Plastics
Watched The Graduate last night for the first time in at least 20 years. Either it hasn't aged very well or this particular viewing fell victim to Unreasonable Expectations Syndrome - where you have such fond memories of something from your past that revisiting it can't possibly live up to what you've remembered.
Author Sven Birkerts once wrote an essay on how rereading a book is so different than reading it for the first time. Partially because you know what's going to happen - the example he gives is The Great Gatsby, first time through you read it with the hope that Jay and Daisy might get back together, on subsequent readings the optimism Jay exudes is more poignant because you know it's ill-fated. The other reason, of course, why rereading produces a different reaction is because you're not the same person you were the first time around.
First time around I was borderline legal to see The Graduate - went to a downtown Chicago theater and was allowed in, tried to see it a second time out in the 'burbs and was told I was too young. I felt kinda smug about getting to see an "adult" movie, and thought it was witty and well-acted.
On viewing it last night I thought Dustin Hoffman's performance was borderline catatonic, and the whole relationship between him and Elaine was the very embodiment of late-1960s movie "romance" (and fashion - check out the HUGE false eyelashes on Katherine Ross during the date scenes). They go out on ONE date before the big revelation about Mrs. Robinson, and that's enough for him to fall in love?
The whole section in Berkeley really doesn't ring true either - Elaine has two guys on the line, waffles about "maybe" marrying either of them, finally decides to hastily marry the frat dude, then blows him off at the altar to run away with Ben? On "Love, American Style", maybe - but this was a Mike Nichols classic that won him an Oscar.
Oh - Nichols' direction? Speaking of catatonic...
Author Sven Birkerts once wrote an essay on how rereading a book is so different than reading it for the first time. Partially because you know what's going to happen - the example he gives is The Great Gatsby, first time through you read it with the hope that Jay and Daisy might get back together, on subsequent readings the optimism Jay exudes is more poignant because you know it's ill-fated. The other reason, of course, why rereading produces a different reaction is because you're not the same person you were the first time around.
First time around I was borderline legal to see The Graduate - went to a downtown Chicago theater and was allowed in, tried to see it a second time out in the 'burbs and was told I was too young. I felt kinda smug about getting to see an "adult" movie, and thought it was witty and well-acted.
On viewing it last night I thought Dustin Hoffman's performance was borderline catatonic, and the whole relationship between him and Elaine was the very embodiment of late-1960s movie "romance" (and fashion - check out the HUGE false eyelashes on Katherine Ross during the date scenes). They go out on ONE date before the big revelation about Mrs. Robinson, and that's enough for him to fall in love?
The whole section in Berkeley really doesn't ring true either - Elaine has two guys on the line, waffles about "maybe" marrying either of them, finally decides to hastily marry the frat dude, then blows him off at the altar to run away with Ben? On "Love, American Style", maybe - but this was a Mike Nichols classic that won him an Oscar.
Oh - Nichols' direction? Speaking of catatonic...
posted by Addison Clark at 4:11 PM
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