The Graduate (1967 Mike Nichols)

Time has not been kind to The Graduate - you could be forgiven for walking away from it thinking 'That was crap. I hate Simon and Garfunkel'. Maybe the reason 'April Come She Will' sounds so fresh is that it's the only one of the songs that's not repeated (also it backs a great sequence where he dives into the pool and comes up in Bancroft's bed, with father standing over them) (also it's the only solo vocal). 'Scarborough Fair' is in it four times and two of its montages are easily capable of excise, particularly Benjamin moping round Berkeley - were all the studio execs stoned not to have noticed? There's a good argument in fact that only the first half of the film is any good.

But I'm being too harsh. There's some great writing throughout (though the characters continually asking 'What?' and people having to repeat themselves becomes increasingly annoying), some of it very funny, the performances are great and Robert Surtees (despite some ugly shadows evident in some scenes) does provide some dazzling images. (There's some lens flaring going on a little - I thought Conrad Hall started that in Cool Hand Luke - which was released almost two months earlier...) Indeed, it's a bit French New Wave - they're just getting it, but they're not yet brave enough.

Nichols directs for the actors, sometimes staging things brilliantly like a play (Hoffman with Murray Hamilton as Anne Bancroft re-enters the room), and there's some nice 'modern' stuff - Hoffman in diving suit, that nimble track on the bus at the end. And what an ending. Katharine Ross would never forgive him - they're doomed.

Also did love the moment Ross realises her mother is the other woman - and the camera on her stays out of focus. And all the staff at the hotel greeting 'Mr. Gladstone'.

Lovely light from other cars bouncing around in this scene

'What?' I said, 'Cut out two of the montages and you might be alright.'

Hoffman was 30, Bancroft 36. With William Daniels, Elizabeth Wilson, co-writer Buck Henry (hotel clerk), Norman Fell and Marion Lorne.

Won Oscar for Nichols; Calder Willingham and Buck Henry were amongst those nominated for screenplay, along with picture, Bancroft, Ross and Surtees. BAFTA liked it more - screenplay, Sam O'Steen's editing, Nichols, film and Hoffman (Most Promising Newcomer) all won.