Paul Mazursky

An Unmarried Woman

This Paul Mazursky film was considered pretty hot stuff when it came out in 1978 and was part of a wave of films that opened Hollywood's eyes to stories of women discovering their own identity. And it still holds up. Jill Clayburgh plays a comfy East Side wife whose lawyer husband (Michael Murphy) one day drops a bombshell on her: He doesn't love her and he's walking out on the marriage. Clayburgh, who is accustomed to thinking of herself as an adjunct to her man, suddenly must stand on her own two feet. But it's not an easy transition for her. This was one of the first movies to show how tough it can be, and Clayburgh portrays a compelling blend of vulnerability and growing strength. She even meets a great new guy, a painter (Alan Bates) who, she discovers, she can love without losing herself in the process. --Marshall Fine

Erica seems to have it all - a comfortable home, an interesting job in a Manhattan art galley, a bright teenage daughter, and a loving, successful husband. Then, suddenly, her life is shattered. Her "perfect" husband walks out, and she is left frightened and alone to face the chancy singles world. How does a vital, contemporary woman pick up the pieces and start over?

Tempest

This modernistic fantasy-drama is about a New York architect Phillip (John Cassavetes) who is fedup with city living. He takes his wife Antonia (Gena Rowlands) an actress and their daughter Miranda (Molly Ringwald in her debut) to Greece to a barren island. There he meets a singer and a hermit and others who land on the island when the boat is shipwrecked.System Requirements:Runtime: 142 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG UPC: 043396076518 Manufacturer No: 07651

A burnt-out architect (the peerlessly unhinged John Cassavetes) tries to get away from it all on a seemingly idyllic Greek isle in this extremely loose-limbed adaptation of Shakespeare's play. This pleasantly rambling, exquisitely lit portrayal of the middle-aged-crazies is rather broad even by writer-director Paul Mazursky's estimable standards, but Cassavetes's wholly unpredictable performance keeps the considerable preciousness from ever getting too thick. (He's aided by a uniformly wonderful cast, including Gena Rowlands, Susan Sarandon, Molly Ringwald, and especially Raul Julia as a wacked-out lech of a goatherd.) Not recommended for people trying to get out of reading the source material (for that, try the sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet), but patient viewers will find plenty of rewards amid the schmaltz. --Andrew Wright

Next Stop, Greenwich Village

During the 1950s, a young man leaves home to go live in Greenwich Village and be an actor.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: R
Release Date: 13-DEC-2005
Media Type: DVD

Writer-director Paul Mazursky's transparently autobiographical Next Stop, Greenwich Village is a film of considerable charm and appeal. His alter ego in this case is Larry Lapinsky (Lenny Baker), an aspiring actor in his early twenties who leaves his Brooklyn home, kvetching mother (Shelley Winters), and hen-pecked pop (Mike Kellin) and moves to Greenwich Village, a few subway stops and several worlds away. This is the Village of the mid-'50s; Dylan and the folkies wouldn't take root there for years, and even the beat poet scene wasn't yet in full bloom. But it was the hippest place in town, filled with counter-culture artist types, and Larry, an aspiring actor, settles right in, hooking up with a gang of pals and a foxy girlfriend Sarah (Ellen Greene) almost immediately and then dealing with life's various triumphs and vicissitudes. Baker, who made only a couple more films before dying of cancer in 1982 (Greenwich Village was released in '76), is fine in the central role; an actor playing an actor, he has a field day with the rapid-fire repartee and shtick Mazursky writes for him (Greene would go on to play Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors, but it's the young supporting actors, notably Chris Walken, Jeff Goldblum, and Lois Smith, who would have the more stellar careers). Overall, the film is smart and well-observed, with ample humor and warmth, along with an improvisational feel. It also tends to play very real, especially the scenes involving the two young lovers; only Winters's scenery-chewing Jewish stereotype gets tiresome. The sole bonus feature is a commentary track with Mazursky and Greene. --Sam Graham

An Unmarried Woman

This Paul Mazursky film was considered pretty hot stuff when it came out in 1978 and was part of a wave of films that opened Hollywood's eyes to stories of women discovering their own identity. And it still holds up. Jill Clayburgh plays a comfy East Side wife whose lawyer husband (Michael Murphy) one day drops a bombshell on her: He doesn't love her and he's walking out on the marriage. Clayburgh, who is accustomed to thinking of herself as an adjunct to her man, suddenly must stand on her own two feet. But it's not an easy transition for her. This was one of the first movies to show how tough it can be, and Clayburgh portrays a compelling blend of vulnerability and growing strength. She even meets a great new guy, a painter (Alan Bates) who, she discovers, she can love without losing herself in the process. --Marshall Fine