The Graduate
Recognise this one?
Recent college graduate Benjamin Braddock is trapped into an affair with Mrs. Robinson, who happens to be the wife of his father’s business partner and then finds himself falling in love with her teenage daughter, Elaine.
On Thursday 30th November, Alty Film Club says “here’s to you Mrs Robinson” as we luxuriate in our memories of how primordial Generation X-er, Benjamin Braddock stunned, appalled and excited cinema-goers at the fag-end of the ‘60s and created a classic tale of social dysfunction and trashing weddings. We’re all fucked-up, is there any hope? The Graduate is certainly very funny, but in cutting a swathe through Hollywood’s middle-class American value system this is also satire at its most biting.
“The Graduate,” the funniest American comedy of the year, is inspired by the free spirit which the young British directors have brought into their movies. It is funny, not because of sight gags and punch lines and other tired rubbish, but because it has a point of view. That is to say, it is against something. Comedy is naturally subversive, no matter what Doris Day thinks.
Roger Ebert 26 December 1967
And that reference to Doris Day is pertinent, as the squeaky clean Hollywood A-lister was, in fact, Nichols 1st choice for Mrs Robinson. How different might that film have become?
So, a glorious film, with Simon & Garfunkel’s memorable score, and beautiful Alfa Romeo Spider for the ride. What treasures we bring!