RIP Gena Rowlands

RIP Gena Rowlands (June 19, 1930 - August 14, 2024)

Watch the video essay below by film critic Sheila O’Malley the Criterion release of Love Streams. It includes insights and observations about why Gena Rowlands is one of the best.  (via https://www.sheilaomalley.com/?p=137643)

[Update - August 17]
Read this excellent obituary, also by Sheila O’Malley for RogerEbert.com.

There will always be a place in Hollywood for beautiful blondes. Rowlands wasn't a Marilyn-Monroe type. She was one of those "chilly" blondes, the kind Hitchcock loved. Rowlands was not a haughty person, but she often played characters with a whiff of standoffishness. Hollywood isn't known for its sensitive handling of beautiful talented blondes, but it's easy to imagine that Gena Rowlands, who loved acting ("I never wanted to do anything else. This was it."), would have had a respectable career, with or without her husband. Cassavetes didn't lift her out of obscurity. Nevertheless, she wasn't being seen the way she needed to be seen. The world didn't yet know what it was missing. 

Here’s Gena Rowlands receiving an Honorary Award at the 2015 Governors Awards which in the past would be part of the live broadcast of the Oscars ceremony. They need to bring it back.