Paul Mazursky carved a unique niche in the contemporary Hollywood landscape. The writer/director, who passed away on June 30 in Los Angeles at the age of 84, was born into a Ukrainian Jewish home in working-class New York, his mother a musician, who gave recitals for dance classes; his father, a hardened labourer. That ‘art/work’ dichotomy infused his cinematic view of his world, from his beginnings as an acting student of Lee Strasberg to stints in stand-up comedy and finally a place amongst Hollywood’s A-list for over two decades.
In a career that spanned 19 films, he boldly tackled modern reworkings of Fellini (Alex in Wonderland, 1970), Truffaut (Willie and Phil, 1980), Shakespeare (Tempest, 1982) and Bergman (Scenes from a Mall, 1991). He has delivered one deeply personal work (1976s desperately undervalued Next Stop, Greenwich Village) and was not without his misguided follies (Columbia Pictures deemed his 1993 film industry satire, The Pickle, “unreleasable”). But more often than not, Mazursky’s words and images captured the zeitgeist, leading to some of the most caustic social satires and compassionate dramatic comedies in American cinema history…
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)
Mazursky had directed the short Last Year at Malibu and penned the script (with co-writer Larry Tucker) for the Peter Sellers 1968 hit, I Love You, Alice B Toklas (Tucker and Mazursky had teamed on TV writing gigs, notably the pilot episode of The Monkees). For his feature directorial debut, he drew upon his experiences at a new-age communal retreat he had visited with his wife. The film, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, captured the tune-in/drop-out, free-love ethos of a rebellious America; it became a blockbuster hit (its US$30million gross equates to US$188million today), wowed critics (the esteemed Pauline Kael called it, “…the liveliest American comedy so far this year…”) and earned 4 Oscar nominations.
Blume in Love (1973) and Harry & Tonto (1974)
The enormous success of his debut gave Mazursky creative freedom, which he frittered away with the bizarre 1970 oddity, Alex in Wonderland (“…self-indulgent emptiness,” said critic Vincent Canby). After a sabbatical in Europe, he returned with two small-scale but insightful works that would re-establish his reputation. Blume in Love, starring George Segal, put a human face on the scourge of Me Generation America, the divorce lawyer, earning Mazursky a WGA nomination; and, Harry and Tonto, the touching story of a displaced old man (Oscar-winner Art Carney), his cat, Tonto and the road-trip they undertake to discover a country that casts aside its elderly in the name of progress.
An Unmarried Woman (1978)
Hitting cinemas with its themes of gender role redefinition and personal freedom at a time when American women were most vocal in the loud, proud fight for equality and independence, Mazursky had his biggest commercial hit ever with An Unmarried Woman. Starring Jill Clayburgh in an iconic, Oscar-nominated performance, the story of Erica and the reclamation of her spirit after her well-to-do Upper East Side marriage crumbles, became a social phenomenon. Roger Ebert called it, “…one of the funniest, truest, sometimes most heartbreaking movies I've ever seen.”
Moscow on the Hudson (1984) and Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986)
His ambition went unrewarded when follow-up projects Willie & Phil (1980) and Tempest (1982) tanked, but the country was reshaping itself. Gone was the ‘personal improvement’ mantra of the 1970s, replaced by the Reagan-era ‘red, white and blue’ patriotism that frowned on foreign influence and celebrated gaudy monuments to wealth. Mazursky refocussed his satirical eye accordingly - Moscow on the Hudson (1984) gave Robin Williams his best role in years, as the Russian musician finding the new America not the land of opportunity he was promised; and Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), the smash-hit satire about life amongst LA’s vacuous elite, which rejuvenated the careers of Nick Nolte, Bette Midler and Richard Dreyfuss.
Enemies: A Love Story (1989)
Mazursky’s last truly memorable work was his sweet, ‘romantic love triangle’ comedy drama Enemies: A Love Story, adapted from Isaac Bashevis Singer’s novel by the director and journeyman writer Roger L Simon (The Big Fix, 1978; Bustin’ Loose, 1981). The film failed to click with audiences, but the aging auteur’s love letter to the New York of his boyhood was one of his most critically acclaimed films (Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers said, “This is a stunning film, richly detailed and brilliantly acted”), earning Oscar nominations for the adapted screenplay and leading ladies Lena Olin and Anjelica Huston.