Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?

Year: 1966

Grade: B+

Country: USA

Director: Nichols

Review

this film reminds me of two things – 1) a short story by raymond carver called “what we talk about when we talk about love” because of the strong influence that alcohol has on the story, and because of the fact that it’s about two couples (as i recall) sitting at a table talking about love and other things and 2) douglas sirk films because of the way he slowly peeled away, layer by layer, exterior that hides our deepest darkest thoughts; revealing just how sick and dysfunctional we can be. at the same time this film is fairly unique. it’s mike nichols’ first film and he shows the potential that was later realized in “the graduate.” a couple crafty edits here and there and some nice camera touches – off angle compositions as well as some good zoom work, a good command of deep focus, and focus pulls – the last three comprising a large portion of what would become his visual style in the graduate. watching this film it’s hard to believe that elizabeth taylor ever looked as good as she did in “giant,” and that is a testament to the makeup crew. her character was really well established and deserving of the oscar she got, quite a performance. though she was the standout performer, all four of the actors did a fine job in their roles. the story itself is sort of a nightmarish downhill descent without brakes. in the graduate we see the older generation as a hindrance to the younger one, in this film, too, we see the elders having a definite negative influence on the younger generation. towards the end i noticed that the camera seemed to be off axis when martha and george were aligned, and on axis when they were oppositional. i’d like to watch it again just to test that hypothesis. for a movie that has only four characters and three settings, and is laden with dialogue, it moves along pretty well. i think that’s because there is mystery in there – just how far will these people go, why are they doing this to each other, and where is the truth? a good film.