1032 An Unmarried Woman

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swo17
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1032 An Unmarried Woman

#1 Post by swo17 » Wed Mar 18, 2020 4:20 pm

An Unmarried Woman

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One woman's journey of self-discovery brings about a warmly human cultural conversation about female liberation, in this wonderfully frank, funny chronicle of changing 1970s sexual politics by Paul Mazursky. When her husband of sixteen years abruptly leaves her for a younger woman, Manhattan gallery worker Erica (a fantastic, Oscar-nominated Jill Clayburgh in her defining role) finds herself alone and adrift—but also newly empowered to explore her needs and desires as she tests the waters of a new relationship with a charismatic artist (Alan Bates). Candidly addressing issues of sex, intimacy, loneliness, and divorce from an unabashedly feminist perspective, An Unmarried Woman makes the simple but radical assertion that a woman's most important relationship is the one she has with herself.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary from 2005 featuring director Paul Mazursky and actor Jill Clayburgh
• New interviews with actors Michael Murphy and Lisa Lucas
• New interview with author Sam Wasson on Mazursky's work
• Audio recording of Mazursky speaking at the American Film Institute in 1980
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by critic Angelica Jade Bastién

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The Elegant Dandy Fop
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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#2 Post by The Elegant Dandy Fop » Wed Mar 18, 2020 4:35 pm

Based on this film alone, I've avoided Paul Mazursky's complete filmography. I found this to be insipid, wretched, and a lazily done, straight man's perspective on second-wave feminism. It's an opinion that seems to be unpopular, but when I saw this years ago on 35mm, I was squirming in my seat about how bad it was. And Bill Conti's score is the most oppressively 70s soundtrack I've ever encountered. I was surprised to see the clue to this a while ago and to now actually see it announced.

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domino harvey
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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#3 Post by domino harvey » Wed Mar 18, 2020 4:36 pm

Uh, okay, well certainly that's a hot take

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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#4 Post by The Elegant Dandy Fop » Wed Mar 18, 2020 4:39 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Wed Mar 18, 2020 4:36 pm
Uh, okay, well certainly that's a hot take
Didn't mean to take a poo-poo on the whole thread before it got started!

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domino harvey
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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#5 Post by domino harvey » Wed Mar 18, 2020 4:40 pm

We all have our films that rub us the wrong way, it's fine, I just think this film is pretty widely beloved (and I would say for good reason) and has been criminally hard to see for a while since Fox's DVD went OOP very early in the DVD era. I think it's an enjoyable snapshot of the era's feminist attitudes, and I suspect most here would like it

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soundchaser
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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#6 Post by soundchaser » Wed Mar 18, 2020 4:44 pm

I haven't seen this in a few years, but I remember it mostly for its use of Leo Sayer's "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing"! It is very much of its time (disco songs and all), but I enjoyed it on first viewing and I'm looking forward to seeing it again.

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knives
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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#7 Post by knives » Wed Mar 18, 2020 4:55 pm

It's also a fun example of how the morphing of the French New Wave managed to still hold on the young Hollywood filmmakers so late on. The film is clearly an attempt to make mainstream, down to the title, some of Godard's late '60s concepts. The stretch of films Mazursky made between '74 through '82 (assuming his Truffaut remake is any good) is extremely impressive and its sad that he hasn't gotten the continued respect some others who fell off during the '80s have gotten like Hal Ashby. Not every film Mazursky made was a masterpiece, but his good ones are really good.

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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#8 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Mar 18, 2020 6:14 pm

Couldn’t agree more knives, it’s been a while since I’ve seen this but I recall having Rohmer burned into my mind the most. A lovely film. Hopefully Harry and Tonto comes from Indicator at least, if the Fox deal still holds. It’s one of his most ‘popular’ if any can be considered such, but still criminally underseen.

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knives
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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#9 Post by knives » Wed Mar 18, 2020 6:18 pm

That would be great or having anybody rerelease my personal favorite, Next Stop, Greenwich Village.

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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#10 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Mar 18, 2020 6:27 pm

Yes, absolutely, one of mine as well. Honestly I’ve enjoyed all his work to some degree, but haven’t been able to get through the first couple minutes of Alex in Wonderland due to the awful static on the VHS rip I have, so perhaps it’s as terrible as I’ve heard

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domino harvey
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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#11 Post by domino harvey » Wed Mar 18, 2020 6:28 pm

Warner Archives released a restored version on DVD-R

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therewillbeblus
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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#12 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Mar 18, 2020 6:30 pm

But is the movie any good? If so- great!

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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#13 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Mar 18, 2020 7:00 pm

As happy as I am for this, seeing late 70s Jill Clayburgh reminds me that few announcements would delight me more than a proper release of Starting Over and all its empathy for nihilistic-driven numbed emotional apathy given our current global crisis.

She gives a hell of a performance in this one, though

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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#14 Post by nitin » Wed Mar 18, 2020 11:17 pm

knives wrote:
Wed Mar 18, 2020 6:18 pm
That would be great or having anybody rerelease my personal favorite, Next Stop, Greenwich Village.
Isn’t the TT currently on sale?

