Released in 1967 , ‘ The Graduate ’ is considered to be a classic movie . Affirming its impact, the film went on to win an Academy Award for best director due to the screenplay’s solid structure and careful direction of Mike Nichols. The film, which is about a recent college graduate who finds himself trapped the superficial world around him , also received six other academy award nominations including that of the best adapted screenplay. The film uses numerous aspects of cinematography such as moving, camera angles, lighting , color, contrast, shadows, framing, kinetics and proxemic patterns, composition, filters, and lenses. These combined with symbolism-laden editing make the romantic - comedy film set in the 1960s come to life.
As the film opens, the audience get s a close up into the face of Ben Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman ), the main character . Braddock is surrounded by people who are sleeping and bored in an airplane. His facial expression blends l ight in as the following shot portrays a protagonist character with a robotic demeanor . Braddock is about to return home to a world of superficial people, and he seems lost or out of place. These first scenes of Ben at the airport introduce the audience to the major thematic premise of the superficial world that Ben is about to return to . Another notable scene takes place when Braddock interacts with his parents in his bedroom . In this scene, he is seen standing in front of a fish tank, motionless and gazing deep, while his graduation party proceeds downstairs. The camera track s him back to his bedroom after a failed social attempt to mingle with his parents’ friends. The angles here are quite intense as the camera looks through the fish tank to Braddock, making it appear like he is in the tank with the fish (Knobloch, n.d.). The parents seem oblivious to listening to what Ben has to say, a clear indication that he is isolated and alienated in a party meant for him. Momentarily, Mrs. Robinson bursts into the room and the attention shifts from Ben to Mrs. Robinson . This was an attempt by the director to employ rack focusing . In this cinematography technique, the focus of the shot changes while filming is ongoing . This scene also serves as the first seduction scene in the film.
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In another scene, Ben is driving to Mrs. Robinson ’s house . This looks like his opportunity at freedom from his parents and the anxiety and panic he is subjected to at the party. The transition to this scene gives the film a vertical composition. For the audience, the ride to Mrs. Robinson’s house offers a sense a relief and at the same time apathy to those at the party. While a t Mrs. Robinson’s house, the director draws the audience’s attention to Ben as he runs down the stairs frantically before Mrs. Robinson’s husband walks in . This happens after a failed attempt by Mrs. Robison to seduce him. Downstairs, a glass filled with alcohol comes to focus, and as Ben rushes to wards it, he also becomes the camera's focus. However, at this point, the focus is torn between the close-call affair and the glass of whiskey in hand. The contrast of the shallow focus is depicted during the seduction scene where Mrs. Robinson is taking off her stockings, and the deep focus is in Ben staring in between her legs as he stands there perplexed by the image in front of him. Braddock 's naivety is on full display in this scene, and the film begins its age tale. His young and naïve nature comes to the audience's attention once again when he is trying to book a hotel room for the both of them . In this case, such a simple task makes Braddock so nervous and paranoid that he reveals their now full-blown affair.
Lighting fast cuts and other disorientating effects are techniques used to capture Mrs. Robinson’s growing sexual desire for Ben . This is done to c reat e feelings of restiveness, impatience and a great sense of sexual hunger. The discontinuity cinematography technique is used as a major component to represent the turning point of the film , which combined with the high-speed editing simultaneously reflects the growing tension and awkwardness on Ben's part. By applying a slow opening at the beginning of filming and contrasting it with bursts of rapid cut s , Nichols aimed at serving the audience with a much greater visual emphasis of Mrs. Robinson’s full desire and seduction. Films such as ‘T he G raduate ’ prove that by moving away from directing within strict continuity regimes, a newer exciting dimension of current and stylistic gimmicks can be used to reflect the emotions of the characters.
Close-ups are effectively used in the film’s characters especially where Ben has to confront Elaine Robinson, the true love of his life, with the truth that he has been having an affair with an older woman ( Cardullo , n.d) . The next scene is a close up of Mrs. Robinson, who is standing outside her daughter’s bedroom in the hallway, showing a shocked face and a tense body while the audience gets a glimpse of the person at whom she is mad at the left corner of the camera. This shot shows her anguish and gives a clear picture to the audience of who is at fault for her reaction – Ben. Furthermore, when Ben is racing after Elaine Robinson not to marry another man, the film makes use of Kinetics and Proxemics patterns to make it look like Ben is running towards the camera in extreme depth by using a telephoto lens. This filming technique gives an illusion of the main character running very fast, but in real sense Ben is just furiously running in place, getting nowhere.
In the final shot of the film, the director takes the audience back to a scene similar to the one at the beginning. An ensemble of people in transit are surrounding Ben , only that now he is with a woman, Elaine, whom he loves. As the curtain draws on the film in this scene, the audience is left with feelings of youth angst, apathy and love as Ben smirks into his future. Therefore, Nichols ’ use of camera angles, deep and shallow focuses and other cinematography enrich this film significantly to the benefit of its audience.
References
Cardullo , R. (n.d). The graduate. Retrieved from http://adelaidemagazine.org/nf_rcardullo.html
Knobloch, S. (n.d). The Graduate as rock n roll film. Retrieved from cinema.usc.edu/assets/099/15957.pdf
