Willie & Phil (1980)

30% want to see it
(23 ratings)

Director Paul Mazursky's follow-up to his 1978 hit An Unmarried Woman found this filmmaker creating a feature-length homage to the François Truffaut classic Jules and Jim. Willie and Phil begins with Jewish intellectual schoolteacher Willie (Michael Ontkean) meeting gregarious Italian-American… More Director Paul Mazursky's follow-up to his 1978 hit An Unmarried Woman found this filmmaker creating a feature-length homage to the François Truffaut classic Jules and Jim. Willie and Phil begins with Jewish intellectual schoolteacher Willie (Michael Ontkean) meeting gregarious Italian-American fashion photographer Phil (Ray Sharkey) at a screening of Jules and Jim. The two hit it off immediately and soon find their circle of two expanding to three when they meet Jeanette (Margot Kidder), a free-spirited Southerner who has moved to New York City to figure out her life. Jeanette soon moves in Willie, but the three find themselves in a romantic triangle that constantly shifts over the next nine years as each of the three struggles to find their destiny while honoring the love they feel for each other. Mazursky would later remake another foreign classic (Boudu Saved From Drowning) into his hit Down and Out in Beverly Hills ~ Donald Guarisco, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 56 min.
Directed By: Paul Mazursky
Genres: Drama, Comedy

Critic Reviews

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
Willie & Phil vividly shows the pain and unfulfilment that comes with the yearning for new experience that is so embedded in the American grain.

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Cast

            Michael Ontkean as Willie Kaufman

            Margot Kidder as Jeanette Sutherland

            Ray Sharkey as Phil D'Amico

            Jerry Hall as Karen

            Jan Miner as Mrs. Kaufman

            Natalie Wood as Herself

            Julie Bovasso as Mrs. D'Amico

            Tom Brennan as Mr. Kaufman

            Louis Guss as Mr. D'Amico

            Kathleen Maguire as Mrs. Sutherland

            Kaki Hunter as Patti Sutherland

            Kristine de Bell as Rena

            Alison Cass Shurpin as Zelda Kaufman Number 4

            Christine Varnai as Zelda Kaufman Number 3

            Laurence Fishburne as Wilson

            Walter N. Lowery as Park Bum

            Helen Hanft as Used Car Salesperson

            Hubert J. Edwards as Black Kid

            Alvin Alexis
            
            Sol Frieder
            
            Cynthia McPherson
            
            Donald F. Muhich
            
            Tom Noonan
            
            Lionel Pina
            
            Rick van Nutter as Official Clerk

            Jill Mazursky Cody as Jill

            Robert Townsend
            
            Karen Montgomery
            
            Eivind Harum as Igor

            Kitty Muldoon
            
See full cast

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