#bob&carol&ted&alice

[lillamolntuss]

the thing that would make an orgy better:

1. if it was only two women

2. becoming wealthy is simply a choice. make that choice

#bob&carol&ted&alice

[disappointingyet]

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

Director Paul Mazursky Stars Robert Culp, Natalie Wood, Elliott Gould, Dyan Cannon USA 1969 Language English (with a bit of inept Spanish directed at the maid) 1hr 45mins Colour

Era-capturing comedy-drama about two affluent couples trying to stay hip in late ‘60s Los Angeles

Saying a film is incredibly of its moment is not necessarily a judgement. By which I mean: the movie could be a fascinating time capsule or a pivot in cinema history or simply an unhappy accumulation of the tropes and cliches of the year it was made. Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice seems (to me) to fit well in the first category and is maybe a bit the second and (fortunately) not slot into the final one. 

In any case, it certainly screams ‘1969!’. Before we even get to the credits, we’ve seen naked breasts – this is just a year after the final burial of the production code that had restricted what could be shown in Hollywood films since the 1930s. Those breasts aren’t in a sexual context, they are in ‘let’s shake off our old hang-ups’ context. Bob (Robert Culp) has come to The Institute to scout for a documentary, and his wife Carol (Natalie Wood) has tagged along for the ride. 

The Institute seems modelled on Esalen (think the final episode of Mad Men), and Bob and Carol take part in a marathon session where a roomful of participants do a long series of exercises and keep going for 24 hours straight hoping to break down their barriers so they can express their feelings without filter. 

And when they get back to their everyday existence, Bob and Carol do feel changed, and insist on insisting on full openness when talking to each other and other people – not just with their best friends Ted (Elliott Gould) and Alice (Dyan Cannon) but also with eg, the maitre d’ at their favourite restaurant. It’s all a little much, and becomes pretty disruptive, especially to poor Ted and Alice, who are a little less furiously trying to prove they are moving with the times. 

Culp was in his late thirties when this was made, the others in their early thirties. I was thinking maybe that’s a bit young to be worrying that you are out of touch with what’s happening, but actually I was already sensing my moment had passed when I was about 20, and undoubtably (without buying into boomer self-importance), the mid and late 1960s could be dizzying times.

Each couple has a kid, and Bob and Ted are well established in their well-paid professions, so these are meant to be grown-ups, and in previous generations would have had no urge to chase what young folks were doing. (And despite all Bob’s beads, these four aren’t in full rejection of the taste of their generation – towards the end of the movie, they all head to a concert… not the Dead or Sly And The Family Stone, but Tony Bennett.)

Probably the most notable stylistic choice director Paul Mazursky (who was the same age as Culp, incidentally) makes here is having some very long scenes – that early one at The Institute, a therapy session Alice has (a session that is nevertheless curtailed just as she seems to be reaching a breakthrough), plus the climax to the film. Like the characters, we’re here to really explore what’s going on with these people, just probably with a little more scepticism. And crucially, that approach works (there’s nothing worse than a wilfully extended scene you don’t care about.)

The cast is an interesting one – all at very different points in their careers. The one true movie star of the bunch at the time was Natalie Wood, who had been acting since she was a small kid. This film should have set her up to take a prominent role in the New Hollywood of the 1970s, but sadly didn’t for some reason – there was not a lot of great work ahead in the final decade of her short life. She’s just absurdly beautiful here, but also sharp and expressive.

Culp I first remember seeing in a regular supporting role in a not-very-good early ‘80s TV show called The Greatest American Hero. Mostly if I think of him these days, it’s as one of those reliable and well-connected actors of the time who got to play multiple Columbo villains. Back when this was made, he had just finished the three-season run of I Spy, a hit show in which he starred alongside Bill Cosby as globe-trotting operatives whose cover was they were a tennis player and his coach. 

Meanwhile, Cannon was best known for an unlikely marriage to Cary Grant – she was in her twenties, he was past 60, she was his fourth wife (and there had been always been rumours that he was gay.) That union had ended by the time of B&C&T&A. She was reasonably famous during the 1970s and has worked steadily ever since, although I’m not sure that many people would recognise the name.

And then there’s Elliott Gould, the one who was about be huge. Watching this, it feels like he’s cast against type as the more uptight friend, but this is the year before M*A*S*H, the first of the three movies he made with Robert Altman (the others are The Long Goodbye and California Split*) that defined his star persona. 

Anyway, they are all absolutely perfect for this film, believable as a group of friends, plausible in their power dynamics. And Mazursky and his team immerse us in their world: the big houses, the flashy cars, the hip hang-outs, none of which means they are not fundamentally insecure. 

