I never saw a wholly successful women's lib picture. Diary of a Mad Housewife was a well-made nightmare that placed its thesis ahead of its characters - its conception of a horrible husband seemed rigged. More overtly "right on!" pix were pitiful failures; 1973's Stand Up and Be Counted introduced the song "I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar" but went nowhere.

By 1977-78 audiences were looking for something different, and Paul Mazursky followed his New York-based success Next Stop, Greenwich Village with this story that concentrated on one divorcée, or to be precise one separated female. Erica is living a fairly pleasing life when her marriage blows up in her face. She's gotten along well with her husband Martin but doesn't realize the shallowness of his commitment - he hasn't the fortitude to do anything but collapse into a blubbering baby. Martin's been bad and he seems to want forgiveness but the bottom line is he's running off to be with a younger woman. Erica stares blindly as her marriage dissolves under his betrayal and cowardice - she's too furious to have an immediate emotional reaction.

An Unmarried Woman is a character study, not a fantasy. Women identify with Erica when she dances around her apartment in her underwear, and admire her emotional resources as she slowly reasserts control of her life. Writer-director Mazursky exhibits fine strengths in writing and directing and his cast shines in extended relationship scenes. Her girlfriends form a chorus of conflicting voices, depending on their own experiences. One is a bitter divorcée and another seems to accept her husband's philandering. Another is quite seriously carrying on an affair with a 19 year-old boy. Why not?, reasons Erica: A man in his thirties would do the same thing with a 19 year-old girl.

Mazursky stages convincing scenes with Erica over-reacting to catching her daughter smooching with her boyfriend, and uses a real psychologist to play her gentle therapist. It's Erica who interprets advice to "get out among the living" as, go have an affair. She tries the randy guy who's been chasing her and mostly laughs at the experience. And an impulse to sleep first thing with another more promising artist doesn't seem like a horrible misstep, as Erica initiates the move toward intimacy and uses it to get the sex issue out of the way. She's no twenty-something bon-bon anymore.

Jill Clayburgh is luminous in this picture and does a great service for the image of upscale New York women. She has a great smile, a hearty laugh and an intelligent gaze. Arthur Ornitz' camera catches her full-face without makeup and we like what we see. An Unmarried Woman has several scenes with partial nudity, which never seemed less exploitative.

The only thesis in An Unmarried Woman is that a woman like Erica needs to assert her independence just enough to keep from being victimized relationships; self-esteem is the joy-killer among her friends. Her charming boyfriend Saul is definitely not perfect, and works on her to spend the summer with him in Vermont. As for her responsibilities in Manhattan, he's confident that she'll opt to toss them in favor of pleasing him, and is both subtle and nice when he suggests that there are probably other women in Vermont, and ... you never know. But Erica is no longer interested in that kind of a deal. The finale has them parting for the summer, leaving us with the interesting image of her struggling on the sidewalk with an oversized painting. We know she'll manage.

Savant was mostly uninterested in 'relationship' films in 1978 but remembered the reaction to the picture. Some complainants thought that Erica didn't have any problems, that she was a rich NY woman who may have lost a husband but retained a great apartment, lifestyle and daughter. That's true perhaps, but Erica is no rich b____ and the lack of other disasters in her life allows the film to concentrate on her specific emotional problems. A story about a woman without means abandoned by her husband wouldn't be able to address the politics of female liberation ... she'd be working on avoiding homelessness.

The other complaints were at best reactionary. Because Erica asserts her independence and runs into several jerk opportunist with ideas about the sexual needs of fresh divorcées, it's assumed that the film is about man-hating. The one proponent of anti-male hostility in Erica's clique is not endorsed by the film. Since Erica takes a matter-of-fact attitude about her sex life, and religion has no place in her decisions, I heard other complaints that the film was immoral. Perhaps those same people would approve of the warped vindictiveness of Richard Brooks' Looking for Mr. Goodbar? That film invents a gruesome Catholic punishment for a woman whose sin is finding one night stands in bars, as does Mazursky's Erica. That takes us back to Pabst and the prehistoric attitude of Pandora's Box, with its theme that female sexuality invites the cruel punishments of fate.

Mazursky plays a small role himself and is good. Happily married acting couple Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker play a happily married couple ... and the film accepts their success without comment.

Fox's DVD of An Unmarried Woman is a fine enhanced transfer that flatters the film's natural lighting. Jill Clayburgh's face seems only a few inches away. Audio is clear and the package lists an optional 2 channel stereo track. A trailer is included. The well written text copy ends on a real clunker that misses the point completely: "Erica makes desperate and often comic attempts to liberate herself sexually, until she meets the one man who can show her how to stand on her own." No, no, no, no.

Paul Mazursky and Jill Clayburgh contribute a full-length commentary and regale us with interesting information. Mazursky's co-producer Tony Ray turns out to be the son of Nicholas Ray. Kelly Bishop was fresh from winning a Tony for A Chorus Line. Mazursky has a lot of insights about the film and the difference between the 70s and now - how Studios would force a faster pace and less character buildup. Clayburgh calls the filming a 'serendipitous experience' and tells us that Mazursky was more mellow than mellow can be. She thinks the film is a precursor to Sex in the City. The film gallery scenes are jammed with fine art, all of it real. Director and star have interesting thoughts about the crying scene on the street - many viewers and critics took it as comedic.

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, An Unmarried Woman rates:
Movie: Excellent
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements: trailer, commentary with Paul Mazursky and Jill Clayburgh
Packaging: Keep case
Reviewed: January 15, 2006