Review of Carnal Knowledge (1971) by Jim S — 28 Nov 2010

Carnal Knowldege is a tragedy about two clueless, anxious men. It is one of them dialog-ridden films that don't struggle against their own self-awareness( oh, let's try to outsmart the audience... No). All in all, it is very direct concerning its outlook on emotional relationships and convivence between men and women. Its thesis consists on the existence of a large 'void' between both sexes, a place where communication stops flowing, and where the concepts and mental schemes of each sex simply don't complement each other.

Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel play fast-talking, fast-thinking, proactive and largely hedonistic young men, archtypes that apparently never go out of date. But not only that, they also take on the task of embodying the disintegration of their characters' self-respect, enthusiasm, and expectations as they grow older; more archtypes that, unfortunately, don't go out of date either.

This film, in spite of a 40 year age difference, stays and will stay relevant today. It's impressive how many postures from the 1960s onwards can so resonate in the 2000s. These characters' frames of mind continue to exist, as do the issues they confront: Nicholson and Garfunkel's characters see women and sex as lifesavers or vehicles towards a better understanding of themselves and a better enjoyment of life, but they find it hard to come to terms with the part that involves encounter and com-passion.

For this is perhaps the first time -that I can remember- a hedonistic, empty character is NOT redeemed by the woman of his dreams. These people are on their own, as is the development of their tragedy.

Sex never goes out of date, but it can get boring when films approach it in an overly nonchalant, an overly sentimental, or an exploitative way. (One of the reasons I, unlike a good number of people, really enjoyed Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy, a movie intensely about sex but with virtually NO sex in it). Carnal Knowledge's perspective is on the darker side of the possible outlooks but still rational enough -hence, I suppose, the word Knowledge in the title, right?-in the way that social and sexual politics can be rational, in that it both fascinates and despairs at the dichotomy between sex and love, egotism and empathy. Knowledge also refers to the accumulation of experience, the collection, maybe, of disappointments and paradoxes that constitute these characters', and everybody's, universe. Too many films, I believe, attempt to cover this ground. What better time for success than the 1970s.

I don't know if Carnal Knowledge is Mike Nichols' best film because I haven't seen all of his work, but I can say that he seems to be a masterful explorer of the dramatic -wait, tragic- possibilities of social life. How does redemption or "salvation" manifest itself in his films, if it does at all, would be a very interesting topic to research. The point is that Carnal Knowledge is honest and earnest and comfortable in the present it inhabits, and still easy to relate to in a diversity of circumstances.