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swo17
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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#15 Post by swo17 » Wed Mar 18, 2020 11:30 pm

It is, for $14.95 + $75 shipping

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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#16 Post by MichaelB » Thu Mar 19, 2020 4:22 am

therewillbeblus wrote:Hopefully Harry and Tonto comes from Indicator at least, if the Fox deal still holds. It’s one of his most ‘popular’ if any can be considered such, but still criminally underseen.
Oh, bless you and your wide-eyed optimism. Although Indicator is at least doing Moscow on the Hudson in May.

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knives
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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#17 Post by knives » Thu Mar 19, 2020 6:21 am

nitin wrote:
Wed Mar 18, 2020 11:17 pm
knives wrote:
Wed Mar 18, 2020 6:18 pm
That would be great or having anybody rerelease my personal favorite, Next Stop, Greenwich Village.
Isn’t the TT currently on sale?
I meant from a real company.

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Dr Amicus
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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#18 Post by Dr Amicus » Thu Mar 19, 2020 6:29 am

I've never seen this but I do seem to remember there are quite a few critical / theoretical articles about it from the late 70s / early 80s from a feminist perspective - when I did my undergrad film course we looked at Coma (in the feminism theory section), and I remember some of the work on that also tackled / referenced the Mazursky film.

Probably my favourite of his I've managed to see was Enemies: A Love Story - but I haven't seen it since it came out but my memories are that it was pretty good. Wasn't a fan of Alex in Wonderland or Willie and Phil though.

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knives
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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#19 Post by knives » Thu Mar 19, 2020 8:56 am

Enemies is definitely a great one. Certainly the best Singer adaptation.

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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#20 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Mar 19, 2020 9:27 am

MichaelB wrote:
Thu Mar 19, 2020 4:22 am
therewillbeblus wrote:Hopefully Harry and Tonto comes from Indicator at least, if the Fox deal still holds. It’s one of his most ‘popular’ if any can be considered such, but still criminally underseen.
Oh, bless you and your wide-eyed optimism. Although Indicator is at least doing Moscow on the Hudson in May.
Oof that's disheartening coming from you as our insider, at least I know not to get my hopes up! So does that mean the Fox deal is dead (sorry if I didn't get the memo, wasn't sure how the Disney acquisition affected overseas leasing) or are there other rights issues with this title in particular?

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Ribs
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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#21 Post by Ribs » Thu Mar 19, 2020 10:09 am

If memory serves Indicator has indicated there will not be additional Fox titles beyond the initially licensed set for the time being

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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#22 Post by Rupert Pupkin » Thu Mar 19, 2020 9:39 pm

the cutest scene is when they played (the mother and her daughter) and sing on a piano (with bad chords :lol: ) "Maybe I'm Amazed" by Paul McCartney. I think that it's the first time that I can listen to a Beatles solo song performed during a movie ("You're Sixteen" by the Bridges brother in "Suzy And The Baker Boys" is the cover not the cover done by McCartney for Ringo).
I can think of a lot of movies with some soloBeatles songs covered : Boyhood for instance and the customized black album; but I don't remember such scene in another movie (of course we have "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", etc...)

the odd thing is that no music is credited on the ending credits.

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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#23 Post by Fred Holywell » Fri May 15, 2020 1:48 pm


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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#24 Post by The Curious Sofa » Sat Jun 27, 2020 3:54 am

I watched An Unmarried Woman for the first time last night and it's my favourite film discovery of the year. This came out when I was 14. I'd just started to watch more "grown up" films like Annie Hall, but a film about middle aged divorce wasn't in my ballpark yet. I remember the film being a big deal. Since it came out the film hasn't been that easy to see and I thought it may have rightfully been consigned to the dustbin of time, as of-the-moment, well meaning and probably a little dated. The film is nothing like it, it's wonderfully alive, with characters who feel real. You don't see sex scenes which feel this awkward and real in Hollywood films anymore. This also has a generous heart, even in regard to its deeply flawed male characters. I get why this was a star-making turn for Jill Clayburg, having been introduced to her with the mediocre The Silver Streak and the wretched La Luna. After initially finding it intrusive, I even warmed to the somewhat overbearing score by Bill Conti.

I also watched A League of Their Own for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Even if one can lament that Hollywood doesn't make mid- to large budgeted films like it anymore, it feels broad and unsubtle when compared to the low key naturalism of An Unmarried Woman. Every statement about feminism is broadly signposted to generate cheers, every character feels like a stereotype there to make a point. It's the type of film I was afraid An Unmarried Woman would be but wasn't . Hollywood films from the 90s now often look far more like relics than films from the 70s.

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swo17
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Re: 1032 An Unmarried Woman

#25 Post by swo17 » Sat Jun 27, 2020 7:06 am

The Curious Sofa wrote:
Sat Jun 27, 2020 3:54 am
I get why this was a star-making turn for Jill Clayburg, having been introduced to her with the mediocre The Silver Streak and the wretched La Luna.
Her other key film which should be required viewing for life is Pakula's Starting Over, which has a lot of the same qualities you describe for the Mazursky, only relative to the modern romantic comedy

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