Paul Mazursky's nearly twenty films as writer/director represent Hollywood's most sustained comic expression of the 1970s and 1980s. But they have not been given their due, perhaps because Mazursky's films-both sincere and ridiculous, realistic and romantic-are pure emotion. This makes films like Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, An Unmarried Woman, and Enemies, A Love Story difficult to classify, but that's what makes a human comedy human. In the first ever book-length examination of one of America's most important and least appreciated filmmakers, Sam Wasson sits down with Mazursky himself to talk about his movies and how he makes them. Going over Mazursky's oeuvre one film at a time, interviewer and interviewee delve into the director's life in and out of Hollywood, laughing, talking, and above all else, feeling-like Mazursky's people always do. The book includes a filmography and never-before-seen photos.

SAM WASSON is the New York Times-bestselling author of Fifth Avenue, 5AM: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman, and A Splurch in the Kisser: The Movies of Blake Edwards. He is working on a biography of Bob Fosse.

Acknowledgments The Jewish Foreword: Mel on Mazursky Introduction: On Paul on Mazursky Boychick: Brooklyn, 1930 ? Los Angeles, 1968 I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968) Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) Alex in Wonderland (1970) Meg on Mazursky Blume in Love (1973) Harry and Tonto (1974) Josh on Mazursky Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976) Juliet on Mazursky An Unmarried Woman (1978) Jill on Mazursky Willie & Phil (1980) Donn on Mazursky Tempest (1982) Moscow on the Hudson (1984) Laddie on Mazursky Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986) Moon Over Parador (1988) Enemies: A Love Story (1989) Fred on Mazursky Scenes from a Mall (1991) Albert on Mazursky The Pickle (1993) / Faithful (1996) Winchell (1998) / Coast to Coast (2003) Yippee (2006) Tzadik: Minetta Lane, Fall 2007 Filmography Index