I have never seen this movie (! DVD player here I come!) but the little snap as she adjusts her underwear pre-dance is quite possibly the most charming two seconds of cinema, ever. I can’t stop smiling.
Had they only let Carrie — and Miranda — be the solo women they were meant to be — instead of sticking them with the cliche script that they did — SATC would have remained my favorite. Alas. They did not.
Need to get to this theater you talk about! Great piece.
My husband (lol) is an avid film watcher and physical-media collector, and so as I was reading this I was asking him about the movie, and he pulled the Blu-ray off his shelf and handed it to me to soon watch! 📽️🍿🎬
I loved this clip so charming! I’d love to see this whole movie. The trauma of divorce is real. I have survived and most days flourish. I’ll admit it can effin exhausting, too.
An Unmarried Woman shaped my understanding of grown women when I was a still young woman in my early 20’s in 1978. It was an airy experience: feminine and feminist.
I was an architecture student at Michigan— and found they would not teach me drafting. We are talking hand-drafting, twirling leads to create straight lines with T-squares and triangles. Since girls had been excluded from drafting classes in my high school in Suburban Detroit… I’d signed up on my own for a community college class… and I hated it. Not the training but the anger I felt toward the paternalistic men teaching at UoM(all but the one woman. a token female Urban Planner).
I’d seen An Unmarried Woman— the big screen in an empty theater… and skipped the drafting class time after time to see it again and again; four or five times! It was my indulgence and my optimism. Seeing the Jenkins paintings sailing thru NY was my own uplift. Seeing Jill Clayburgh’s sense of freedom, her naked ballet, and gallery accomplishments depicted in the film— became my own.
I often think about that film. Often! Paul Muzurski, a favorite. I believe he made a rarely seen version of The Tempest- which I took my mom to see. Blum in Love— another amazing film. But it was An Unmarried Woman that married art and sex and freedom and NY for me.
I’d never known anyone else who doted on this film from that time- at that time. And into this time. Besides YOU!
Another recommendation for similarly minded people would be a favorite called “Only Lovers Left Alive” — just as witty. And similarly off most people’s radar. It is filmed in Detroit and Tangiers- with ruin porn, rock guitar, and classic Cadillacs. I own it now along with Local Hero, Burt Lancaster’s last film with magical realism thrown into Scottish oil production and the night sky. Buy them and enjoy them at your own watch-parties!
Films SHOULD twist our minds and identities don’t you think?
((Only Lovers Left Alive is a 2013 gothic fantasy comedy-drama film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, starring Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska, Anton Yelchin, Jeffrey Wright, Slimane Dazi and John Hurt. Wiki))
((Local Hero is a 1983 British comedy-drama[1] film written and directed by Bill Forsyth and produced by David Puttnam. It stars Peter Riegert, Burt Lancaster, Denis Lawson, Peter Capaldi, and Fulton Mackay. Riegert plays an American oil company representative who is sent to the fictional village of Ferness on the west coast of Scotland to purchase the town and surrounding property for his company. ))
I can't believe I forgot The Tempest was Mazursky! I loved that film as a kid. It must have been on one of the film channels, because I definitely watched it multiple times. I think that was my first Cassavetes. So good.
I LOVE Local Hero!! One of my favourites. I saw it in the theatre with a girlfriend when it first came out. I never miss it whenever it happens to be on TV.
Thanks. These seem excellent. I might add Diary of a Mad Housewife. An unbeatable portrayal of NYC, patriarchy, desire and desperation. Not a romp, but that's not the point.
I recently was watching episodes of a show I occasionally watched in the 70's.... The Rockford Files. And Jill Clayburgh was a guest star in one them. And I had completely forgotten about her and that film, which I really loved when it first came out. Definitely plan to re-watch it.
I have never seen this movie (! DVD player here I come!) but the little snap as she adjusts her underwear pre-dance is quite possibly the most charming two seconds of cinema, ever. I can’t stop smiling.
