Rowlands appeared in a few ground-breaking television movies tackling controversial subjects. “A Question of Love” (1978) told the story of a lesbian couple (Rowlands and Jane Alexander) raising three children from their former marriages. One of the ex-husbands sues for custody and the case goes to court. Their sexuality is on trial and it’s ugly. Rowlands is superb, and there are moments during the court scenes, particularly when she listens to her teenage son on the stand, ranking with her best work. In 1985, she appeared in “An Early Frost”, the first movie to deal with the AIDS crisis, at a time of misinformation, fear, and hatred. The success of “An Early Frost” – its ratings, its award nominations and wins – was extremely important in raising the visibility of the AIDS crisis, as well as humanizing it.
Rowlands gave another major performance in Woody Allen’s “Another Woman” (1988). (I wrote the booklet essay for an Arrow Film release of the film in a box set.) “Another Woman” features a murderer’s row of talent: Ian Holm, Mia Farrow, Gene Hackman, Sandy Dennis, Betty Buckley, Martha Plimpton … but this is Rowlands’ movie. She plays philosophy professor Marion, the ultimate chilly blonde. Marion is drawn back into the past, and confronted with the damage she has done to others. Allen is in full Bergman mode here, the film’s structure similar to “Wild Strawberries”, with Allen hiring Bergman cinematographer Sven Nykvist to shoot the film. “Another Woman” is told mainly through intense Bergman-esque closeups on Rowlands’ face. These closeups are unlike anything else she had done before. They’re riveting and uncomfortable. Roger Ebert’s review of “Another Woman” is well worth a look, particularly his insightful comments on Rowlands:
“There is a temptation to say that Rowlands has never been better than in this movie, but that would not be true. She is an extraordinary actor who is usually this good, and has been this good before, especially in some of the films of her husband, John Cassavetes. What is new here is the whole emotional tone of her character. Great actors and great directors sometimes find a common emotional ground, so that the actor becomes an instrument playing the director’s song.
Cassavetes is a wild, passionate spirit, emotionally disorganized, insecure and tumultuous, and Rowlands has reflected that personality in her characters for him – white-eyed women on the edge of stampede or breakdown. Allen is introspective, considerate, apologetic, formidably intelligent, and controls people through thought and words rather than through physicality and temper. Rowlands now mirrors that personality, revealing in the process how the Cassavetes performances were indeed “acting” and not some kind of ersatz documentary reality. To see “Another Woman” is to get an insight into how good an actress Rowlands has been all along.“