the graduate
The film 'The Graduate' was made in 1967 by Embassy Films. Directed by Mike Nichols with the help of cinematographer Robert Surtees, and co-producer (with Nichols) Lawrence Turman, 'The Graduate' was a number one hit of 1968. From the novel by Charles Webb, Calden Willingham and Buck Henry crafted this superb screenplay. The major players include Elizabeth Wilson, Murray Hamilton, William Daniels, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross and Dustin Hoffman.. Benjamin Braddock, raised in a comfortable middle-class home, never having dealt with any major problems in life, graduates from college, and is now left feeling empty and unsatisfied with his accomplishments. His past in uninteresting and his future is uncertain. So, he turns to the first thing offered: an affair with his father's business partner's wife, a woman twice his age, also searching for some relief from her vague, dead-end, wealthy existence. The director has manipulated elements of the frame to suggest confusion and emptiness within the affair. Elements playing significant roles in the mise en scene of this sequence include the placement and staging of the characters in the frame, and the framing techniques.
These elements work together to increase dramatic intensity and meaning. And though this leaves a large area for characters to interact, they continue to remain in their own domains. Usually when a character is center, it is to draw attention to his impending actions or his power. Other than the water, color is used sparingly here. Robinson's navy suit and dark underclothes. The final effect is that Ben is caught between a rock and a hard place-a worthless, loveless life of educated snobbery, or an equally worthless one of leisure and excess. Even at the end of the affair when Benjamin turns away from Mrs. Camera angles are used in a very manipulative way in 'The Graduate. the black background in close-ups) and when the camera zooms out, the setting is a totally unexpected one. In this subtle way, one may infer the "backwardness" and perversion of Benjamin and Mrs. Vague, unbalanced frames allow the viewer to experience the confusion that Benjamin is feeling. Like the months of the year, the love affair unfolds, blossoms, bitters, dies, and decays. Back to the pool, and in bed alone, in a living room alone-no matter where he goes or what happens, he is constantly apart, psychologically. Photography 'The Graduate' tells a realistic story, but the use of camera angles, different shots, lighting, and color create a surrealistic, stylized effect. Robinson, yet still mentally separated from the situation.
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