An Unmarried Woman (1978) on Netflix
Erica Benton works at a SoHo art gallery and is married to Martin, a businessman. Martin has an affair with a younger woman, Marcia, and tells Erica he wants to marry her.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb7.2/106,997 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes89%
Trailer
Plot summary
Erica Benton has a part-time job at an art gallery in SoHo. She is married to Martin, a successful businessman, and they share an apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side with their teenage daughter Patti. Martin has been involved with a much younger woman called Marcia for about a year. He tells Erica that he loves Marcia and intends to marry her. Erica is devastated, and Martin leaves.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about An Unmarried Woman (1978)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Mazursky offered the role of Erica to Jane Fonda, who passed to star in Julia, and considered Barbra Streisand but did not hear back from her agent; Jill Clayburgh, at 32, was thought too young to play a wife in a 16-year marriage, so she returned styled as an older woman and secured the part.
- Bates had misgivings because he did not want to leave his dying father in England, but Mazursky assured him he would be given seven days to be with his father in case of a tragic event; Bates conceded, and his father died after he returned home.
- Anthony Hopkins was offered the role of Saul but turned it down because the character does not show up until past the midway point of the script, so it went to British actor Alan Bates, who had never appeared in an American film.
- The abstract expressionist paintings in the film were created by artist Paul Jenkins, who taught Bates his painting technique for the acting role.
- Clayburgh worked the entire shoot without a day off, because her character was written into every scene of a film that was on a tight budget.
