Word: nicholses
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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More often than not, the camerawork reveals Nichols' ineptitude at choosing the right solution to filming a given scene: Benjamin's first exploration of the hotel room, opening doors and switching-on lights, is filmed in tight close-up, losing the potential of the quickly varying lighting effects, and inadvertantly...
The problem goes deeper than Nichols' consistent substitution of trickiness for style. A great director, Rosselini or Hitchcock, plans his film as a totality, understanding instinctively how each shot relates to the film as a whole; a competent director of narrative films like Michael Curtiz (Casablanca) plans shots with relation...
Nichols' dilemma is that of the director with ideas, but not enough knowledge of craft to successfully execute them. For Nichols, each cut becomes a major problem of how to move from one shot to the next, a question of alternatives and careful choice: a zoo scene ends dismally on...
Some good acting gets lost in Nichols' vain attempt to prove himself a purveyor of cinematic pizazz. Bancroft and Hoffman are more capable than the script or direction allows them to demonstrate: Bancroft disappears altogether, and Hoffman is forced into too many blankfaced ambiguous close-ups. Katherine Ross's perfect...
The year's biggest critical success, The Graduate ought to be seen, if only to keep tabs on a film that can fool all of the people all of the time. But it's a film for suckers; Nichols dabbles in film-making the way Westchester housewives spend their afternoons...