The graduate, the stepford wife et the cosby show - une étude de la femme au foyer américaine - [bilingue]
“The Graduate” is first, a book, published in 1963 and written by Charles Webb. In 1967, Mike Nichols directed the movie, starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft. The movie is still very famous now days, as much as the famous soundtrack by Simons & Garfunkel, “Mrs. Robinson” which was used for the sound atmosphere.
It’s the story of Benjamin Braddock, a freshly graduate student who will turn 21 soon (but is still a minor). He is overwhelmed by the pressure of his parents for his future. After a party he is seduced by a middle-aged family friend, the so respectable, Mrs. Robinson.
But soon Benjamin realises that except the sex they have nothing in common and Benjamin fall in love with Elaine, Mrs Robinson’s daugther. With her he find some peace of mind and can discuss his problems. After a lot of events, they will finally ending living their families, heading together to a new life, without the social burden that their parents carried all their lifes.
In a very different style from “The Stepford Wives” (“The Graduate” is more of a comedy-drama) the movie offers a very accurate view of the feminine condition back in the 60’s-70’s.
Two main themes are worked on the movie. First, the image of surban womens in the 60’s. It’ difficult, to imagine, today, the transgressive nature of the “romance” pictured in the movie and the book. Mrs Robinson, forced to quit college and marrying without love (because she was pregnant) get caught in a condition she never wanted : the perfect middle-class housewife. And mostly it’s because of her quality of housewife that the affair happens and can happen : as a housewife she is completely out of suspicion (nobody can imagine she can ever want more than the ideal life she has) and the very fact that she is a bored and desperate housewife make it possible for the affair to happened.
The second part of the movie focus more on the desire for the children of those middle-class desperate and trapped couples to find