One of my favorite movie lines ever, impeccably written and delivered so that it has stayed fresh and funny for me every single day since I first heard it 30 years ago:
"We saw the new Lina Wertmuller film.... I loved it. Phil thought it was flawed."
-- Patti (Lisa Lucas), the 15-year-old daughter of Jill Clayburgh's title character in "An Unmarried Woman" (1978) by Paul Mazursky
BTW, I'm struck that studios hardly ever make mainstream movies like this anymore, naturalistic, humanistic comedy-dramas about adults who look, talk and behave like adults -- or like15-year-olds, depending on the circumstances. "An Unmarried Woman" is flawed, and I love it. (Clayburgh's shrink still drives me up the wall, but I never doubted that she was a dead-accurate caricature. Now I think she's hilarious; I used to just feel outrage that she was so full of shit and granola: "Guilt is a man-made emotion.... Turn off the guilt.")
Even if the movie plays like a '70s period picture in some ways (and it did then, too -- because it was made and set in a recognizable '70s New York movie-milieu), it's as smart and honest and observant as ever. Almost shockingly so, given what's passing for adult drama on big screens right this minute....
I caught "An Unmarried Woman" on cable just recently. I thought of watching a few minutes but ended up watching it all. It's true that some of the period quality is corny, but the characters come across as real people-- adults, as you say. I felt as if I were waiting for any of a number of movie cliches to happen, and none did. Clayburgh's character is not guilty about her new sex life and even the confrontation between the two men in her life does not end in a predictable way. The scene with the teenage daughter and her mom's new boyfriend is completely free of sitcom touches. The ex-husband ultimately comes across as a loser, but someone who has had to deal in an adult way with his decisions and their aftermath. I recall the movie being quite popular at the time it was released. Would it have a chance of earning a profit today? Current trends suggest otherwise.
One of the funniest lines I've ever heard in a movie falls under a similar beef - actually two of the funniest line do.
The first from a comedy-drama "If it bends, it's funny. If it breaks, it isn't." Over the image of a horse. Of course from Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors".
The closest I've seen to a comedy drama for adults in the past several years that was worth anything was "Wonder Boys".
The second line I sometimes laugh out loud just thinking about it, and I should take the time to put it on a personal coat of arms because more moments in my life have called for it is, ahem, "What a pisser." And it's funny in a bad way that the Zuckers can't even birth a comedy worth much of anything these days.
One thing we're not living in currently, Jim, is an age of filmic comedy gold. Where even cleverness is deemed unprofitable. But everything is cyclical...right?
Hollywood seems to have ceded anything naturalistic to the indie world, and I'm not sure it's exactly thriving even there. An Unmarried Woman was indeed a solid success, and it received several Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
Thanks for writing this. I just last week added "An Unmarried Woman" to my Netflix queue. I'll move it closer to the top.
I don't get it. What's so funny and impeccable about that line, exactly? I don't care to see the whole film again just to find out (I did see it a long time ago; I only remember that it didn't make an impression on me).
Funny, I was thinking along the same lines when watching Woody's "Celebrity" again recently. He devotes a whole scene to Kenneth Branagh's and Marion Seldes' characters discussing their love of Irwin Shaw and his story, "The Girls In Their Summer Dresses." Good luck seeing that anymore.