Carnal Knowledge
Tags: comedy

Plot synopsis:
The story follows the sexual exploits of two Amherst College roommates over a 25-year period, from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. Sandy (Art Garfunkel) is gentle and passive, while Jonathan Fuerst (Jack Nicholson) is tough and aggressive. Sandy idolizes women, Jonathan objectifies women. He frequently uses the term "ballbuster" to describe women as emasculating teases whose main pleasure as he sees it is to deny pleasure to men. Since each man's perspective of womanhood is extreme and self-serving, neither is able to sustain a relationship with a woman.
The film has three parts. Part I occurs when Sandy and Jonathan are college roommates. Part II follows the men several years after college. In the final part, the men have become middle-aged.
In the beginning, Sandy and Jonathan are discussing women, and what kind appeals to each. Sandy wants a woman who is intellectual. Jonathan is more interested in a woman's physical attributes.
Sandy shyly meets Susan (Candice Bergen) at an on-campus event and they begin dating. Although they enjoy each other's company, Susan is reluctant to enter into a physical relationship. Unknown to Sandy, she meets Jonathan, feeling a physical attraction for him. They have sex. Jonathan convinces Susan not to have sex with Sandy. Susan therefore has a purely intellectual relationship with Sandy, while at the same having a purely physical relationship with Jonathan.
Part II finds Sandy married to Susan, while Jonathan is still searching for his "perfect woman." Jonathan now defines perfection by a woman's bust size and figure. Jonathan begins a relationship with Bobbie (Ann-Margret), a beautiful woman who fulfills all of Jonathan's requirements. However, Jonathan constantly berates Bobbie for being shallow. Jonathan finds that this purely physical relationship is no more satisfying than his previous relationship with Susan.
Sandy's relationship with Susan is faring no better. Sandy is dissatisfied with the physical part of their relationship. He relates how they are "patient with each other" and concludes with a statement that perhaps sex is not "meant to be enjoyable with a person you love."
Sandy and Susan end their relationship. He begins dating Cindy (Cynthia O'Neal) next. Sandy, Cindy, Jonathan and Bobbie find themselves together at Jonathan's apartment, where Jonathan suggests privately to Sandy that they trade partners. Sandy goes to a bedroom looking for Bobbie. Cindy reprimands Jonathan for attempting to bed her with Sandy nearby, but says that he should contact her at a more appropriate time. In the meantime, upset by an earlier fight with Jonathan about her desire to get married, Bobbie has attempted suicide.
Part III opens with Jonathan presenting a slideshow entitled "Ballbusters on Parade" to Sandy (now in his 40s) and his 18-year-old girlfriend, Jennifer (Carol Kane). The slideshow consists of pictures of Jonathan's various loves throughout his life. He skips awkwardly over a slide of Susan, but not before Sandy notices. He also shows an image of Bobbie, saying they are divorced and he is paying her alimony. Jennifer leaves in tears. Sandy idolizes his new lover, explaining that "she knows worlds which I cannot begin to touch yet." Jonathan believes his friend is deluding himself.
Time passes. Jonathan, by now extremely successful, is alone and suffers from impotence. A prostitute (Rita Moreno) is with him, manually stimulating Jonathan while reciting a monologue written by Jonathan praising his power and "perfection," apparently the only way he can now become aroused.

Review: 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.
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.
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.
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.
"Carnal Knowledge" (1971) directed by Mike Nichols with Jack Nicholson, Art Garfunkel, Candice Bergen, Ann-Margret in an Oscar nominated performance as a sex kitten who wants to marry Nicholson's Jonathan, and Carol Kane and Rita Moreno in the small roles is one of the movies that made 70s so memorable.
Sandy (Garfunkel) and Jonathan are two college friends and like every straight young (and not too young) man in the world they are obsessed by girls and move from one relationship to another in the course of almost thirty years.
Nichols and Jules Feiffer who wrote the play and later adapted it for the screen let us look inside the minds and souls of two educated upper-middle class white males and to learn their very intimate thoughts and secrets concerning their plentiful dysfunctional and joyless affairs and it is not a pretty picture - "Boys begin life not liking girls, later they don't change, they just get horny." The film is honest, uncomfortable, "very slick, very clever"..
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.
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 plot begins with Jonathan (Jack Nicholson) and Sandy (Art Garfunkel) roommates in the university.
