An Unmarried Woman
Short description
Erica Benton has spent her adult life as a wealthy wife on Manhattan's Upper East Side, married since shortly after school and settled into a comfortable routine of family, friends and work at a SoHo art gallery. When her husband Martin, a successful broker, leaves her for a younger woman, that life falls apart, and Erica has to work out who she is on her own. She begins rebuilding with help from a therapist and a circle of friends, and tentatively starts a relationship with Saul Kaplan, a British artist.
Paul Mazursky directed and wrote the film, and produced it with Anthony Ray. It followed his 1969 debut Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and came before Moscow on the Hudson (1984) and Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986). Jill Clayburgh plays Erica, with Michael Murphy as Martin, Alan Bates as Saul, Cliff Gorman as Charlie, Kelly Bishop as Elaine Liebowitz and Lisa Lucas as Patti. Thirty performers are credited.
Made for about 3 million dollars and released in May 1978, the film took roughly 24 million dollars worldwide, a strong return on its budget. On TMDB it holds a rating of 6.8 out of 10 from 85 votes, indicating a generally favorable but not unanimous response from that audience.
What's left behind the scenes
- Penelope Rusianoff (1917-2000), who played Tanya, the psychotherapist for the character Jill Kleiberg, was actually a psychotherapist. The therapy sessions were filmed in her New York penthouse, where she saw her patients. She was paid $2,500 for 2.5 days of filming. She was recommended to the film's director, Paul Mazursky (1930-2014), by Claudia Weil, the director of 'Girlfriends' (1978). According to Rusianoff, she improvised a significant portion of her own lines, drawing primarily on the advice she gave her patients in real life. After the movie's release, Rusianoff became a local celebrity; people began recognizing her on the street and asking for her autograph, and this fame also brought her several new clients.
- The abstract expressionist paintings shown in the film were painted by Paul Jenkins (1923-2012), who prepared Alan Bates (1934-2003) for the role of the artist Saul. Jenkins spent an entire week teaching Bates how to paint with acrylics.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
