Carnal Knowledge Page #2

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. Their story begins in the late 1940s when they are roommates attending Amherst College together. Both virgins, they discuss the type of woman they would each like to end up with. Sandy, the more sensitive of the two, meets Susan at a mixer, she who he believes is going to be the one to who he will lose his virginity. Sandy goes through the process methodically, taking into account what he thinks Susan wants, but without much true passion or romance. Jonathan, the more sexually aggressive of the two, ends up losing his virginity first to "Myrtle", who ends up being a steady but hidden girlfriend. Based on what each knows of the other's relationship, both Jonathan and Sandy strive for a little more of what the other has. These relationships also set
Genre: Drama
Director(s): Mike Nichols
Production: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
  Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 2 wins & 4 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.0
Rotten Tomatoes:
89%
R
Year:
1971
98 min
1,007 Views


about you.

Well, you want me

to feel something

for you too,

don't you?

I thought

you liked me.

I do like you,

but I like you

for other reasons.

So...

So... if we went

any further,

there wouldn't be

those reasons anymore.

Well, we might have

something else, though.

What?

Something else.

You're the first girl

I've ever done that

to, Susan.

( sighs )

I didn't know that.

It doesn't show?

No.

( sighs )

Well, it's something we both

have to go through, I guess.

Susan, are you

a virgin?

What do I do

with my other hand?

What are you gonna

do with your hands?

Jonathan:

And then what?

Sandy:

She told me to take

my hand off her breast.

- What did you do?

- I said I didn't want to.

Then what?

She said how could

it be fun for me if

she didn't like it?

Oh, Jesus.

- I said I thought

she liked me.

- Yeah?

She said, "I like you

for other reasons."

Other reasons?

So, I told her how

I really needed this.

What did you

tell her?

You know, that it was

my first time.

Your first time what?

What did you say exactly?

I don't remember

exactly.

That she was the first girl

I ever tried to feel up.

- You told her that?

- Was it a mistake?

I wouldn't.

Then she got nicer

to me.

What do you mean

nicer?

She put my hand

on her breast.

You mean you put it on,

she left it there.

No, she picked it up

and put it on.

She took your hand

like this?

And put it on

like this?

That's right.

So, I didn't know

what to think.

You didn't, huh?

For just wanting

to be friends,

she's suddenly getting

pretty aggressive.

Yeah, then what?

I asked her

if she was a virgin.

- You're kidding.

- Was that a mistake?

Anyhow, she is.

She says.

So now you got, what,

one hand or two hands

on her tits?

By this time, she's

put the other hand

on the other one.

She put both hands on?

Two hands?

So I said,

"What are you gonna

do with your hands?"

You didn't say that.

It just came out.

Yeah, then what?

Let me see

if I got this.

She unzipped my fly.

Bullshit artist!

Then what?

Then what?

Then she did it.

Did what?

Bullshit artist!

She really did

that to you?

- She did that?

- Yeah.

( both laughing )

Hello, is this Susan?

Well, you don't know me.

I'm a friend of Sandy's.

His roommate.

Yeah, Jonathan.

He told you about me?

Yeah, so,

I'm just here at Smith

for tonight,

practically on campus.

I was just taking

a drive, you know,

and I found myself

practically on campus.

How do you like Smith?

What's your major?

Where did you go

to high school?

What do you do

in the summer?

Do you always answer

a question with

a question?

Do you always date

your best friend's

girlfriends?

Sandy told me

you were beautiful.

He told me

you were sexy.

I guess he's

just a poor judge.

I guess he meant

you had personality.

Good grief.

You have

a special quality.

I like girls

who are special.

I'm hardly

that special.

Some people you can

tell about right away.

Most girls I talk to

it's like we're spies

from foreign countries

and we're speaking in code.

Everything means

something else.

Like, I say,

"Would you like

to take a walk?"

And it means

something else.

And she says, "I can't.

I've got a French

test tomorrow."

And it means

something else.

And you say,

"I'll come over

and help you study."

And it means

something else.

You're very sharp,

I like that.

And that means

something else.

You're too sharp.

Does that bother you?

It interests me.

Is that more code?

We'd be good together.

I'm dating

your best friend.

He won't mind.

- How do you know?

- I won't tell him.

What if I mind?

You want to

go out Friday?

I'm seeing Sandy.