From the opening aerial shot of the Bob and Carol driving to The Institute to the great closing images, it feels fully liberated by what cameras were able to do by 1969. So I was a little surprised to check who the cinematographer was and find it was not some young dude who had just escaped from Czechoslovakia but instead Charles Lang, who had been working in movies since 1926 and whose extraordinary list of credits includes The Magnificent Seven and Some Like It Hot. 

I was really taken with this film – it’s funny, the cast are immensely charismatic, it captures the vibe of the time brilliantly without bombarding us with tacky faux-psychedelic camera effects or editing, there are some awesome clothes. Very happy I finally watched it.

(I'm always Quentin Tarantino-sceptical, but he's good talking about B&C&T&A here) *He has cameos in Nashville and The Player. 

#bob&carol&ted&alice #natalie wood #elliott gould #Hollywood in the 1960s

[20th-century-man]

Natalie Wood / production still from Paul Mazursky’s Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)

#Natalie Wood #Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice #Paul Mazursky #1969 #film #1960s

[soupy-sez]

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)

#elliott gould #bob & carol & ted & alice #60s #pics #b/w #actors #movies #soupy's #I have Not watched this but look at this picture

[mudwerks]

(via JHALAL DRUT: Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969))

#elliot gould #Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice #film #vintage #1969

[kiurit]

natalie wood and robert culp on the set of bob & carol & ted & alice (1969)

#natalie wood #robert culp #bob & carol & ted & alice #never saw this pic before??? until they showed it in peter b movie #been sitting on it for a week but it's kinda too good not to share...

[odk-2]

Natalie Wood on the set of "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" Color Transparency, 1969

#Natalie Wood #Color Transparency #1960's Cinema #Actress #Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice #Popular Culture

[pygartheangel]

#bob and carol and ted and alice #paul mazursky #elliott gould #natalie wood #dyan cannon #robert culp #movie poster

[leonardcohenofficial]

elliott gould movies ranked by how much fun they would be to watch while stoned

#i feel like watching MASH a little high should just be required; bob and carol and ted and alice would either be hilarious or the most #physically painful motion picture experience of your life; the long goodbye is a tossup depending on how well you pay attention after THC #is coursing through your veins

[natalie38wood]

MY POSTERS BOB, CAROL, TED AND ALICE, CHOSEN FOR DVD.

#natalie wood #bob and carol and ted and alice

[letterboxd-loggd]

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) Paul Mazursky

February 7th 2024

#bob & carol & ted & alice #1969 #paul mazursky #natalie wood #robert culp #dyan cannon #elliott gould #bob & carol #bob and carol #bob and carol and ted and alice

[bkenber]

Joe Swanberg on the Making of 'Drinking Buddies'

WRITER’S NOTE: This article was written back in 2013. Filmmaker Joe Swanberg has been a major figure in the Mumblecore movement, a subgenre of American independent film which is characterized by low budget production values and naturalistic dialogue. Among his films is “Hannah Takes the Stairs” which stars Greta Gerwig and was actually shot without a script. The way Swanberg works, he gives his…

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#2013 Movies #Alcohol #Anna Kendrick #Beer #Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice #Bum Later Productions #Chicago #Craft Beer #Drinking Buddies #Four Seasons Hotel #Greta Gerwig #Half Acre #Hannah Takes The Stairs #Improvisation #Independent Film #IPA #Jake Johnson #Joe Swanberg #Los Angeles #Magnolia Pictures #Micro Breweries #Microbew #Midwest #Movie Interviews #Mumblecore #Olivia Wilde #Revolution Bar #Ron Livingston #Three Floyds

[20th-century-man]

Natalie Wood / production still from Paul Mazursky’s Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)

#Natalie Wood #Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice #Paul Mazursky #1969 #film #1960s

[pablolf]

Film Journal

"Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" by Paul Mazursky

#bob and carol and ted and alice #film journal

[pierreism]

The end scene from Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)

The impossible to forget finale from Paul Mazursky’s diegesis on the free love generation, which plays out entirely to the tunes of Burt Bacharach & Hal David, so inseparable were they from the zeitgeist. Sung of course by the lovely Jackie DeShannon. (via)

#Burt Bacharach #Hal David #Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

[cinemajunkie70]

A very happy birthday to my favorite Philip Marlowe, Elliott Gould!

#elliott gould #the long goodbye #mash #California split #the silent partner #last flight of Noah’s ark #ocean’s 11 #oceans 12 #0cean’s 13 #Bob Carol Ted and Alice #the devil and max devlin #american history x #friends #the lincoln lawyer #kicking and screaming #capricorn one #Bugsy