Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Next Stop, Greenwich Village

1953: Lenny Baker is an aspiring actor from Brooklyn, moving to Greenwich Village. Also starring Shelley Winters, Christopher Walken, in a small part Jeff Goldblum, and in a blink and you'll miss him part Bill Murray, directed by Paul Mazursky.

Maybe not quite a masterpiece, but it's a great, affecting film. Baker looked like a mix between James Woods and Jean-Paul Belmondo, Winters plays the ultimate Jewish mother. The story takes place in the jazz / beatnik era, before the folkmusic boom. I like that it's a slow film, with really long scenes, and Mazursky is very generous to the characters, even the cheating girlfriend. I remember seeing this film on tv as a kid, and thinking that this is what adult life will be like.

2 comments:

  1. I also remember seeing this movie on danish television when I was much too young; there is a very bloody suicide scene in a bathtub as far as I recall.

    I have often thought about seeing it again, and now I have the title, thanks!

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  2. The woman, dead from suicide, in the bath tub is off screen, actually. There is a scene earlier where the woman is bleeding a bit from the wrists, from an attempted suicide, but that is all. But it's interesting how images like that can affect you as a child, and then the imagination does the rest.
    Yes, the film is worth re-watching.

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