The Graduate and Two Lovers

The Graduate (1967). Director: Mike Nichols

Two Lovers (2008). Director: James Gray

Every once in a while I came across movies that I thought were really good but with truly despicable protagonists. The curious fact that resentful characters still make movies good is something worth spending some thoughts on. I have seen two movies that fall into this category: The Graduate and Two Lovers. So I would like to write about them.

The Graduate in its essence was a romantic venture of a headstrong and selfish young adult Ben, portrayed wonderfully by Dustin Hoffman. Ben was a recent college graduate that, despite his intelligence, didn’t know what to do with his life. He was seduced by and eventually slept with the wife of his father’s business partner Mr. Robinson. His affair with this much older woman is not an act of love. Although this is not to say that there was no emotional attachment between the two, it seemed to me that Ben was experimenting with his freedom as a young adult more than investing in a relationship. The whole situation quickly turned into a train wreck when Ben fell in love with Mr. and Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, Elaine. For better or worse, Ben was not sly enough to keep the shit from hitting the fan. After Elaine left in disgust, Ben had the determination to be a tenacious suitor. His persistence eventually won Elaine back, and the two of them ran away from the turmoil Ben quite irresponsibly created. 

The male protagonist in Two Lovers was even less likable. Just like Ben, Leonard didn’t know what to do with life. But being much older in age, he lacked the energy and bullheaded innocence that normally only existed at a younger age. When Leonard was sinking lower and lower into the dark pit of his life, two women came along. Sandra was the daughter of a middle class family: a nice, straightforward and thoughtful girl that would be a good wife for any man, and Michelle, who was whimsical, moody but,  irresistibly attractive. Leonard fell head over heels for Michelle, though he knew it was a risky relationship given her mercurial nature. At the same time, Leonard kept Sandra close as a safety net. At the end, immediately after Michelle stood him up the night they were supposed to run away together, Leonard asked Sandra to marry him. The desperation to cling onto something in life and the resulting lack of dignity left me feel nothing but disdain for Leonard. 

Why did I consider The Graduate and Two Lovers good movies? I guess the main reason was that I saw aspects of humanity reflected in characters like Ben and Leonard; aspects that may be ugly but at the same time can’t be more realistic. We as humans are not simply vessels of virtues. Quite the contrary, vices come as part of the package. How many people can proudly claim that they have never committed any wrongdoing out of selfishness? Stories such as those of Ben and Leonard give perfect examples of the fact that “sometimes you have to do something unforgivable just to be able to go on living” (This is a great line by Carl Jung in the movie A Dangerous Method). Although I am not advocating the idea of succumbing to those primitive desire of having our needs satisfied at the expense of others, I also don’t agree that we should simply pretend that those dark elements don’t exist in us. In a way, it is a breath of “fresh” air to see movies that actually intend to show us those slimy corners of humanity. By comparing myself to them, I know that I have been and must keep doing better as a human being. Simply put, bad people can be good examples.

Summer Hours

Summer Hours (2008). Director: Olivier Assayas

I tend to like movies that tell stories about families, especially those that involve members from multiple generations. Only in those messy situations can one get a good glimpse of the subtleties and complexities of the word family. With bigger families being the cultural norm (at least in the recent past), many Asian movies feature such familial dynamics. Ang Lee, for example, has made several great movies that portray family affairs in a very realistic manner (The Wedding Banquet, Pushing Hands and Eat Drink Man Woman; The Ice Storm also touches on multi-generation dynamics in a family, but to a lesser extent in m opinion). Some European movies also tell stories of families. The movie I would like to share my thoughts on here is one of the best movies about families. It’s a French film called Summer Hours, directed by Olivier Assayas. Interestingly, people from Taiwan know Mr. Assayas not because of his reputation as a director, but because he married a really famous actress from Hong Kong. Unfortunately their marriage ended about ten years ago. Yeah, gossip.

I came across Summer Hours quite randomly. Netflix recommended it to me, most likely because there were a few other French movies in my instant queue. One afternoon I started watching this movie, with no knowledge of what it is about and how good/bad it might be. As it turned out, this movie turned was a very pleasant surprise. Summer Hours tells the story of a family with an old but still healthy mother and her three middle-aged children. The premise of the movie is simple: the mother wants her children to decide as a family what to do with the family house, which the mother is the only resident now, should she pass away someday. Immediately there are disagreements among the siblings. The eldest son wants to maintain the upkeep of the house in memory of the time they spent in this house as a family, despite the fact that nobody will live in it. His brother and sister, on the other hand, argue that their brother’s idea is impractical, and propose that it would benefit everybody the most if they sell the house instead. The whole movie basically builds on the conversations between the three siblings and occasionally between them and their mother. Although there are scenes with emotional intensity, overall the story is told at a very casual pace. 

The first thing I appreciate about this movie is that whoever wrote the script didn’t abuse the potential for conflicts and turn this movie into a piece of mawkish melodrama. Instead, this movie shows how real, mature people handle the same situation: through sincere and continuous communications. This is exactly what I like the best about Summer Hours: the authenticity this movie has as it portrays how family affairs are resolved in real life. I can clearly see parallels between the characters in the movie and people in my own family. I also love how this movie tells us there is no correct answer as to what one should do for the love of the family. It is clear in the movie that the two siblings who propose to sell the house cherish their memories of the house as much as than their brother, although the latter is very reluctant to see the house being owned by strangers. At the end, the siblings decide to sell the house. The eldest brother is of course bitter about this decision, but he never doubts his brother and sister’s love for the family. To me, nothings sums up what it means to be a family better than how the movie reaches its conclusion. Being a family doesn’t mean agreement always prevails. Truth be told, consensus rarely happens in any family. So what does it mean to be a family? I think the true meaning of a family is that the willingness to work things out together in an honest and well-intended way. Disagreements, when they exist, don’t reflect differences in how much one cares. They are merely consequences of different perspectives. 

The movie ends in a way that I adore deeply. After the adults settle the debate regarding the fate of the house, we see the eldest son’s teenage daughter climbing over a wall of the old house on her way to a brook nearby. After she gets to the top of the wall, she sits there and tells her companion that she used to come here with her father in the summer and has lots of fond memories. “But I think they are going to sell it” she says with only a faint trace of sadness, if at all. Then she jumps off the wall to continue her trip to the brook without looking back at the house once. From the perspective of a generation immediate outside of this family debate, it shows us that any emotional attachment to the house only belongs to those who have this house at the core of their lives and memories. The nostalgia gets thinner as it is passed on to younger generations. It may be sad, but is also liberating in a way. And nothing makes this point more beautifully than Summer Hours with its very last scene.