nominations for her brilliant work in Cassavetes’ films A Woman Under the Influence and Gloria. She also won the Silver Bear for Best Actress for her role in the psychological drama Opening Night. Throughout her enduring career, Rowlands was the recipient of two Golden Globes and four Emmys, and she also branched out and appeared in Woody Allen’s Another Woman, her son Nick Cassavetes’ beloved romantic drama The Notebook, as well as a myriad of other diverse and captivating projects.

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The New Yorker deemed the decorated actress as “The most important and original movie actor of the past half century-plus,” and her contributions to her husband’s pictures remain some of her very finest. The performance she delivered in Love Streams was undeniably a high mark for the talented Rowlands, as the BBC named the drama the 63rd greatest American movie ever made, and it currently holds an esteemed 100% Rotten Tomatoes score and 88% audience score.

Roger Ebert commended the husband/wife spectacle, appreciatively writing, “The movie is exasperating because we never know where we stand or what will happen next. I think that’s one of its strengths: There’s an exhilaration in this roller-coaster ride through scenes that come out of nowhere.” Love Streams is currently unavailable for streaming.