Film Analysis

One of the most important influences on Mike Nichols’ The Graduate is the French New Wave that swept through America and captured the hearts of many young directors. It is abundantly clear in this film the influence it had and how well it can be used to develop a narrative. This, along with many other aspects of the film, helped to make it the hit that it was. In the following response, I will discuss the visuals, sound, and editing that comprised this movie, with a major focus on its big inspiration: the French New Wave.

When it comes to the visuals of the movie, it is easy to see where the French New Wave aspects come to light. No longer is there a seamless narrative with perfect shots. Instead, I noticed that a lot of the time there are many disorienting camera angles and movements, like when he’s in the pool, looking up at everyone and into the sun, or him and Mrs. Robinson shown on the reflective table in the hotel bar. Also, people or things that actually take up the foreground of the shot but are blurry. There is an abundance of examples in the film and many would say that it’s possibly annoying and unnecessary to take up a shot in this way. However, I think that it was done for very specific reasons. For example, one of the first scenes starts at 00:03:29 and ends around 00:04:25 and has a very clear use of this technique. Ben is sitting in his room, framed by the fish tank that I bet he wishes he could dive right in to and hide in the weeds. His dad comes in and sits on the end of his bed, which is where the camera is positioned in a straight on shot of Ben, so his father is blurry and too close. Ben’s face is in focus and partially hidden by his dad’s at some points, alluding to the fact that he’s not telling his dad everything that’s on his mind. Rather, he’s hiding it behind his father’s presumptions just as his face is hiding behind his father’s head. Additionally, all the scenes with big, blurred things in the foreground seem to occur at moments of emotional turmoil, perhaps hinting to the fact that in those scenes Ben is hiding what he really thinks, feels, or is doing. For example, in the hotel at the desk there is the wooden divider that stands strongly and blurred in the foreground, showing that Ben either wants to hide or is hiding the reason he’s getting a room, or quite possibly both. The lighting is even, with a brighter light being in the tank to no doubt symbolize how, as mentioned in the “Closer Look” section of our textbook, that he wants to go underwater and stay there. The color is more realistic than it was in Rear Window, which helps to highlight the fact that even though there are obscure angles and strange set-ups of scenes, the movie is no less realistic than the seamless movies that were made before. The realism is definitely aided by the less theatrical sets of previous movies like Rear Window.

This movie is chalk full of sound, and it is especially interesting because it was one of the first films to use popular music to their advantage by having nondiegetic sounds like Simon and Garfunkel music playing in the background frequently and especially in times of great emotion. That’s not the only important thing that was done though. I’m not sure if it had anything to do with the French New Wave, although I feel like it maybe does of just with the new generation of directors, but there is a lot more depth to the sound. Now, as the viewer follows Ben, we hear what he hears. A perfect example of this is him at the hotel bar, starting at 00:29:59, Ben and Mrs. Robinson are talking in the bar with the piano music playing loudly in the background. He gets up and hits the table, causing a loud scraping and the tinkling of glass and jostling of drinks. However, as he leaves the bar to go book a room, the music slowly fades out until around 00:30:10, when it can no longer be heard anymore. This is taking diegetic sound to a new level because now the audience accurately hears what is going on in the scene and adds to the new type of realism in this movie. There are other examples of this like when we are seemingly Ben himself in the scuba gear so what is heard is his breathing and not everyone talking. Or, when the viewer is shut out of the car that Ben and Elaine are in so all that is heard is the noises from outside the car. Additionally, there some sound bridges in this movie and this is the first time we are seeing this. An example is when Ben is floating in the pool, and we hear his and Mrs. Robinson’s conversation long before we see him in the phone booth. One last quick note is that I think Ben’s tone of voice and the way he says things throughout the entire movie really added to his character and the events of the movie as a whole. Its ample evidence that the sound era is beneficial not just for talking but for the way actors can talk to shape character or plot. It really added to the New Wave idea of irony, absurdity, and complexity of character. His tone is flat and there is something else there that I can’t explain, but it makes everything he says sound absurd, almost idiotic and all around funny when he doesn’t mean for it to be. As far as complexity of character goes, his tone of voice and the things he says make him appear dumb and like a little kid almost, when the viewer knows he has a college degree and is capable of thinking and acting like an adult.

The editing in The Graduate is clearly influenced by the French New Wave, but it also shows the transition from the seamless style and popular anti-montage that characterized many earlier movies. While there may be long scenes with panning shots, there is clearly more cuts and abrupt scene changes that occur. An example of this is when Ben says goodnight to Elaine at her door, then quickly it changes to looking at Ben through his windshield as rain beats against the glass. Although the scene before it was long with an objective view so there weren’t any cuts, the change to the car is jarring because it is not smooth but rather the rain and change cause the reader to perk up a bit. One of my favorite scenes starts at 00:43:00 and ends around 00:43:17. Initially, Ben is diving into the pool and swimming underwater, then there is a cut that shows above the water as Ben grabs is floatie and pulls himself up on it. The jarring thing that causes a little disorientation at first is that him sliding onto the floatie is then edited smoothly, yet still surprisingly, with him laying on top of Mrs. Robinson. Then, we hear Ben’s dad asking what he’s doing while we still see him on top of Mrs. Robinson until finally it shows Ben on the floatie again. This shot, although edited together quite seamlessly, is abrupt and causes a little bit of confusion to the viewer. It shows that the old Hollywood way of editing still has its roots attached, but as these New Wave, younger directors take the stage they are slowly transitioning to more abrupt scenes that make the viewer sit up in their chairs. These new directors want to show off the stylistic cuts, editing, and other elements in a way that the classical, seamless Hollywood never did. The pacing created by the long scenes yet abrupt and quick cuts and scene changes is, to me, quite moderate. The quick changes show Ben’s uncertainty throughout the whole movie as one minute he’s doing one thing and the next his mind is in a completely different scene. However, the length of each scene helps to mellow the editing, making the movie seem to move at a normal pace to showcase his normal yet confused life he’s living.

Overall, I think there is a definite pattern to how the visuals, sound, and editing work together to give a new viewing experience. They all make things seem more realistic, a perfect example being the scene where we are seemingly in the scuba suit with Ben. Starting at 00:22:56 and ending around 00:24:15, the viewer sees through the scuba mask and the shot is an oval framed by black edges to simulate this. The camera is moved with fluid motions and looks around as if we were actually there looking at his parents, the guests, his flippers, and then the pool and the water. The only sounds we hear are of breathing through the oxygen tank and the sound of the water when he jumps in, not his parents or the other guests. Everything is shot with no cuts to show how it would actually be if the viewer was there and looking around. This is a brilliant scene that shows how the younger directors understood how to balance the old with the new to create a realism that has yet to be seen in the movies we have watched.