A talky, oddly stage-bound film (though it's not based on a stage play) that nevertheless exerts a kind of raw emotional tug on the viewer.Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel (yes, you read that correctly) begin as college chums on a never-ending hunt for female tail, and end the film as stifled adults, still filling their lives with emotionally empty physical affairs that do nothing to fill the yawning void of their boring existences.
It is, but it's also rather fascinating, due to a sharp script and excellent acting.This came out at a time when Jack Nicholson was actually playing characters in movies other than Jack Nicholson, and he does fine work here as the more virile and experienced of the two friends.
And Ann-Margret won a lot of acclaim (and the film's sole Oscar nomination) for her brief performance as the sex-pot basket case Bobbie, the target of Nicholson's emotional abuse."Carnal Knowledge" is entertaining as an intellectual exercise, but it may leave you cold on a deeper, more emotional level, as no one, not even the women, are especially likable or sympathetic.
Certainly these emotionally stunted characters seem no better off for all of their care-free indulgence in pleasure.In many ways, "Carnal Knowledge" seems to be the movie Mike Nichols' other 4-person relationship drama, "Closer," wanted to be, and he would have been wise to approach the material in "Closer" in a similar way as the material here.
The college day's fiasco with Candace Bergen (Between Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel) should have served as a harbinger of things to come!!
Jack Nicholson, at 34, looks a bit too old as a college student, but his acting is so good that's easily overlooked, and he more than fits the part as his character ages.
No one really grew or changed (except for Sandy, who started off as kind of shy and awkward with women and ended up not much more appealing than Jonathon.) The women in these guys lives were a little more interesting, if only because they each had different ways of handling their always troubled relationships with them.The male leads in this were Jack Nicholson as Jonathon and Art Garfunkel as Sandy.
A high school freshman at the time I first watched Carnal Knowledge, I laughed uncontrollably as Jack Nicholson matter-of-factly critiqued each one of the two-dozen or so women he had already bedded before the age of twenty-five.While I didn't identify with Jack Nicholson's character, listening to an adult discuss his love life by dryly making comments about his numerous sexual partners that my friends and I regarded as taboo under most circumstances got to me much more than any dirty joke at a Friday night sleepover.Something about the sound of the title "Carnal Knowledge" made me think, ironically, that my friends had invited me to see a film that would deal with mysticism or the occult.
Sandy (Art Garfunkel) and Jonathan (Jack Nicholson) know nothing about how the world of romance works, but Jonathan feels the need to act as though he is wiser than Sandy, a Lothario with a line of invisible women in his wake.One would expect the brash and shrewdly confident Jonathan to get a girl first, but it is actually Sandy, who finds and wins the attention of the intelligent Susan (Candice Bergen).
Eventually, Jonathan sets aside the burgeoning feelings of his friend and begins an affair with Susan himself, which doesn't end gracefully.Carnal Knowledge spans the next few decades, with Sandy and Jonathan's sexual hang-ups rarely changing.
Sandy ends up marrying Susan; Jonathan has a string of affairs that hits its climax when he meets Bobbie (Ann-Margret), a voluptuous but needy redhead.The film doesn't preach; it studies.
Movies with miserable characters at its center can often times be so good that we don't get depressed along with them: Mike Nichols, who directed the film, earlier turned the anger of a souring marriage into a glowing black comedy with tragic components in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
And in John Cassavetes' Love Streams, the dreary existences of Sarah Lawson (Gena Rowlands) and her brother (Cassavetes) were fleshed with such extraordinary performances that their lives remained interesting long after the film ended.Carnal Knowledge has the ensemble drama characteristic in which the four main characters — Jonathan, Sandy, Susan, and Bobbie — carve out a net of sexual frustration around each other to the point in which life turns into a prison of dissatisfaction.
"Carnal Knowledge": A DVD Movie ReviewThis fascinating film, crafted in 1971 directed by Mike Nichols, is a product of the American sexual repression of it's time.
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.
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.
Credit to all four actors: Candice Bergen, Ann-Margret, Art Garfunkel and Jack Nicholson.
Garfunkel (Catch-22) and Nicholson (Five easy pieces, One flew over the cuckoo's nest, Shining, the Raven) perform their subtlest role ever in this almost epic film (because it covers so much time and life-stages) that may be a sign of the times (between the sixties and the seventies) in more than one way and is of course a personal drama.
