Carnal Knowledge (1971)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Mike Nichols

Writer:

Jules Feiffer (written by)

Release Date:

5 November 1971 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy

Plot:

The film traces the sexual and emotional confusion of two men from their Amherst College days in the fifties through the Kennedy sixties...

Plot Keywords:

Love | Sex | College | Dancing | Sexist Attitude

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Jack Nicholson	...	Jonathan
Candice Bergen	...	Susan
Art Garfunkel	...	Sandy (as Arthur Garfunkel)
Ann-Margret	...	Bobbie
Rita Moreno	...	Louise
Cynthia O'Neal	...	Cindy
Carol Kane	...	Jennifer

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:12 | UK:X | Argentina:16 | Canada:18A (video rating) | Australia:MA (cable rating) | Australia:R (original rating) | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Sweden:11 | UK:18 (video rating) | USA:R | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Central Park, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

AVCO Embassy Pictures

Trivia:

Ellen Burstyn auditioned for the role of Bobbi. After seeing the finished film, however, Burstyn admitted she could not have played the role as well as Ann-Margret did.

Quotes:

Jonathan: You want a job? I got a job for you. Fix up this pigsty! You get a pretty Goddammed good salary for testing out this bed all day! You want an extra fifty dollars a week, try vacuuming! You want an extra hundred, make this Goddammed bed! Try opening some Goddammed windows! That's why you can't stand up in here, the Goddammed place smells like a coffin!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Indie Sex: Censored (2007) (TV)

"Sandy, do you wanna get laid?"

"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. It is also the movie that keeps reminding me why I love Jack Nicholson of his early years and how grand he was without his "Jackness" which he has developed during all these years. 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".