When was the graduate made

Bob and I came on the Bremen from Hamburg, taken care of by a stewardess. As the Bremen landed in New York and we were re-united with our father on the dock, I noticed across the street a delicatessen with Hebrew letters in its neon sign. Next were Rice Krispies and Coca-Cola: we had never had food that made noise.

It was great. Buck Henry—who had seen Hoffman in Eh? Walking surfboards. I lived in anti-Semitic neighborhoods, and I never felt a part of it, and I used to go to the Saturday-matinee movies to see the Dead End Kids jumping into the East River, and I wanted to be one of them.

It was degrees from today. I felt I was home. New York is Jewish, L. So, much like Benjamin Braddock, when Hoffman went back to Los Angeles to make the film, he moved in with his parents in their home off Mulholland Drive. But it lasted only about a week, and then he checked into the Chateau Marmont, at his own expense, where he would hang out at the pool after a day of filming.

Larry Turman had a slew of actresses under consideration for the now iconic role of Mrs. I want to talk to my director.

Out, out, out! The best have tried. My heart was pounding. Nonetheless, Nichols quickly recognized the impossibility of working with her and an offer was never made. Robinson had to be American or it was all over.

She reprised that role on-screen in , winning an Academy Award for best actress. Two years later, she married comedic actor and writer Mel Brooks. How can you go from the saintly Annie Sullivan to the Medusa-like Mrs. Too risky. Once signed, she was the biggest name attached to the film. And perhaps for Nichols there was another element at play.

Is it possible that Anne Bancroft reminded him—both in her intonations and in her appearance—of Elaine May? Robinson in the Taft Hotel—filmed at the Ambassador, in Los Angeles—where Benjamin has just nervously rented a room for their first assignation. He calls her from the hotel-lobby pay phone and she asks:. Those little noises he makes are straight from Mike. He guided me in such a way that I was an alter ego of a younger version of himself. He saw himself in the character.

Forty years after The Graduate first appeared, Mrs. That she was once an art major, a fact she reluctantly reveals to Benjamin in his one attempt at pillow talk, makes her vulnerable. We suddenly understand her—her bitterness, her deep pool of sadness.

That she had been Benjamin. She is a very intelligent and cynical woman. To underscore her predatory nature, Nichols and Richard Sylbert, the Brooklyn-born production designer, created a jungle effect in Mrs. His identical twin brother, Paul Sylbert, also has had a long and stellar career as a production designer, having won an Academy Award in for his work on Heaven Can Wait and a nomination in for The Prince of Tides. The production designer and Nichols held lengthy conversations about how to capture on film what they considered the essence of Beverly Hills—its flora and fauna trapped, as it were, behind all that expensive glass.

Beginning with the shot of Benjamin viewed through his boyhood aquarium, we have the feeling of someone cut off, suffocating. Mike had just come off directing all those Neil Simon hits. This was my first film, so I thought that was it! But once we started shooting, I felt more frightened and insecure, brought on by my fear that Mike thought he had made a mistake in casting me.

At a certain point, I was terrified that I was going to get fired. In fact, Gene Hackman—who was playing Mr. So much anger. So much pain. And, speaking of that! Robinson is toward Ben—especially at the beginning of their romantic relationship.

After Ben drives Mrs. Robinson home from his party, he tries to leave; she will not let him. He resists; she ignores him. She slams the door. She takes her clothes off. He resists again. She insists. It is not necessarily played as an interaction that is deeply uncomfortable; it struck me as deeply uncomfortable nonetheless. We said in the intro to this conversation that Ben and Mrs. Their affair felt to me like an ongoing case of mutual exploitation.

Two sad people, using each other. A time bomb, ticking. And, of course, that could be the point, as well: an affair that is profoundly cynical, but—both despite and because of the cynicism—cinematically interesting. To return to the generational tensions you guys discussed above, one of the things I find most fascinating about Mrs. Robinson is how aligned she and Ben ultimately are in their anxieties. Ben, here, is being confronted with a kind of death: of youth, of possibility, of freedom.

So, too, is Mrs. Robinson—not with a physical death, necessarily, but with the death of her purpose, her value, her identity.

She lived during a time when upper-class women were appreciated primarily as wives and mothers, when little more was expected of them than to marry and procreate; as the film plays out, though, her daughter leaves for college, and for a life of her own.

Her marriage is stifling. She has, seemingly, no job, no hobbies, no friends, nothing but an empty house that she fills with meaningless symbols of distant wildness. She is rich, and, at the same time, she is robbed—of the stuff that makes a full life and a full person.

The song, gah, never bothers to find out. Robinson declaring that she has no interest in talking about art and ends with her admission that she majored in the subject? To me, the film is impossible to imagine without Bancroft—and as impossible to imagine with Robert Redford cast as Benjamin Braddock, which almost happened.

The alternative Elaine Robinson was Candice Bergen. That late scene in church is when the audience gets its best glimpse of Elaine, and in it her actions make more sense, I think. Robinson and his Ford. But we do know she was raised by Mrs. We know how assertive, acerbic, manipulative, quick to anger, and vindictive Mrs. Robinson could be. And that she was an alcoholic. Imagine being raised by someone like that—or check out any website for adult children of alcoholics:.

But there's something ineffable about his character, in that situation. Find out if it's in your town by going to Fathom Events. Follow Randee Dawn on Twitter. IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Share this —. Follow today. Robinson : Pardon? Benjamin : Oh no, Mrs. Oh no. Robinson : What's wrong? Benjamin : Mrs.

Robinson, you didn't I mean, you didn't expect Robinson : What? Robinson : Like what? Benjamin : What do you think? Robinson : Well, I don't know. Benjamin : For God's sake, Mrs. Here we are. You got me into your house. You give me a drink. Now, you start opening up your personal life to me and tell me your husband won't be home for hours.

Robinson, you're trying to seduce me! Robinson : [laughs] Huh? Benjamin : Aren't you? Sign In. Play trailer Comedy Drama Romance. Director Mike Nichols. Top credits Director Mike Nichols. See more at IMDbPro. Trailer The Graduate. Clip The Graduate: 50th Anniversary. Photos