Starts out hilarious, melodic, hypnotic in the scenes with Candice Bergen, Jack Nicholson, and Art Garfunkel (a really good actor!).
Mike Nichols' dramatic film about the separate sexual journeys of two male friends from college to middle-age got critical raves upon its release, but it doesn't quite live up to the kudos; it's not so much overrated as it is overwrought.
In this movie, the main character is a man, played by Jack Nicholson, who hates women, but can't do without them.
For in this movie, the Jack Nicholson character is weak and child-like in his relationship with women.
One of the best films from the seventies, and a very realistic film about love, sex, relationships, lust, greed, and backstabbing your friends unknowingly for their girlfriends.Jack Nicholson, Art Garfunkel, Candice Bergen, Ann-Margret Olsen, and Rita Moreno deliver superb performances in this film, about two guys and their pursuit of women over a thirty year period.
Two of Mike Nichols' greatest movies dealt with relationships that most people wouldn't like to have: "The Graduate" and "Carnal Knowledge".
The latter has college roommates Jonathan (Jack Nicholson) and Sandy (Art Garfunkel) passing time objectifying women and thinking about making it with classmate Susan (Candice Bergen).
It follows the sexual history of 2 men, Jack Nicholson and the oafish Art Garfunkel, whose friendship like many other things in their lives is never explained.
As for the women, Candice Bergen and Ann-Margret are playing a blank and a cliché respectively, Carol Kane makes her film debut looking and acting like a zombie while Rita Moreno has a good bit at the end and Cynthia O'Neal makes a suitably repellent ball-buster..
This movie follows two men from college to middle age--with a strong emphasis on love, sex and relationships.
The other (Jack Nicholson) is very unconventional for the time--a man who loves sex but is afraid of any depth in his relationships."Carnal Knowledge" was a rather unusual film in 1971.
So, despite some decent acting (particularly by Ann-Margret) and an interesting idea about men and their relationships, the film comes off as amazingly dull.
Carnal Knowledge (1971) **** (out of 4)Excellent drama from Mike Nichols takes a look at the three decade friendship between two men (Jack Nicholson, Art Garfunkle) and their sex lives.
I really love the way Nichols structured the picture and especially in the beginning as we see the Garfunkle character fall for a girl (Candice Bergen) but never realizing that Nicholson has gone behind his back and started a relationship with her.
The middle portion of the film deals with Nicholson's relationship with Bobbie (Ann-Margret) and this too is flawless but incredibly depressing.
CARNAL KNOWLEDGE isn't a pretty film to watch due to how ugly the Nicholson character is but it's still one of the best acted films out there and the rawness is something missing from most movies today..
This covers a time period from the 1940s to the 1960s in the lives of two friends, Johnathon (Jack Nicholson) and Sandy (Art Garfunkel).
Ending feels anti-climactic, and, once again, one-dimensional.Good performances from Jack Nicholson, Art Gurfunkel and Ann-Margret, who received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance.
Sandy (Arthur Garfunkel) and Jonathan Fuerst (Jack Nicholson) are college roommates in the late 40s.
The story follows the sexual adventures of college roommates Sandy (Art Garfunkel) and Jonathan (Jack Nicholson) over about a 20 yr period.
But "Carnal Knowledge" is the first movie I have seen him in that I absolutely did not like.I had the assumption that this would be a comedy about the sexual desires of a man over women.
Directed by Mike Nichols, "Carnal Knowledge" follows college roommates Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel from youth through to embittered middle age.
Carnal Knowledge (1971) shows us two college roommates talking about women and also meeting them.Later these boys grow into men and become middle aged.The terrific director Mike Nichols is the director of this movie.It's both dramatic and comedic look into sexuality of two individuals.The strength of this movie is in the long conversations these two men have with each other.Jack Nicholson does brilliant job playing the other half of the men.He's Jonathan Fuerst.The second half is the musician Art Garfunkel who can also act.Art plays Sandy.Candice Bergen is Susan, the second half's first love.Ann-Margret plays the problematic Bobbie who steps into Jonathan's life.Rita Moreno is Louise, Cynthia O'Neal plays Cindy and Carol Kane is the young Jennifer.As you can see there aren't too many actors in this film.But the ones it does have are just the right people.This is a small movie but yet somehow pretty big..
