In Bell’s film we tried to make the most of the medium by utilising some tricky slight of hand shots that had our actors moving from one side of the room to another, this got me thinking about how other films do this.

The Graduate is one of those films that stills feels relevant 50 years later. Directed by Mike Nichols, and released in 1967, the graduate is a dark comedy about Dustin Hoffman’s Ben, who engages in an extramarital summer affair with Anne Bancroft’s much older Mrs. Robinson after having just graduated from college. However the relevance of this films lies in the films exploration of loneliness, societal expectations, materialism, and fear about the future/the passing of time.

Mike Nichols was originally a successful Broadway director. We often expect Broadway directors in film to embody a certain ‘style’ of directing, one which relies on a certain staging of long wide shots, with little camera movement and an emphasis on blocking. However, Nichols does not take this route, The Graduate is a purely cinematic experience making the most of the medium. The Graduate is a ‘restricted’ film, meaning it doesn’t give any information other than what the protagonist knows and the cinematography supports this restriction. The camera shows not just what Ben sees but also what he feels, so as a result we experience true subjectivity and find out what’s going on in his head. We get certain images that tell us certain things, scenes that are shot a certain way to tell us Ben’s emotional state, interactions and information are expressed through images as opposed to dialogue.

One of my favourite scenes in the film; the ‘Sound of Silence and April She Will Come scene’ is a perfect example of this. This five minute long scene uses a montage of images and scene transitions to explore Ben’s emotional state, the way he is experiencing the passing of time and his limited interactions with the people around him.

Mrs. Robinson challenges Ben’s sexual adequacy causing him to begin their affair, which he was previously attempting to back out of. This begin’s a number of clever scene transitions that allow us as the audience to experience Ben’s subjective experience of his Summer and his affair with Mrs. Robinson.

First we see Ben slam the door, casting Mrs. Robinson and the room in black. The affair is then by association something dark, something that is hidden in the shadows, something bad. There is a longer than needed blacked out screen. Allowing us to reflect on Ben’s decision and to think ‘what will happen now?, and ‘there is no going back’. In the darkness we hear Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound of Silence’, originally released three years before The Graduate came out. Many people think of S&G’s ‘Mrs. Robinson’ as the film’s soundtrack song, but it is ‘The Sound of Silence’ which truly reflects the loneliness, isolation and ambivalence of both the film’s lead and supporting characters. This hints to us as the audience that this affair is not something sexy, not something to be celebrated, not something that brings Ben joy. Rather it causes Ben to feel even more isolated and lonely than before, as he says later in the film when describing the affair “We might just as well have been shaking hands”.

A black fade out reveals sparkling pool water that Ben is seen floating on. Once again Ben is not joyous, or celebratory, he doesn’t even look like he’s enjoying himself. The pool almost asks a small relief from Ben’s everyday life, somewhere he can engage in escapism, however he can’t just stay here, and all his problems and fears still simmer in the background. Ben turns to look at his parents as he lounges, the parents representing the oppressive forces of expectation and judgement cause him to leave his escapist pool haven as he’s reminded of his everyday reality. Walking swiftly from the pool inside his home, which cleverly transitions (at 1:49) to the hotel room where Mrs. Robinson awaits him. Ben walks drearily into the room as if in a dream, transitioning from home to the hotel in a daze. Not really attentive to the world around him and not particularly enjoying it. This is further emphasised in the sun by his blank expression as Mrs. Robinson unbuttons his shirt.

Once again the scene transitions from the hotel, to his home (2:31) as we see Ben close the door on his parents and their associated expectations and judgement, transitioning back to the hotel at (3:03). Ben stares at the tv and drinks alcohol, uninterested in Mrs. Robinson as she walks scantily clad around the room, not even saying goodbye or reacting as she leaves the room. Here it becomes apparent that Mrs. Robinson has ironically recreated the emptiness of her hollow marriage in the hollowness of this affair. The scene then transitions again (3:51) back to Ben’s home as he smokes on his bed. Ben once an ‘upstanding collegiate man’ who would never touch a cigarette is slowly corrupted by the affair as we see him drink and smoke continuously without any reward attained from such acts. He dazedly gets back up and walks out the pool, as he mother stares motionlessly at her son – Ben get’s as little from his mother as he gets from Mrs. Robinson, his mother not even properly acknowledging him and him giving nothing either. In one of the greatest scene transitions in movie history we watch Ben jump up out of the water onto Mrs. Robinson (4:59) like a dead weight, his father asking ‘Ben, what are you doing?’ – we all get the implication here. The scene then transitions back to a shot of Ben’s father looking down at him from above, Ben simply replying “I’m just drifting here in the pool” and we see the shot of Ben laying back on his floating pool bed. His father asking “why?” and him replying “Well it’s very comfortable just to drift here.” This last segment of the film is cut off in the clip above, but can be seen in the clip below:

The implication for this entire seen is that Ben, like us the viewer, experiences the passage of time without feeling much at all. He get’s nothing from his relationship with Mrs. Robinson as he gets nothing from his parents, but judgement and expectation. Ben attempts to avoid this judgement and expectation, as well as his own feelings of responsibility by as he states “just drifting here”. Ben lounging on the  pool becomes a metaphor for Ben simply drifting through his life, not engaged with the world around him, just simply moving forward in time. Ben doesn’t know what do with his life and he’s unsure about his future, so he flits his time away with unenjoyable distractions such as alcohol, cigarettes, sex and other self indulgent behaviour. But the real discomfort comes from realising that even though Ben is ‘indulging’ himself he is still as sad and lonely as before.

 

Until next time,

Louise Wilson