Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

Colour, 35 mm
USA, 1969, 104 min
Section: New Hollywood II

Synopsis

Paul Mazursky’s legendary comedy of manners takes a satirical look at the impact of the sexual revolution of the 1960s on the behaviour of well-off thirty-somethings. Documentary filmmaker Bob (Robert Culp) spends a weekend of free-thinking group therapy with his wife Carol (Natalie Wood). Ted and Alice (Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon) might be more of a conventional couple but they are always happy to listen to the provocative adventures of the more “enlightened” pair. One day, however, they are invited to experience such an adventure first hand. The director-co-writer shows off his one-of-a-kind talent for observation in this inventive and intelligent comedy, bold for its day, which he developed around his own experience in a southern Californian centre teaching clients to “truly live out” their emotions. His debut film is an intense testimonial to a time when the sexual revolution reached new heights and its participants were truly convinced that it was possible to swap partners and stay friends. With its marvellously harmonious acting quartet, the film received four American Academy Award nominations.

About the director

Paul Mazursky (b. 1930, New York), director, screenwriter, actor and producer. His rich acting career began in Kubrick’s drama Fear and Desire and Richard Brooks’ celebrated Blackboard Jungle. After his directorial debut with Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) he made a series of notable films over the next two decades that included Alex in Wonderland (1970), Blume in Love (1973), Harry and Tonto (1974), Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), An Unmarried Woman (1978), Moscow on the Hudson (1984) and Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986). Mazursky’s most recent film is the documentary Yippee (2006), in which he describes his own trip to the annual meeting of several tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews in the Ukrainian town of Uman. Mazursky has been nominated five times for an Oscar, particularly for the screenplays he wrote for his films. He applied his considerable narrative talent in his memoirs Show Me the Magic (1999).