17 Performances so sad that you won’t be able to hold your tears

Modified Feb 09, 2025 11:34 ET

The Father | Image Source: Sony Pictures Classics

7) Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

A Woman Under the Influence | Image Source: John Cassavetes Productions

In A Woman Under the Influence, Gena Rowlands' performance is a frenzied emotional rollercoaster through the inner life of a woman out of control. She gives an utterly amazing performance as a wife and mother whose mental illness she tries to live with, inhabiting that unraveling mind completely and effortlessly switching from moments of manic energy to devastating despair. Her raw, unfiltered performance, especially that heart-wrenching scene with Mabel where she tries to assert her dignity, is very strikingly seen as an emotional collapse.