March 11, 2008
Tess has sent me a heads-up that it appears that tonight, Anne might be seen on Entertainment Tonight. In a commercial, she saw a glimpse of Anne being interviewed. She felt that the quick moment she saw was post-Graduate. At any rate, check your local listings -- here's a link.
All this week, ET is spotlighting our top five summer romance movies: 'Dirty Dancing,' 'The Graduate,' 'Grease,' 'Pretty Woman' and 'Titanic.'
Koo-koo-ka-choo, Mrs. Robinson! When 'The Graduate' hit movie theaters in 1967, it made DUSTIN HOFFMAN a bonafide star and catapulted SIMON & GARFUNKEL's theme song to the top of the charts. Now, ET has fascinating details you may have never known about the movie!
Directed by MIKE NICHOLS, the critically-acclaimed film chronicles recent college graduate Benjamin Braddock's (Hoffman) boredom and disillusionment with entering the "real world" and his affair with an older married woman, Mrs. Robinson (ANNE BANCROFT).
ROBERT REDFORD was the initial casting choice to play Benjamin Braddock, with screen legends LANA TURNER, AVA GARDNER and RITA HAYWORTH reportedly eyed to play Mrs. Robinson and CANDICE BERGEN as her overprotected daughter, Elaine. GENE HACKMAN was even set to play Mrs. Robinson's husband, but was fired from the film early on when they decided he looked too young.
Director Nichols knew that the character of Ben Braddock had to be Jewish as opposed to a WASP, and Hoffman, a New York stage actor, was flown in to audition. He recalls having what he considered a disastrous audition, but Nichols loved Hoffman's dark look and nervous energy; the rest all fell in to place once Hoffman got the job, and Bancroft (an Oscar winner for 'The Miracle Worker') ultimately landed the iconic role of Ben's married cougar seductress, Mrs. Robinson.
Playing the 45-year-old Mrs. Robinson, Bancroft was in reality only 35 years old -- and just six years older than Hoffman, who was playing a young man fresh out of college. When all was said and done, the film earned seven Academy Award nominations, including acting nods for Hoffman, Bancroft and KATHARINE ROSS as Elaine. Nichols walked away with the only trophy, however, as Best Director.
Here's a recent review of Charles Webb's novel sequel to The Graduate, and it confirms my suspicions!
And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson. We wish that you had left and stayed away. (With apologies to Simon & Garfunkel.)
Why Charles Webb ever wrote this sequel to "The Graduate," we will never know. Why not let the book and movie icons burn on in our memories?
If he felt compelled to write a second chapter to his classic, why did he pick such a mundane topic for the resurrection of his wicked Mrs. Robinson?
No clue.
What we do know is that "Home School" fails to live up to anything like his first effort, which led to the popular 1967 movie starring Anne Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson and Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock, her nervous young lover.
More plot weirdness at the link. It's my constitutionally-protected opinion that Mr. Webb is in need of the help of some kind strangers.
This cartoon accompanied an article that was wondering if Joe Lieberman will be the GOP candidate for V.P.
Anne is this blogger's third favorite actress:
I'm going to admit that I haven't seen all of Anne Bancroft's movies. However, I saw 'Night, Mother and was completely blown away. I cannot watch that movie without crying and I know it is because Anne Bancroft's performance. She is so believable, so genuinely good that it's mind-boggling. Of course, her bigger role was as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, which was a great role as well.
Interesting article from Paul, a great fanne and film buff:
Just read this from Entertainment Weekly, don't know if you caught it, but here you go...Don't know if I'm happy with how they portray her, I mean, she was an actress for God's sake...
Hope all is well. I recently saw Miracle Worker after a long hiatus, and I pretty much had to change my shirt when it was over...Tears everywhere! Aside from that, it's great to see what an artistic triumph that movie was. Stunning photography and the flashback sequences are chilling.
My reply:
Paul, what a gem this article is. I don't think it's entirely fair to Anne, I'd definitely like to hear her side of it, but it's nevertheless very intriguing.... Yes, it's wonderful when you can watch an AB movie you haven't seen in a long time, and you can appreciate it with fresh, grateful eyes. Since TMW was the movie that made me a fanne for life, it always slays me. It's pure genius on every level.
And Paul wrote back:
I agree, it's not entirely fair...I think we have these stereotypes of actors, and she has such technique, I'm sure most were not aware of her power. I'm also sure her demeanor would rub people the wrong way, especially bizarre Hollywood....
Did you see the review of Garbo Talks on YouTube with Siskel and Ebert? Her "mother" period, which certainly did not bode well with people. How dare she be strong, eccentric, over the top! funny...They do talk in depth about it, which is more than can be said for today's critics.
Thanks Paul!
I gotta say this: anyone
who thinks Anne overplayed in Garbo Talks needs to come and meet my
mother and her four sisters. It was a joy and a blessing to grow up around
forceful, charismatic women! They do exist. And they mean business. But
don't be frightened of them. Embrace them and enjoy them.
Here's the section from the article about Anne, it's quite bothersome. I understand that this may be the way a few people perceived her, but it's genuinely unfair without hearing her side of the story. In my opinion, from what I know of Anne at that time, if there was anything negative for her about it, it was that she was desperately missing her husband!
Bancroft's mood also darkened as the shoot went on. There were mornings she was hung over, and on some days she had such painful menstrual cramps that she couldn't get out of bed. ''She would just lie there in agony,'' says Elizabeth Wilson. ''And we'd reschedule around her.'' The self-loathing beneath Mrs. Robinson's glacial exterior wasn't a completely foreign emotion for the actress who, before her success in The Miracle Worker, struggled to make it as a Hollywood ingénue and had essentially been washed out of the movie business for a few years. Sometimes the role seemed to come naturally to her; on other days she'd keep the character at arm's length, almost refusing to connect with her. The scene in which Mrs. Robinson and Benjamin lie in bed and he begs her to have a conversation with him took days to film; in the draft of the screenplay that Nichols shot, it was almost a one-act play in miniature, 15 minutes of uninterrupted dialogue (much of it straight from Charles Webb's novel) in which Benjamin almost cruelly forces Mrs. Robinson to open up and learns that she was pregnant when she got married, that she once loved studying art, and that she wants him, above all, to keep clear of her daughter.
In rehearsals, Nichols and Bancroft had talked extensively about what the scene meant. ''When Benjamin says, 'Art, huh, I guess you kind of lost interest in it over the years,' and she says, 'Kind of,' that's the key,'' he told her. ''That's it. She just hates herself for having gone for the money, and she's punishing herself with everything she does.'' Bancroft understood him completely, but weeks later, when they were ready to shoot the scene, ''she just tossed it off,'' says Nichols. ''I said, 'Annie! Don't you remember our conversation about this beautiful, crucial moment?' She kind of casually said, 'Oh, s---, yeah, I forgot.' And then she did it perfectly. For me, it was central. For her, it was just a line reading.''
....
The weather was scorching, Bancroft fainted during the scene in which everyone was pushing to get out of the church and had to be given oxygen and sent home...
Enough talk about The Graduate! Anne wanted to be remembered for Annie, not for Mrs. R.
Found a better, larger photo of the new 1888 Annie/Helen pic, so lovely!
