Barefoot in the Park

In 1967, director Gene Saks brought Neil Simon's Broadway smash to the screen with Barefoot in the Park. The film stars Jane Fonda as Corie Bratter, a spontaneous romantic, and Robert Redford as Paul Bratter, her buttoned-up lawyer husband. They move into a tiny fifth-floor walk-up in Greenwich Village, a space with a leaky skylight, no bathtub, and radiators that clank. Charles Boyer plays their eccentric neighbor Victor Velasco, and Mildred Natwick is Corie's widowed mother Ethel. The movie cost $2 million to make and pulled in $30 million at the box office, a huge hit in its day.

Simon's script crackles with the tension between Corie's free-spirited idealism and Paul's cautious pragmatism. The apartment itself becomes a character, its quirks amplifying every disagreement. Fonda and Redford, both rising stars, brought palpable chemistry that would later deepen in films like The Sting. Neal Hefti composed the jazzy score, and Joseph LaShelle handled cinematography. The film earned an Academy Award nomination for Natwick and four Golden Globe nods, including Best Picture in the Musical/Comedy category.[edit]

Corie and Paul Bratter have just returned from a six-day honeymoon. They are moving into their first home: a cramped, dilapidated fifth-floor walk-up in New York's Greenwich Village. The apartment has a broken radiator, a leaky skylight, and no bathtub. Corie sees it as a charming adventure; Paul sees it as a disaster waiting to happen. Their personalities clash from the start. Corie is impulsive, romantic, and eager to embrace the bohemian life around them. Paul is methodical, risk-averse, and obsessed with practicality.

To shake things up, Corie arranges a double date between her widowed mother Ethel and their upstairs neighbor Victor Velasco, a flamboyant older man who lives in a similarly chaotic apartment. Victor takes them to an Albanian restaurant on Staten Island. They eat strange food, ride a ferry in the cold rain, and Paul catches a terrible cold. Corie finds the evening wildly romantic; Paul finds it a miserable ordeal. This deepens the rift between them.

Corie accuses Paul of being too rigid to enjoy life. Paul counters that Corie is irresponsible. Their arguments escalate. In a moment of frustration, Corie challenges Paul to do something completely spontaneous: walk barefoot in the snow-covered park across the street. Paul refuses, calling it foolish. Corie begins to wonder if she married the wrong man. Ethel, meanwhile, finds herself charmed by Victor, adding a subplot about older romance. The story builds toward a breaking point, testing whether love can survive such fundamental differences.[edit]