Carnal Knowledge

"Carnal Knowledge": A DVD Movie Review

This fascinating film, crafted in 1971 directed by Mike Nichols, is a product of the American sexual repression of it's time. Banned in many venues, this did not deter this movie from becoming an American classic. It explores the dysfunction of American sexual relations of the time.

This film is so well written, so well directed, and so magnificently acted, that to watch it, provokes great introspection. The subject matter is that of the title. It is the story of four people's journey through human friendship and sexual relations that is profound and significant.

The weaving in and out of these relationships between these four people is mesmerizing. The movie starts with a college roommate relationship between two young men, draws in a mutual love affair, and through these friend's professional careers, compares and contrasts, the normal family man's constant blase sexual life, with the playboy's, at first exciting affairs, then his degradation into impotence. It is a very sad story.

The script is presented in the first person, with the two male characters telling their stories, to whit the two female characters provide the emotional foil that reflects upon the male's soliloquies. The characters in this film provide a tour-de-force in the acting of the human heart.

The two male stars of this movie, Jack Nicholson, and Art Garfunkel are really good in their rooting of this movie. They are in some ways the center. But their masculine performances really take a second seat to the two female stars.

In the first part of the film Candace Bergen as Susan is almost breathtaking in her portrayal of the perfect sorority girl who has to choose between compassion and passion. She chooses compassion over the emotional doom of her passionate boyfriend. This crux of relationships is the focus of this film. The man chosen by the perfect Susan lives a life of boredom and order, with underlining sadness, but yet a sort of satisfaction.

The passionate man that Susan left behind, is a sad product of the cynicism of the free love and sexuality of the time. And this lost man takes up with the ultimate tragic female film character's cheese cake Bobbie, who's characterization by the red haired ultra voluptuous Ann-Margaret, is perhaps the most heart wrenching and beautiful portrayal of a tragic female heroine of emotion ever put on the silver screen.

In the end this film is the tragedy of the sexual mediocrity of everyday life and the failure of those that attempt the provocative. This is a great film, the DVD widescreen transference, necessary for it's back and forth conversational scenes, is first rate. This classic Adult film is recommended and costs practically nothing these days on the internet market.

B. A. Draper

It's depressing to see what a low rating Carnal Knowledge gets. Jules Feiffer, the brilliant cartoonist, wrote an extraordinary script for this film. I loved the dialog so much I found the script on Alibris and read it immediately.

This is a dark movie. Not that it's violent or bloody, but its take on men vs. women relationships is bleak, blunt, and accurate. Jack Nicholson is charismatic and smart in his role, showing the misery at the heart of a cynic.

As others have written, it's not a kids' movie. It's not even a young adults' movie-- I was bored when I first saw it, at 21. It's an "adult movie" in the non-euphemistic sense of that phrase, an adult movie about the mortality of romance

Mike Nichols directed Jules Feiffer's script of two men in their times with the opposite sexes, beginning with college years, then years later when they have occupations, and settling on middle age. Jack Nicholson creates one of his more complex characters here, which like About Schmidt or The King of Marvin Gardens, doesn't end up the happiest guy in town. His Jonathan is lusting, condescending, scared (deep inside), angry, and intelligent all at once, though never knowing himself well enough to know the one he's getting his rocks off with. On the flip-side his best friend Sandy (Art Garfunkel) is sensitive, unsure, though without a feeling of overt confidence and control like Jonathan has, and that feeling of confidence over the other sex is what keeps them together in discussion, and serves as a tinge in their friendship in their older age.

In college, Sandy meets Susan (Candice Bergen), and is more of a friend at first, while Susan begins an affair she didn't intend on with Jonathan. This unfolds, and when they graduate and are out in the world Jonathan meets Bobbie (Ann Margaret) who is a pure vixen with, at the behest of Jonathan, is a louse and wanting a commitment Jonathan can't take. The last scene with Rita Moreno, and especially the last shot featuring an ice skater Jonathan saw once, say it all about his character- essentially, as it is with nearly all men, he wants what he can't have.

Many of the angles and many of the one shots of faces for long stretches, the camera compositions and time length, etc, reminded me of techniques that director Ingmar Bergman used in his movies that dealt with relationships, men with women, and how the desperation in their personalities either become their downfall, or a life lesson later on. In a sense, Carnal Knowledge is Nichols' throwback to Bergman as was Interiors for Woody Allen, though his dealt with the strife in a family and Nichols is a character study dealing in love and sex. Never-the-less, non-art film goers shouldn't be scared off by the notion that Carnal Knowledge is bleak or sterile. It may not be the most cheerful, or an entirely fair to both sexes, but it is important in that it views Jonathan, Sandy, Susan, and Bonnie, as people, and Nichols doesn't force the viewer to judge these people if they don't want to. For its time it was groundbreaking, and today it's almost mature compared to the barrage of "relationship" movies of late. And, if anything, it should have mass appeal to devourers of film acting. Grade: A

Telling the sordid, often depressing story of two men and their sexual hangups over several decades, director Mike Nichols and writer Jules Fieffer concoct a thinking man's dirty movie. At times it's not easy to watch, but it's mostly entertaining and beautifully made. Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel are the men ---Nicholson is the callous, emotionally detached one, Garfunkel is the romantic. He marries college sweetheart Candice Bergen, while Nicholson shacks up with sexy Ann-Margret. The scenes with Nicholson and Ann-Margret are cringe-inducing. Nicholson, Garfunkel and Bergen are terrific and Nichol's clever casting of Ann-Margret, putting her sex kitten image through the blender, pays off in spades...she's the best thing in the movie. The supporting cast includes Carol Kane and Rita Moreno.

Its a wry, often funny, often sombre drama about the sex lives of two college roommates, Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel (who's actually fine in this - much better than in Catch-22) - at college, and in middle age.

There are really very few movies where the dialogue seems so true and searching, yet funny, that you hang on every word. I can only think of a few - and this is one of them.

It is episodic, and may be broken into two halves - intentionally, importantly. The heart of the story is in the comparison of the first half and the second: how the two men have or have not changed. If you consider this is the purpose of the film, the two halves are not perfect - but nevertheless a fascinating film.

Bitterness, nostalgia and melancholy run through this character comedy from the 70's. Its a frank, confronting (depending on the viewer) laying bare of sex. Though there is very little actual sex in the film, this one is definitely only for adults. A penetrating character study, and a richly worded film filled with wit, irony and character penetration by cartoonist Jules Feiffer.

9/10. Not perfect, but absolutely must-see.