In Memoriam: Paul Mazursky (1930–2014)
From the New York Times:
Paul Mazursky, an innovative director and screenwriter who both satirized and sympathized with America’s panorama of social upheavals in the late 1960s and ’70s in films that included “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” “Blume in Love” and “An Unmarried Woman,” died on Monday in Los Angeles. He was 84.
From the L.A. Times’ film critic Betsy Sharkey:
It’s hard not to take the death of Paul Mazursky personally.
When Jill Clayburgh’s character was unceremoniously uncoupled in Paul Mazursky’s “An Unmarried Woman” in 1978, a generation of American women were right there with her, rocked by the realities of being replaced by a trophy wife. Her issues were their issues, from rage to sexual liberation, feeling the bile rise in the back of a throat, cheering a choice to stand alone rather than commit to an eligible man.
A decade later, in the heart of the go-go 1980s, Mazursky perched Nick Nolte’s homeless guy on the edge of suicide and a Beverly Hills pool in “Down and Out in Beverly Hills.” Liberal guilt was flourishing along with Reagan-era affluence, so of course the well-to-do and dysfunctional couple played by Bette Midler and Richard Dreyfuss had to take him in, clean him up and hate themselves for doing it.
Mazursky’s great gift was in making it all so relatable. Though the details might vary, he lived and wrote about the experience of the upwardly mobile in this country with incredible honesty and skill in a way that mainstream audiences would embrace.
Mazursky is most known as a director, but he was also a prolific screenwriter. Here is a list of some of his writing credits:
Enemies: A Love Story (1989)
Moon Over Parador (1988)
Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986)
Moscow on the Hudson (1984)
Tempest (1982)
Willie & Phil (1980)
An Unmarried Woman (1978)
Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976)
Harry and Tonto (1974)
Blume in Love (1973)
Alex in Wonderland (1970)
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968)
He was nominated for 4 Academy Awards for his writing: Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Harry and Tonto, An Unmarried Woman, and Enemies: A Love Story.
Here is a Writers Guild Foundation interview with Mazursky, recorded in April 2013:
A few trailers from Mazursky movies:
And there’s this: Mazursky is co-creator of the 60s TV series “The Monkees”.
Go here to read about and see a video of Mazursky’s table at L.A.’s Farmers Market, where he and friends would gather each morning for coffee and pastries.
Some tributes to Mazursky:
And Mazursky’s Twitter page. His last tweet:
Godspeed, Paul Mazursky.
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