Directed by Joan Micklin Silver • 1979 • United States
Starring John Heard, Mary Beth Hurt, Peter Riegert
The trailblazing Joan Micklin Silver—one of only a handful of women to direct a film for a major Hollywood studio in the 1970s—digs fearlessly into the psychology of a thorny relationship in this anti–romantic comedy, based on Ann Beattie’s best-selling novel, about lovelorn civil servant Charles (John Heard) and his married-but-separated coworker Laura (Mary Beth Hurt). Months after their affair has ended, Charles is haunted by memories as he desperately attempts to rekindle a love that perhaps never was. Switching deftly between past and present, Micklin Silver guides this piercing deconstruction of male wish-fulfillment fantasy beyond standard movie-romance tropes into something more complicated and cuttingly truthful.
Up Next in Season 1
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Crossing Delancey
Directed by Joan Micklin Silver • 1988 • United States
Starring Amy Irving, Peter Riegert, David Hyde PierceJoan Micklin Silver’s wonderfully, warmly Jewish spin on the romantic comedy follows literary, uptown-dwelling Manhattanite Izzy Grossman (a luminous Amy Irving), who finds herself caught...
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A Fish in the Bathtub
Directed by Joan Micklin Silver • 1999 • United States
Starring Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara, Mark RuffaloLegendary comedy duo (and real-life husband and wife) Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara star as the constantly bickering couple at the center of this sprightly comedy from writer-director Joan Mick...
