As a director and screenwriter, Paul Mazursky, who has died aged 84, was middle America's most successful interpreter of the lifestyle changes inspired by the swinging 60s, and his films served as a barometer for the "me decade" of the 1970s. Over a career that spanned 60 years, including acting and standup comedy, and during which he earned four Oscar nominations for screenplays and one for best picture, Mazursky brought a degree of comic affection to his characters and stories, which sometimes led critics to label his films as soft-centred. This perhaps reflected his unique background among the explosive generation of young American directors who came to prominence at the same time.
Although Mazursky did not star in his own films, he bears comparison with Woody Allen, another writer-director with roots in New York Jewish comedy. Both were influenced heavily by the great European directors whose films made such an impact in the US in the late 50s. But where Allen often seemed to be exploring the dilemma of people caught in the godless universe of Ingmar Bergman, and could be harsh with them, Mazursky's best work reflects the impossibility of satisfying the peculiar American requirement to be "happy", particularly, as any Jewish comedian of the era would tell you, when that happiness was linked to love and sex.
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