‘Faces’ (dir. John Cassavetes, 1968)
John Cassavetes’ scalding 1968 marital breakup picture — his fourth feature, and one certainly emboldened by the standards set by ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ two years earlier for such a movie — features Rowlands as a call girl who blows up the bored marriage between a businessman (John Marley) and his unhappy wife (Lynn Carlin). Rowlands, by then well into her marriage to director Cassavetes, rips into Marley’s withering ideals over booze and cigarettes. Rowlands, with blond-headed classic film star looks, glowers over a martini as skillfully as anyone looking for answers at the bottom of the next drink. She would later get richer, leading-lady showcases in Cassavetes films like ‘Minnie and Moskowitz’ and, of course, ‘A Woman Under the Influence’ and ‘Opening Night.’ But here she showed her power as, even as someone with a tertiary role relative to the main characters, can take over an entire movie by mere presence alone. —RL