Yesterday I found an old Vanity Fair from a few months back lying around my room. I picked it up and started to read it. I was surprised by the brilliant articles in it. Like the one on Joan Crawford on the same book I was about to read. I was especially engrossed in the article all about the history of The Graduate.
Now The Graduate is one of the best films ever made. There's no denying that. One thing I always heard about it is that you don't even have to go to film school, you can just learn everything you'll ever need to know about film from watching The Graduate. I don't know if that's true, but I would have to say, the article I read was inspiring. I actually haven't ever seen the whole thing. I've watched pieces of it in my film classes. The first twenty minutes and the last twenty minutes for the most part. I know what happens. I've seen the biggest and important stuff. However, the article is fascinating because of how it came to be.
Originally, it was just a book someone read. Others viewed it as unfilmable, but ultimately they made a brilliant film out of it. You can see the generation gap in the sixties. It definitely wasn't the films from the 50s anymore. All those stars were 40 or older, but it wasn't quite the hollywood we advanced from in the 70s. The next person to get a hold of The Graduate, was Mike Nichols - a favorite director of mine. He's mostly a stage director, but what impresses me the most, is not only is connection to actors, but the camera. For a man who has done so much stage directing (and still doing it), he does the most unique and incredible things with a camera to capture something. I just recently watched Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? and loved that. I don't think I've ever seen anything more insane than that. For that to be his first film, is an incredible thing - a gutsy thing. People don't even make films that crazy now a days. The Graduate was his second one. An incredible feat. He signed on for The Graduate before he even finished Wolf as well.
You really just have to see his work to know how he uses the camera. The shot of Dustin Hoffman under the legs of Mrs. Robinson is an iconic shot if you ever saw one. In Virginia Wolf, there are countless shots that make the film feel more insane than the acting to enhance it.
The Graduate was ahead of it's time. About a 21 year old guy who doesn't know what he wants to do with his life has an affair with his parents adult friend and then he falls for the woman's daughter. It's absurd to think about, but it's very much a piece about figuring out your life than anything. The concept was unheard of. No one wanted to touch it. Dustin Hoffman was an unknown at the time. No one wanted a jewish stage actor either. Anne Bancroft had never even played sexy before. It was a first with everything. Even the music, done by two unknowns at the time - Simon and Garfunkel is iconic. Everyone has heard that song. It's just perfect for the film.
What's inspiring for me, is to think of a film that was completely outside of the box. It ran only in art house films. Nobody understood it, until they did the college circuit. Students saw it 15 times. I mean, that's art when it can connect with a younger generation like that. It's inspiring to think of a time when stuff like this wasn't made, and then to be the first of all kinds. It's incredible. It just makes me have hope that there's still a film that can shock and surprise and impress be left to be made. Perhaps, maybe by me.
No comments:
Post a Comment