Film Review: 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'

This film is one of those that is very uncomfortable to watch, not only because of the journey and behaviors of the characters in the film, but also because of the strategic separation and closeness between the audience and the characters throughout the film. The main cinematographic pattern throughout the entire evening with George, Martha, Nick and Honey seemed to be that when you did not want to get any closer to the situation at hand, the cinematographer seemed to throw you in the middle of the heat. And, on the other hand, the cinematographer would distance the audience from the characters during the seldom uplifting scenes.

The film starts out with a very intentional distance from the main characters Martha and George as they make their way back from a late night at work. The cameras are always quite a distance away, their conversation is not clear, and the atmosphere is very empty and very dark. As they approach their house, the audience gains a sense of closeness, but then Mike Nichols, the director, and the cinematographer steal that away from the audience by creating a visual barrier between the audience and Martha and George. This is accomplished by several behind the back shots, as well as awkward mid shots that seem to be cramped.

This distance is furthered when George and Martha start to engage in a most pointless conversation about a movie. During this entire sequence, the audience feels like they have been dropped into a disturbed evening between the married couple. Nick and Honey arrive at George and Martha's house short after to enjoy a 'relaxing' evening together. The four characters get drunk as the night progresses, and the compositional elements of film space as well as lens language begins to reflect the mood of the story. There are several tight close-ups that are far too close to the drunken characters for comfort, and there are many off-balance shots and skewed angles that give a sense of distortion to the entire evening. An example is when George pulls a gun out of seemingly nowhere and aims it at his wife's head and pulls the trigger. We see close-ups of George's anguish as he hates his wife's description of him. There is a cut to his wife's face, also a close-up, as George pulls the trigger, we see disbelief and apologies and a mountain of other emotions in her face that we just do not feel comfortable viewing. And, as I stated above, the filmmakers do not let you enjoy the happy moments of the movie because they place an amount of distance between you and the characters. When George pulls the trigger and a flag pops out of the barrel, the characters all begin to laugh, but you can not see their emotions in that the shot is pulled too far back, and you see the back of their heads or merely side-shots.

The film moves on and George and Nick express their concerns with their wives, and Honey and Martha discuss their spouses' faults. There are more unnerving moments as we are engaged in George's deepest fears and Honey's superficial and giddy love. When the entire group heads out to a bar for more drinks, we are placed inside a car with the four of them in such close proximity that the tension builds once again. George seems ready at times to push someone out, as do audience members since the filmmakers obviously won't let them out of the car. Throughout the film, we are confined in a very literal sense to the characters and their settings. This was achieved through the composition of shots, and it was achieved very successfully. This film definitely joined the ranks of Citizen Kane and Sunset Blvd. in my mind as one of the most unnerving and discomforting films I have ever seen.