Page 18 - Studio International - October 1972

Some formalist entertains, he will, in most instances, not find the distinct feeling that the American film may
such immediate satisfaction in the avant garde. never be quite the same again'.5 Alpert
tendencies in It is ironic that film, as a uniquely characterizes it as 'a remarkable breakthrough'.;

the current twentieth-century art form, should mime the He sees Benjamin as 'a truth-seeker, trying to
past, resurrecting and upholding in the period cut through to some acceptable level of
American avant- of modernism in the arts in general its own meaning', and 'Benjamin's honesty' as one of the
garde film peculiar kind of classicism. Since its origins film's greatest appeals.7
in the late nineteenth century, film has While Alpert speaks of the film's moral
been considered an entertainment, connected commentary, its satire of traditional American
with business and industry. Early in its and most especially Hollywood values, Stanley
development it borrowed forms from literature Kauffmann is obsessed with the moral aspect of
Regina Cornwell and theatre, evolving into a popular art. Ever The Graduate. In the course of his two reviews
since, the acknowledged film has been the Kauffmann makes several incidental comments
commercial popular film. And, as it is a business, on visual method, but they are much
like all big business its tendencies are overshadowed by his encomiums on its contents :
conservative; it takes few risks and the safe, sure, '. . . The Graduate gives some substance to the
low-risk film with high box-office potential is, contention that American films are coming of
more often than not, the kind of product which age — of our age'. He explains his position with:
results. Its industrial and money concerns cause 'What is truly daring, and therefore refreshing,
the commercial film to adhere to traditions of is the film's moral stance'. And further:
the past, its borrowed narrative and dramatic 'Thus the arrival of The Graduate can be viewed
forms remaining substantially the same, now in two ways. First, it is an index of moral change
and then socially and culturally updated by in a substantial segment of the American public,
changes in theme and in subject matter, at least of an awakening of some doubts about
`relevant to the times'. past acceptances. Second, it is irrelevant that
And the critics respond, in turn, to works for these changes are arriving in film a decade or
their 'relevance to the times'. All one need do is two decades or a half century after the other
recall the large acclaim given to The Graduate, arts, because their statement in film makes them
the 'holiday picture' of the 1967—68 season. intrinsically new and unique.'8
From Hollis Alpert in Saturday Review to Kauffmann's position is a doubly strange one.
Andrew Sarris in the Village Voice, from Stanley While he says nothing about its form per se, he
Kauffmann in the New Republic to Bosley defends the film's casting of what he freely
Crowther, who chose The Graduate as the acknowledges as old thematic material in a form
farewell film for his retirement from the New which is not in itself new or evolutionary and
York Times, each greeted the film with which he does not even attempt to defend as
enthusiasm. In fact, Crowther, Alpert and new. He concludes both his first and second
Kauffmann went back to write of it a second critiques by referring to The Graduate as 'a
time. milestone in film history'.9 But why ?
While in his review of The Graduate Sarris What do Kauffmann and the others say about
does comment on Nichol's eclecticism of visual film per se ? What about its form ? Surely there
style and does refer to it as a director's picture, is something more to say about a film than an
he spends most of his time discussing the novel occasional comment on visual nuance or
from which it was taken and its screen-play eclecticism ? Does speaking of a work's
adaptation. He ends his review with what adaptation from a novel or its rendition from
Nothing, in art, is ever won for good. Art cannot almost sounds like a parody: 'Even the overdone the intermediary screenplay, or its plot,
exist without this permanent condition of being caricatures that surround the three principals characters, and thematic relevance, make it
put in question. But the movement of these cannot diminish the cruel beauty of this love
evolutions and revolutions constitutes its story'.2 In the Times, Crowther is concerned for important as art, a 'breakthrough' or a
`milestone' ? The favourable response to a film
perpetual renaissance.'
the most part with the film's social satire and such as The Graduate is typical: these seem to
ALAIN ROBBE-GRILLET
story levels, comparing it more than once to be the principal interests of American
The words of Robbe-Grillet are as readily works by Preston Sturges. Crowther commercial film critics. And so, in their
addressed to critics of the arts as they are to comments : '. . a scarifying picture of the thematic concerns, bound to a dated aesthetic,
artists. But the critic of the American swimming-pool rich', which 'does so with a the commercial critics have chosen to ignore the
commercial film, in accepting the assumptions lively and exciting expressiveness through vivid kinds of questions posed by the best of the
upon which the commercial film is based, has cinema'.3 And in his other critique: 'It is deftly avant garde.
ceased to question and has limited his focus. sophisticated without in any way being above or The avant garde of past and present
Even when he considers it a popular art as condescending to the mass audience's represents, in large part, attempts to shake off
well as an entertainment, film, though a intelligence and taste. And its cinematic style is the very vestiges of film's nineteenth-century
twentieth-century art form, becomes for him energetic, aggressive and full of surprises'.4 But beginnings and its groundings in a
tied to a nineteenth-century aesthetic. In Crowther actually says little about the film. In nineteenth-century aesthetic, so clearly adhered
ignoring or rejecting or casting aspersions upon his two pieces Alpert makes one or two brief to by the commercial critics. In the twenties, the
the best of the avant garde, the critic is refusing comments about Nichol's visual style and then avant garde was represented by Eggling and
to question his own assumptions. He has chosen refers to it as 'the freshiest, funniest, and most Richter in Germany and those working in Paris,
to critique, for the most part, the popular and touching film of the year' (1967) which is filled along with the activities of the Soviets. There
low risk product. In seeking, in almost 'with delightful surprises, cheekiness, sex, were isolated individuals at work in various
everything he approaches, entertainment or the satire, irreverence toward some of the most parts of Europe and the U.S. in the thirties,
immediately socially relevant which still sacred of American cows, and in addition, gives followed by Maya Deren and others in the U.S.
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