not so much a comedy as it is a time portrait and a film-noir with great music

Rating: Null/10 (5 July 2001)

The Graduate is more of an intriguing and sometimes tragically light characterstudy than a comedy. But that's not especially why I like this film so much: it's the more or less surrealistic cinematography (Robert Surtees) and the music that does it for me. The Graduate is one of the films (film-noir even) you want to show everyone once you've seen it. Well, maybe not if you need action in every movie. Surtees really was the most important man behind the scenes in this film. Please observe how camera position is chosen, composition of the shot and how he zooms in (over Hofmann's shoulder to Anne Bancroft in the hallway) at very appropriate moments. Moreover, the story is told for a substantial part through the camera itself. He might as well have inspired Vittorio Storaro for 'Il Conformista' (1970, Bertolucci), that also looks like a film-noir very much.
I almost could not believe that Mike Nichols' first four films (Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Graduate, Catch-22, Carnal Knowledge) where so brilliant, until I heard that he has been a Broadway director before he started with cinema. That may explain why the dialogues and characters are so convincing and real with their peculiarities. The screenplay by Buck Henry (Catch-22) has not so much the feel of a play, but it could have been very well.
Prepare to hear at least two complete songs by Simon/Garfunkel in the film. Garfunkel worked as an actor with Nichols in his next two films (Catch-22 and Carnal Knowledge) that should have been awarded also with some prize. Not many will agree that Graduate is a film-noir on the side, but in my opinion that's more likely than that it is a comedy.
Why o why can't we vote 11 :(