Title: CARNAL KNOWLEDGE
Date: 6/15/1995; Publication: Magill's
Survey of Cinema;
Magill's Survey of Cinema
06-15-1995
CARNAL KNOWLEDGE
Abstract:
This intelligent, adult look at contemporary sexual mores explores the lives of
two men (Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel) who never
mature beyond the level of adolescent male sexuality. The subject of numerous
obscenity lawsuits, the film reveals the men's increasing inability to form
anything beyond a physical relationship with the women in their lives.
Summary:
CARNAL KNOWLEDGE, as the title might imply, is one of the frankest cinematic
explorations of contemporary sexual mores yet filmed. But the title is also
bitterly ironic, because the story reveals the characters' pathetic inability
ever really to understand what goes into a healthy sexual and romantic
relationship. By the film's depressing conclusion, we are made to realize that
"carnal knowledge" is a misnomer -- it is really no knowledge at all.
The story opens in the mid-1940's at
After the initial exposition of the characters' sexual awakening, the story
jumps ahead, periodically stopping off at various points in Jonathan's and
Sandy's lives to examine the current status of their relations with women. The
story chronicles their romantic downfalls, presumably because of their male
conditioning, concluding with Sandy's hopeless attempts to maintain a youthful
"swinger" pose deep into middle age, and Jonathan's ultimate
humiliation in having to resort to a prostitute as the only remedy for almost
total impotence -- the result of a long, miserable affair with Bobbie (Ann-Margret), a sexy but finally emasculating partner. The film
contains a fair amount of barbed humor, particularly in the early part, but
assumes an increasingly bleak tone as the protagonists' lives become more and
more hollow and joyless. The concluding shot -- Jonathan's rapturous face
dissolving into his fantasy image of a beautiful ice skater as the prostitute
hypnotically drones on -- represents the most crushingly final indictment of
American male sexual attitudes to be shown in a major motion picture.
While the film's disapproval of its male characters' behavior is clear, its
depiction of the women's positions in the relationship is more ambiguous. One
reviewer simplified the identities as "man the vaginal raider, woman the
castrator." Were this the case, it would
certainly reflect an unhealthy attitude on the part of the scenarist, Jules Feiffer, as well as on that of his dramatic creations. But
it seems that such a facile description hardly does the script full justice.
While Feiffer often depicts in his regular cartoon
column -- and has often indicated in interviews -- a basically paranoid and
pessimistic attitude about what each partner in a relationship intends to give
and get from the other, his characters in CARNAL KNOWLEDGE at least give the
impression of trying for something lasting and important. That they never
accomplish this is due as much to their upbringing and acculturation as to any
latent personality flaw. In fact, one of the film's ironic motifs is the
ever-shifting sexual fashions with which the characters breathlessly try to
keep up. We recognize in their struggle something of our own insecurities in
the face of society's pressures to remain youthful, desirable, sexually active -- in short, to remain viable in the ongoing
biological competition.
Whether one agrees with the cynical view of the filmmakers on sex and the
likelihood of finding a genuine, unselfish love, there can be little doubt that
the film is an excellent artistic expression of this view. In fact, the film's
characters were so convincing in their attitudes that many critics assumed the
positions taken by Jonathan and
Feiffer's dialogue has the sharpness, perception, and
wit that typifies Woody Allen's but there is a cold,
bitter edge to it that the more sentimental Allen lacks. While Feiffer's characters in both his cartoon strips and prose
all share a common bond of obsessive self-analysis in every aspect of their
behavior, their concern is essentially nonproductive; they have learned enough
to realize that nothing can be done about anything, and this knowledge only
deepens their, and our, sense of despair about the human condition. Still, this
grim truth is undercut with enough humor to keep the whole work digestible.
Mike Nichols' work with actors has never been better than in CARNAL KNOWLEDGE.
Jack Nicholson is unforgettable as a man robbed of the one elusive quality he
has spent his life trying to cultivate -- his sexuality. Arthur Garfunkel's Sandy is likewise a realistic and depressing
portrait of the type of man doomed to remain a boy forever; Sandy proceeds from
adolescent naivete to adolescent sophistication
(bragging about his techniques and experiences), but is never able to get
beyond this basic, restricted framework.
Ann-Margret's Bobbie was her first completely serious
role, and her very real involvement in it (the woman abused as nothing more
than a sex object has many unfortunate parallels with her own acting career)
brought a new dimension to her performance. She earned an Oscar nomination for
Best Supporting Actress.
In addition to the fine work with actors, CARNAL KNOWLEDGE also showcased
Nichols' increasing control in maneuvering the camera around the action. This
was most evident in the many held shots that simply showed the characters
engaged in dialogue, or the continuous trucking shots gliding along with them
from one place to another. Like many European directors, Nichols has enough
confidence in his cast to let them carry a scene, and he renders the camera a
dispassionate observer rather than an active participant. This glacial style
was augmented by the fine cinematography of Giussepe Rotunno; the look of the film was naturalistic to a fault,
with people often disappearing into protective shadows with an air of doomed
placidity, or smiling in the soft romantic glows with an innocent happiness
that belies the tragedy.
Despite the often bitter tone of CARNAL KNOWLEDGE, our sympathies remain with
the characters; they are victims as well as victimizers. The social context
from which they emerged has crippled them, the film seems to be saying, and for
this they deserve our pity and understanding. It is this aspect of the film
that makes the ending so disturbing and poignant. CARNAL KNOWLEDGE is not an
easy film to deal with; numerous obscenity suits (all eventually dismissed)
indicated that the public was not really ready in 1971 to face up to such a
straightforward examination of this "forbidden" part of our physical
and psychological makeup.
Release Date: 1971
Production Line:
Mike Nichols for Icarus; released by Avco Embassy
Director: Mike Nichols
Cinematographer: Giussepe Rotunno
File Editor: Sam O'Steen
MPAA Rating: R
Run Time: 96 minutes
Cast:
Jonathan - Jack Nicholson
Sandy - Art Garfunkel
Bobbie - Ann-Margret
Susan - Candice Bergen
Louise - Rita Moreno
Cindy - Cynthia O'Neal
Jennifer - Carol Kane
Review Sources:
Newsweek: August 2, 1971, p.9
New York Times: July 1, 1971, p.63
Time: July 5, 1971, p.66
Variety: June 30, 1971, p.22
Named persons in Production Credits:
Mike Nichols
Studios named in Production Credits:
Icarus
Avco Embassy
Screenplay (Author):
Jules Feiffer
Color
Video Available.
Genre:
Drama
Award Citations:
Academy Awards - Nomination - Best Supporting Actress - Ann-Margret
Golden Globe Award - Winner - Best Supporting Actress - Ann-Margret
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