Blume in Love

Blume in Love
Directed by Paul Mazursky
Produced by Paul Mazursky
Written by Paul Mazursky
Starring George Segal
Susan Anspach
Kris Kristofferson
Marsha Mason
Shelley Winters
Music by Bill Conti
Cinematography Bruce Surtees
Edited by Donn Cambern
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release dates
  • June 17, 1973 (1973-06-17)
Running time
 115 min.
Country United States
Language English
Box office $2,900,000 (US/ Canada rentals)[1]

Blume in Love is a 1973 film written, produced and directed by Paul Mazursky, who also appears in it. It stars George Segal and Susan Anspach. Others in the cast are Kris Kristofferson, Marsha Mason and Shelley Winters.

Plot

Stephen Blume (Segal), a Beverly Hills divorce lawyer, tries to regain the wife (Anspach) who has divorced him.

Wandering around Venice, Italy, where they first honeymooned, Blume wonders what possessed him to betray Nina, a woman he loves, by having sex with his secretary in the bed he and Nina share at home.

Nina promptly leaves him and sets about a journey of self-discovery, trying new things like yoga and taking up with a man 12 years her junior, Elmo (Kristofferson), an unemployed musician. Blume goes to great lengths to win Nina back, complicated by the fact that he finds Elmo to be quite a nice guy.

Critical reception

The movie was nominated for a Writers Guild of America (WGA) award in the category of "Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen."

Roger Ebert in his June 18, 1973 review in the Chicago Sun-Times gave this film four stars on a scale of four. Vincent Canby of the New York Times described it on the same date as "a restless, appealing, sometimes highly comic contemporary memoir."

In an interview with Robert K. Elder for his book The Best Film You've Never Seen, director Neil LaBute explains his feelings on the film: “I was both intrigued and frustrated by what was happening. There’s this fractured telling of the story, several trips to Venice and the rest takes place in Venice, California. So, I think there was attraction to it by the frustration of it—like, ‘What’s happening here? What’s the story?’"[2]

Cast

Soundtrack

In popular culture

References

  1. ↑ "Big Rental Films of 1973", Variety, 9 January 1974 p 19
  2. ↑ Elder, Robert K. The Best Film You've Never Seen: 35 Directors Champion the Forgotten or Critically Savaged Movies They Love. Chicago, IL: Chicago Review, 2013. Print.

External links

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