In the discussion of A Woman Under the Influence, I quoted Cassavetes as saying, ‘In replacing narrative, you need an idea.’ There are several themes that link the characters and situations in Opening Night. One is the idea of the kind of weariness that settles in on many professionals as they reach middle-age. In their different ways, Myrtle, Manny and Dorothy are all experiencing feelings of exhaustion, doubt and despair about the value of their lives. They are tired of their own routines, bored with their own successes and cynical about the praise lavished on them. It is not hard to see an autobiographical dimension to this side of the film. Another idea that links the characters is men’s and women’s different responses to aging and feelings of mortality. Manny Victor and Gus Aaron respond by having affairs. Their relationships with younger women are their way of denying their age. Myrtle Gordon, Dorothy Victor and Sarah Goode respond in other ways to their fears of getting old. In the service of exploring the aging theme, Cassavetes methodically compares and contrasts the lives of more than a dozen women of different ages and situations – teenaged, middle-aged and elderly; wives, lovers and loners; childless professionals and fertile earth-mothers. As he always did before he began writing, Cassavetes did ‘research’. He talked to Sam Shaw’s wife, who was in her sixties. Cassavetes called her almost every night for a year on the telephone and talked to her for hours. He watched television talk shows and read women’s magazines. He played bridge in the afternoons with Rowlands, her mother, his mother and anyone else who would join them.