Synopsis
The concurrent sexual lives of best friends Jonathan and Sandy are presented, those lives which are affected by the sexual mores of the time and their own temperament, especially in relation to the respective women who end up in their lives.
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Cast
- Jack NicholsonJonathan
- Candice BergenSusan
- Art GarfunkelSandy
- Ann-MargretBobbie
- Rita MorenoLouise
- Cynthia O'NealCindy
- Carol KaneJennifer
- Sheri JacksonMama
Recommendations
- 100
Chicago Sun-Times
Carnal Knowledge is clearly Mike Nichols' best film. It sets out to tell us certain things about these few characters and their sexual crucifixions, and it succeeds. - 100
The New York Times
More than any other film Nichols has made, Carnal Knowledge reminds me of his stage work at its best, particularly of the highly stylized Luv in which low comedy techniques were employed to illuminate material that might otherwise seem too cruel, or too anti‐heroic for a dramatic medium. - 90
TV Guide Magazine
An uneven but unusually thoughtful melodrama, Carnal Knowledge avoids most of the the trendy excesses that make some other films of its era so difficult to watch today. - 90
Village Voice
Carnal Knowledge is a movie that almost lives up to it's brilliant title. [08 Jul 1971, p.34] - 60
The New Yorker
As Mike Nichols has directed the material, the effects are almost all achieved through the line readings, and the cleverness is unpleasant -- it's all surface and whacking emphasis. - 50
Chicago Reader
The picture has its moments of chilling insight, though essentially it is one more quaint early-70s stab at an American art cinema that never materialized. - 50
Variety
Mike Nichols' Carnal Knowlede is a rather superficial and limited probe of American male sexual hypocrisies. - 50
Time Out
As a slice of familiar Feiffer cynicism, tracing the arid sex life of two contrasting males from eager college days to drained middle age, this was never quite the major assault on sexism and male chauvinism it set itself up to be.
