Director Mike Nichols, cinematographer Robert Surtees, and a cameraman all look down upon a floating Dustin Hoffman while shooting this scene for 1967's The Graduate. Though it's not a word she would have used...
...Mrs. Robinson seems to have had a thing for twinks.
Oh c'mon, please Mrs Robinson.
ReplyDeleteJesus loves her more than she will know, Andrew.
DeleteI wonder what twinks were called in the late '60s. Hard to believe Hoffman is now 85.
ReplyDeleteMitchell, Hoffman was 29 when he made the movie, quite convincingly playing a character who had to be about 21.
DeleteThat makes two of us! Of course I don't discriminate also like middle age, older, foreign, and domestic!
ReplyDeleteThe look how young and little Dustin Hoffman looks in that picture.
Maddie, Robert Redford originally read for the part of Benjaman Braddock--he physically fit the description of the character in the novel upon which the movie was based--but director Nichols decided he lacked that underdog quality so important for the role, and so went with Dustin. Good move. Redford can be quite good at comedy, but it's hard for me to imagine him nervously asking Mrs. Robinson if she would prefer that her dress be hung on a wooden or wire hanger, as if it mattered.
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ReplyDeleteHi, Kirk!
This one took me a while to figure out. I did my homework and determined that today is not actress Anne Bancroft's birthday or death date, nor is it actor Dustin Hoffman's b-day. It does not match the release date of their film The Graduate, nor the recording or release date of S&G's album or the soundtrack song and single "Scarborough Fair."
A-ha! Take On Me! Happy 91st birthday (in heaven) to Mike Nichols, one of my favorite movie directors. I am old enough to remember Mike teamed up with Philly girl Elaine May as the comedy duo Mike Nichols & Elaine May, frequent flyers on the music variety and talk show circuit. Dick Cavett raved about their act. I am happy to report that Elaine is still with us at age 90.
As a director, Mike Nichols had a knack for eliciting great performances from his players. He directed many films I have watched and love including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Carnal Knowledge, Silkwood, Biloxi Blues, Working Girl, Postcards, Regarding Henry and Birdcage. The Graduate remains my top favorite. I studied the film in a college mass media course. Our prof gave us the assignment of viewing the film and writing an essay. I went to the theater in State College, PA, as soon as it opened for the day and sat through repeated screenings of The Graduate until evening, scribbling extensive notes in a notebook (practically in the dark). I never took time to sort it out, but The Graduate is surely in my all-time top 5, right behind Ma and Pa Kettle Make Sausage.
It was close to this date in 1966, October 24, to be exact, that Columbia released Simon & Garfunkel's extraordinary album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme as the duo was in the midst of playing sold-out college campus shows. Wiki picks up the story: ( The duo resumed their trek on the college circuit eleven days following the release, crafting an image that was described as "alienated", "weird", and "poetic". Manager Mort Lewis also was largely responsible for this public perception, as he withheld them from television appearances (unless they were allowed to play an uninterrupted set or choose the setlist). Andy Fyfe of BBC Music wrote in 2009 that he felt the record carried a sense of timelessness, calling its "boldest themes [...] still worryingly pertinent today," while remarking that the record as a whole "reflected the social upheaval of the mid-60s while playing as substantial a part in folk rock's evolution." )
Have a wonderful week, good buddy Kirk!
So Shady, you googled Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft before you googled Mike Nichols? That's not surprising. Just another case of a filmmaker overshadowed by his own actors. Even Steven Spielberg gets upstaged on occasion:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSyndW8Sb-0
Mike Nichols had a fascinating career. When he died a few years ago I showed several of his and Elaine May's comedy routines on this blog. Unfortunately, those routines have been taken off YouTube, and hence, this blog. May has an uncredited cameo in The Graduate. She plays the college student who hands Benjamen a note telling him that the Katherine Ross character (whose name is coincidentally Elaine) that she left Berkeley to get married. Also, Nichols and May had a reunion of sorts on a movie you mentioned, The Birdcage. May wrote the screenplay (based on the French film La Cage aux Folles, later a Broadway musical.) Nichols was also a very busy stage director. The Odd Couple, for one, was a huge hit for him, though the film version was directed by Gene Saks (who directed the original stage version of Biloxi Blues--my, those two liked to trade off!)
As for Simon and Garfunkel, I always liked how their soberly serious music contrasts with Benjamen Braddock's comic misadventures, reminding us that the character finds NONE of this funny.
I remember that Spielberg sketch and musical number. It's worth noting that Goldmember was loaded with cameos. Wiki made a list:
DeleteTom Cruise as Himself as Austin Powers (During Austinpussy)
Danny DeVito as Himself as Mini-Me (During Austinpussy)
Gwyneth Paltrow as Herself as Dixie Normous (During Austinpussy)
Kevin Spacey as Himself as Dr. Evil (During Austinpussy)
Steven Spielberg as Himself
Quincy Jones as Himself
John Travolta as Himself as Goldmember (During the Austinpussy ending)
Britney Spears as a Fembot version of Herself (During the opening credits) (During the "Boys" music video) and as Herself talking with Mini-Me (During the end credits)
Ozzy Osbourne as Himself
Sharon Osbourne as Herself
Kelly Osbourne as Herself
Jack Osbourne as Himself
Willie Nelson as Himself
Burt Bacharach (During the end credits) as Himself
Nathan Lane as Mysterious Disco Man (Non-Speaking Role)
Spencer Kayden as Jenny
Katie Couric as Georgia State Prison guard
She was a cougar before that term existed!
ReplyDeleteAnne Bancroft was only six years older than Dustin Hoffman, Debra.
DeleteI never had the luck to meet a Mrs. Robinson.
ReplyDeleteJust one word, Mike. Plastics.
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