Saturday, July 5, 2014

Mazursky




One of my favorite filmmakers passed away two days ago, Paul Mazursky. Someone told me that nobody makes films like Mazursky and that it's a sad thing to hear he's gone.

My first Mazursky movie was probably Bob, Carole, Ted and Alice, which was very much a satire on the California crowd in the 70's and how they were attempting to get into the sexual mores that changed so much from the 50's. 



I also liked An Unmarried Woman with Jill Clayburgh, another actress who's gone. Here's a list of a few other films I enjoyed. I also got to see him at Farmer's Market where he and other "oldtimers" would exchange stories near the legendary Bob's Donuts.

 

Bloom In Love was especially interested to me because it was around the time my ex and I split up. Mazursky's idea for this movie came to him when he was in Rome. His idea was about a guy who's in Rome and doesn't know why he's there. And the rest... as they say, follows.





Harry and Tonto is a movie I can watch over and over. It's about Art Carney who decides to go to visit his son in Los Angeles after he and his cat, Tonto, are kicked out of his New York apartment.

 

You really should try to see some of Mazursky's movies, there some not so good films but a good handful of great movies.


And have a coffee for Mazursky at Bob's.

2 comments:

  1. I wrote this on the Guardian Obituary page: He went to the Farmers' Market in Los Angeles every day for breakfast at around 8:00 am. It was a cool time as the sun had not quite reached its zenith and there would be a slight breeze. Paul would sit at the same table every day by himself. By the time he left, about an hour or so later, his table was full with stars, ex-stars and wanna be stars. He worried about the future of The Farmers' Market - we all did - as re developers were hovering who eventually built the monstrosity called The Grove. But they left The Farmers' Market as it more or less was as Paul had been interviewed on various TV News programmes and maybe that was noticed. Plenty of movie stories and witticisms of the day ensued at that table for as long as the great man was able - the table will be vacant now apart from the same storytellers who will be remembering Paul and his movies; RIP.

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