- La reine du cinéma indépendant américain, Gena Rowlands, est morte.
Gena Rowlands, connue pour ses cheveux blonds, ses yeux bleus glacés et son sourire captivant, a été couronnée reine du cinéma indépendant américain. Le réalisateur John Cassavetes, décédé en 1989, a un jour déclaré avec enthousiasme : "Gena est subtile, délicate, c'est un miracle. Elle est directe et inébranlable. Elle peut tout faire." Le couple, marié pendant plus de trois décennies, Cassavetes ayant découvert et adoré Rowlands, a collaboré sur des films réussis comme "Une femme sous influence" (1974) et "Gloria" (1980), faisant de Rowlands une star récompensée et nominée aux Oscars. Aujourd'hui, à l'âge de 94 ans, Rowlands nous a quittés.
L'agence de talents WME, qui représente le fils de Rowlands, Nick Cassavetes, a confirmé son décès à l'agence de presse allemande. Elle est décédée mercredi à Indian Wells, en Californie, selon les médias américains.
Le réalisateur Nick Cassavetes (65 ans) a annoncé en juin que sa mère souffrait d'Alzheimer depuis plusieurs années. Il acasté Rowlands dans le drame romantique "The Notebook" (2004), où elle incarnait une femme âgée nommée Allie souffrant de la maladie d'Alzheimer dans une maison de retraite. Le film revient sur la jeune Allie (Rachel McAdams) et son grand amour, Noah (Ryan Gosling).
L'actrice, mariée au businessman Robert Forrest depuis 2012, a continué à travailler jusqu'à un âge avancé. "Je suis très heureuse d'être arrivée jusqu'ici", a-t-elle déclaré au "Huffington Post" à 84 ans. "En le disant à haute voix, ça semble très vieux. Et c'est le cas. Mais on peut encore s'amuser beaucoup."
La famille de Rowlands est deeply rooted in the film industry. Her mother, Lady Rowlands, was also an actress, and both parents supported her career. All three of Rowlands and Cassavetes' children - Nick, Alexandra, and Zoe - followed their parents into the film business.
"I love acting because you get to live 100 lives," Rowlands told the "Los Angeles Times" in 2014. "You don't have to spend your whole life just with yourself." Her roles were always complex - from the call girl in "Faces" (1968), the first Cassavetes success, to the lonely museum worker Minerva in "Minnie and Moskowitz" (1971), the philosophy professor for Woody Allen in "Another Woman" (1988), or the Hollywood agent for Jim Jarmusch in "Night on Earth" (1991).
Initially, Rowlands thought more about theater than films, but when Cassavetes became interested in independent cinema, everything changed. They met at acting school in New York and it was love at first sight. They married in 1954. The couple struggled to finance their films, often touring the U.S. coast to coast with friends to interest cinema owners and the public in their projects.
"Film was our life. It was wild, intense years. The best of my life." Cassavetes' death in 1989 at the age of 59 left Rowlands devastated. She felt like a zombie and it took nearly two years before she could act again. Looking back, she has no regrets. "I had incredible luck. I really did."
For her roles in "A Woman Under the Influence" (1974) and "Gloria" (1980), both directed by her husband, she was nominated for an Oscar but didn't win. In 2015, the Film Academy honored the then 85-year-old actress with an honorary Oscar for her lifetime achievement.
Director Nick Cassavetes, in sharing the news of his mother's Alzheimer's diagnosis in June 2021, cast Gena Rowlands in the role of Allie, an elderly woman struggling with the disease, in the 2004 romantic drama "The Notebook." Despite the challenge, Rowlands' Oscar-nominated performances in films like "A Woman Under the Influence" and "Gloria" continue to be celebrated, with the Film Academy honoring her with an honorary Oscar for her lifetime achievements in 2015.