It's between the characters played by Art Garfunkel and Jack Nicholson, and they both share their earliest perspectives on sex with women.
A good early performance from Nicholson as a college student who along with roommate Sandy (Garfunkel) experience a lot of new boundaries in their sex lives.
In fact, we are only ever witness to these characters talking about or interacting with women; we never see anything of their college, work or social lives beyond this.Jack Nicholson puts in a strong performance of a somewhat unpleasant character, the dominant side of the friendship, while Art Garfunkel is also very good as his more passive buddy.
The primary female roles are filled by Candice Bergen as a woman who both men have relationships with and Ann-Margret, who is particularly good as a woman emotionally damaged by her destructive relationship with Nicholson's character.
Art Garfunkel as Jonathan and Jack Nicholson as Sandy are good friends with very different personalities who share a healthy libido focused on women, particularly Candace Bergen as Susan.
The early 70's was a time when this kind of material was just new on the scene and this picture caused an uproar about obscene behavior, but the film had scenes that were done in an artistic way even when it had nude scenes Nichols didn't make them obscene.Jonathan Fuerst(Jack Nicholson) and Sandy(Art Garfunkel) are two college roommates who are eager beavers to explore ladies and sex, Jonathan is a open-minded extrovert and Sandy is an introvert who's more cautious.
As Jonathan breaks off going another direction that being his wild ways, while Sandy later weds Susan.The film then starts to span the generations showing both male characters who are strong and tell their take on relationships from their point of view in first person.
The story of two college friends (Jack Nicholson and Arthur Garfunkel) who compete for women and are never truly satisfied, hurting people along the way and ultimately losing themselves, is a lot like the story of Dan, Alice/Jane, Anna and Larry from "Closer" - showing that decades fly, sexual revolutions come and go, and the human being remains the same wild, complicated animal.
Jack Nicholson, Candice Bergen, Ann-Margret and even Art Garfunkel are magnificent, and we have two very special appearances by Rita Moreno and Carol Kane near the end.
It would be virtually impossible today for Sandy (Art Garfunkel) to be unaware of Jonathan's (Jack Nicholson) involvement with Susan (Candice Bergen); somebody would have caught them on camera and posted it on the internet.
It's a good thing Carol Kane didn't have a speaking part.I'm curious today how Art Garfunkel wound up in the film opposite Jack Nicholson.
***SPOILERS*** Were introduced to the movie with the cool and sexy sounds of Glenn Miller's classic "Moonlight Serenade" as we see these two wild crazy and mostly horny collage guys Jonathan & Sandy, Jack Nicholson & Art Garfunkel, talking about sex and how to get it on campus by being both cool and with it with all the co-ed's available there.
Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel play college roommates who have very different ideas about love and relationships.
"Carnal knowledge (noun) - the act of sexual procreation between a man and a woman." That's what this movie is about, especially from the point of view of Jonathan Fuerst, expertly portrayed by Jack Nicholson.
It seems like an unintentional/slightly intentional, non-sexual homosexual relationship -like The Fight Club, if you will, except that film got out of its corner by climaxing with a 'surprise twist'.Mike Nichols's talents are more suited for the stage than film but he is the leader when it comes to handling actors: the performances he gets from Jack Nicholson, Art Garfunkel, Candice Bergen, and Ann-Margret are superlative.
Ann-Margret was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Jonathan's tarty, miserable lover.I didn't like the movie much because of its unresolved episodic scenes and the callous approach to what women would call "romance." Although I can see its place in movie history as a barrier-breaking, in-your-face film about things people didn't really talk about back then, it still left me feeling sad and empty..
It follows the sex lives of two guys--Jonathan (Jack Nicholson) and Sandy (Art Garfunkel)--from their college years in the 1940s up to 1971.
In later years Sandy is married to Susan and Jonathan gets involved with Bobbie (Ann-Margret) who is much younger than him.
Basically I saw this film because I like Jack Nicholson and Candice Bergen, even though I rarely enjoy Ann-Margret in a serious role and I've never seen Art Garfunkel in anything.
With Jack Nicholson's fame rising and Mike Nichols still hot from the success of The Graduate comes Carnal Knowledge, a challenging film dealing with relationships and the hardships therein.The film begins over black screen credits in which we hear a conversation taking place between Nicholson's character Jonathan and his college roommate Sandy (played by Art Garfunkel) about women.