‘First, we’ll have an orgy. Then we’ll go see Tony Bennett...’
I’ve watched a hell of a lot of mumblecore and mumblegore movies recently, so I am not against full films that pretty much only feature a bunch of people sat in rooms talking to each other. Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice is a natural precursor to those movies, and as with the work of Joe Swanberg, it is a maddening, occasionally beautiful thing…
Bob (Robert Culp), Carol (Natalie Wood), Ted (Elliott Gould) and Alice (Dyan Cannon) are a pair of couples at the tail end of the swinging sixties. They drink. They dance. They endlessly discuss sexual politics. And they flirt with each other. A lot.
A film that is as talky as this one depends entirely on the cast. Paul Mazursky, directing from his own script (with a co-writing credit for Larry Tucker), allows his talented cast to carry his debut feature in a way that is often more akin to a play than a film. The sharp script is brought to life by a fiery performance from Cannon and a typically credulous turn from Gould – who is, as ever, frequently hilarious. Really though, this is Natalie Wood’s movie. The iconic screen starlet is astonishingly good here, and it is her authenticity that grounds the movie in its more improbable moments.
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice is a unique time capsule that captures an age of sexual freedom that makes for great cinema. It’s not a romcom, it’s not out and out comedy, it’s not a full blown relationship drama. Instead, Mazursky’s film takes elements from all of these disparate genres and fuses them together to create something genuinely fresh. A triumph.