Starting Over (1979): Help Me Unpack This Cinematic Curio, DL!

Here's an example.

Was this a "look" in 1979?

Candace Bergen sings hilariously bad, in a showstopping way. The male equivalent of this was when I saw John Mahoney of "Frasier" fame in his Tony-winning role in "The House of Blue Leaves" singing, oh, so horribly in his role as a terrible songwriter. He was brilliant opposite the equally wonderful Swoosie Kurtz.

Terribly disappointing. The valium joke was the high point—the only high point.

Jill got the Oscar nod for this.

I preferred "Semi-Tough", first pairing of Clayburgh/Reynolds, but "Starting Over" has some very funny moments too. 70s fashion (and decorating) was a hodge podge of colors and textiles; it was fun at the time, but may not hold up today...

I'm fascinated by late 70s fashion: the good, the bad, the even worse.

Can someone explain Candice's garment here?

By contrast, there's also a lot of BEIGE here. It reminded me of Woody Allen's "Interiors" just in that respect.

Reynolds was crushed when he didn’t get Oscar nominated. He’s gone on record as saying he would visualize Dustin Hoffman (best actor winner) and Sally Field (his girlfriend and best actress winner) dancing at the Governor’s Ball. It was the beginning of the end for them when she started getting all this acclaim in the 70s.

Reynolds was never my type, but the mustached, tan, macho look was popular in the 70s. Thought he did ok in the film, and was definitely a step to him being taken more seriously as an actor.

Clayburgh was definitely riding the Unmarried Woman wave and I though she was quite fetching and charming in the movie. Her clothes definitely suited her homey character.

Bergen deserved her nomination for just those terrible songs and singing alone.

She's better than ever.

I can't explain Candice's garment in R6, but Margaret Drabble, looking back on the 70s from the vantage point of 1987, described the fashion of the decade well:

"The eclectic seventies. Dark suits, pale blue shirts, Indian kurtahs worn not exclusively by Indians, Viyella shirts, striped mother-knitted pullovers, designer-monogrammed pullovers, cheap ethnic dresses, expensive ethnic dresses, long skirts, short skirts, exclusive French dresses, hand-stitched English dresses, Oxfam thirties dresses, prim high mandarin collars, plunging necklines, slit skirts, glimpses of suspender belts, clown pantaloons, dungarees, studded belts, limp leather belts, crackling metal belts, belts slung round waists, hips, bellies."

The bad power ballads were fun, but it desperately needed a sprightly instrumental track to glue it all together.

And a better set of friends.

That's a good point, R12. Burt and Jill both have Charles Durning and Frances Sternhagen in common, who appear not merely unrelated but actually in another movie. The divorced men's group had some unrealized potential. Poor Jill's character appears to have no real friends or family... and she's stuck with that shitty wardrobe.

I saw it when I was in graduate school and it was enjoyable weekend night out. People WERE predicting an Oscar nom for him and it was a surprise when he didn’t get one and the two women did—he’s really the focus and the character grows (Bergen deserved hers for her clowning). Clayburgh probably got her nomination as s carryover from not winning for An Unmarrief Man the year before. She was fine, but she certainly did more interesting work.

It was a tough year—he probably was sixth, right behind Al Pacino who came out of nowhere to score a nom for ...And Justicefor All, in which his gaminess was beginning to show. Hoffman, then Sellers, a toss-up for Lemmon and Scheidrr. I would have put Reynolds ahead of Pscino, though Pacino was more memorable more often during jis career.

"How was this movie a monster hit?"

Because Burt Reynolds was a HUGE star

Plus Kevin Bacon was it

Loved it! One of my favorites- Its one of those light comedies. Its not HILARIOUS, but it is charming.

It really captures a 1970's wintery Boston too.. Very cool.

They shot the furniture shopping sequence in Bloomingdales in Chestnut Hill Mass and the part when he comes out of that cheap store with lamps and things- That was Building 19!!!

I recall watching this at a matinee in a Manhattan theater on a day off from high school (Columbus Day?) . The film was okay, nothing great about. The best part was the Candice Bergen singing part near the end.

Back in 1979 if you didn't see a movie at the theater it could take years to get to see, and it would be on broadcast television edited with commercials. This was a few years before VCRs and video rental stores were available. Some began subscribing to cable like Home Box Office and Wometco Home Theater, just to see a small selection of films in the evening hours only.

R14 damn learn to proofread your posts.