Yes! So good.
Had they only let Carrie — and Miranda — be the solo women they were meant to be — instead of sticking them with the cliche script that they did — SATC would have remained my favorite. Alas. They did not.
Need to get to this theater you talk about! Great piece.
My husband (lol) is an avid film watcher and physical-media collector, and so as I was reading this I was asking him about the movie, and he pulled the Blu-ray off his shelf and handed it to me to soon watch! 📽️🍿🎬
Can we campaign/sign a petition, to put the movie on a streaming service. Lol. Ever since you first mentioned it, I've wanted to watch it!
Definitely :)
I loved this clip so charming! I’d love to see this whole movie. The trauma of divorce is real. I have survived and most days flourish. I’ll admit it can effin exhausting, too.
I’m seeing this movie at Metrograph next week and your newsletter made me even more excited.
I didn't realize they'd added another show. Amazing.
An Unmarried Woman shaped my understanding of grown women when I was a still young woman in my early 20’s in 1978. It was an airy experience: feminine and feminist.
I was an architecture student at Michigan— and found they would not teach me drafting. We are talking hand-drafting, twirling leads to create straight lines with T-squares and triangles. Since girls had been excluded from drafting classes in my high school in Suburban Detroit… I’d signed up on my own for a community college class… and I hated it. Not the training but the anger I felt toward the paternalistic men teaching at UoM(all but the one woman. a token female Urban Planner).
I’d seen An Unmarried Woman— the big screen in an empty theater… and skipped the drafting class time after time to see it again and again; four or five times! It was my indulgence and my optimism. Seeing the Jenkins paintings sailing thru NY was my own uplift. Seeing Jill Clayburgh’s sense of freedom, her naked ballet, and gallery accomplishments depicted in the film— became my own.
I often think about that film. Often! Paul Muzurski, a favorite. I believe he made a rarely seen version of The Tempest- which I took my mom to see. Blum in Love— another amazing film. But it was An Unmarried Woman that married art and sex and freedom and NY for me.
I’d never known anyone else who doted on this film from that time- at that time. And into this time. Besides YOU!
Another recommendation for similarly minded people would be a favorite called “Only Lovers Left Alive” — just as witty. And similarly off most people’s radar. It is filmed in Detroit and Tangiers- with ruin porn, rock guitar, and classic Cadillacs. I own it now along with Local Hero, Burt Lancaster’s last film with magical realism thrown into Scottish oil production and the night sky. Buy them and enjoy them at your own watch-parties!
Films SHOULD twist our minds and identities don’t you think?
((Only Lovers Left Alive is a 2013 gothic fantasy comedy-drama film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, starring Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska, Anton Yelchin, Jeffrey Wright, Slimane Dazi and John Hurt. Wiki))
((Local Hero is a 1983 British comedy-drama[1] film written and directed by Bill Forsyth and produced by David Puttnam. It stars Peter Riegert, Burt Lancaster, Denis Lawson, Peter Capaldi, and Fulton Mackay. Riegert plays an American oil company representative who is sent to the fictional village of Ferness on the west coast of Scotland to purchase the town and surrounding property for his company. ))
I can't believe I forgot The Tempest was Mazursky! I loved that film as a kid. It must have been on one of the film channels, because I definitely watched it multiple times. I think that was my first Cassavetes. So good.
I LOVE Local Hero!! One of my favourites. I saw it in the theatre with a girlfriend when it first came out. I never miss it whenever it happens to be on TV.
Thanks. These seem excellent. I might add Diary of a Mad Housewife. An unbeatable portrayal of NYC, patriarchy, desire and desperation. Not a romp, but that's not the point.
I recently was watching episodes of a show I occasionally watched in the 70's.... The Rockford Files. And Jill Clayburgh was a guest star in one them. And I had completely forgotten about her and that film, which I really loved when it first came out. Definitely plan to re-watch it.