Saturday?

I have a date.

Sunday?

I'm seeing my folks.

Where do they live?

Newton.

Sunday night?

I'll be too tired.

I'll help you

get over your folks.

How about it, Susan?

What are you so afraid of?

Not you.

( bell tolling )

I think I'm in love.

Mmm...

I think I'm in love.

Bullshit artist.

I really think so.

Did you get in yet?

What's that got

to do with it?

How do you know

if you don't know

how you are

in bed together?

Well, that's

not everything.

It's a lot.

She tells me thoughts

I didn't even

know I had until

she tells them to me.

It's unbelievable.

I can talk to her.

You can talk to me too.

Are you in love with me?

I can say things

to her

I wouldn't dare

say to you.

What, for instance?

Things you'd laugh at.

I'm laughing now.

( laughing )

She thinks

I'm sensitive.

Sensitive?

( laughs )

Sensitive?

Oh, boy!

Whoa-ho!

What do you talk

to her about, flowers?

Books.

Books?

You phony,

I read more books

than you do.

Yeah, well,

I'm gonna start.

I'm reading

"The Fountainhead."

"The Fountainhead."

What's that?

It's her

favorite book.

You ever hear of

"Jean-Christophe"?

What's that?

It's a classic,

you moron.

Gonna read it after

"The Fountainhead."

Yeah, you ever read

"Guadalcanal Diary"

- by Richard Tregaskis?

- No.

That was a best seller

and I read it.

Ever read

"Gentleman's Agreement"

by Laura Z. Hobson?

You ever read

"A Bell For Adano"

by John Hersey?

I'm gonna read

everything from now on.

I read more than you do.

So who's the one

who's sensitive?

You or me?

Come on,

who's sensitive?

I've had a very

messed-up childhood.

What does

your father do?

He fails.

- ( chuckles )

- It's not funny.

I'm sorry.

Were you very poor?

My father couldn't

hold on to a job.

He kept giving

me advice.

The more he failed,

the more advice I got.

He's a Communist,

my father.

We're Republicans.

Sometimes I think

I'm a Communist, though.

Me, too.

We have so much,

and other people have,

you know,

so little.

After I get set up

as a lawyer,

what I'd really

like to do is go

into politics,

public service.

What really

gets me is I was

too young to fight

in the war, because

what was that all about

except to prove that

if everybody

pitches in,

the plain people

have a chance.

So, even though

I'm the first

in my family to

get an education,

I don't ever

want to forget

where I came from.

You're a lot more

serious than I thought.

I know.

Sandy:
Where did

you meet her?

Jonathan:

I'm another person

with her.

You wouldn't

recognize me.

The things that

come out of my mouth.

Boy, she really

sounds like something.

Is she built?

She's, uh...

she's got a quality.

She doesn't talk much,

but the things

she says are so sharp.

We should

double-date sometime.

Well...

I want to know her

a little better, you know,

before we double-date.

Gee, isn't it great?

A month ago,

neither of us

even knew a girl.

What's her name?

Myrtle.

( Susan gasping )

( moaning )

Bullshit artist!

( whooping )

You're kidding!

You're not kidding me?

You really did it!

You bastard!

You beat me to it!

What's up?

( laughing )

Next is my turn.

I don't think

she'll do it, Sandy.

She will.

I've just been

taking it easy on her.

Sandy, believe me,

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Jules Feiffer

Jules Ralph Feiffer (born January 26, 1929) is an American syndicated cartoonist and author, who was considered the most widely read satirist in the country. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 as America's leading editorial cartoonist, and in 2004 he was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame. He wrote the animated short Munro, which won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1961. The Library of Congress has recognized his "remarkable legacy", from 1946 to the present, as a cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter, adult and children's book author, illustrator, and art instructor.When Feiffer was 17 (in the mid-1940s) he became assistant to cartoonist Will Eisner. There he helped Eisner write and illustrate his comic strips, including The Spirit. He then became a staff cartoonist at The Village Voice beginning in 1956, where he produced the weekly comic strip titled Feiffer until 1997. His cartoons became nationally syndicated in 1959 and then appeared regularly in publications including the Los Angeles Times, the London Observer, The New Yorker, Playboy, Esquire, and The Nation. In 1997 he created the first op-ed page comic strip for the New York Times, which ran monthly until 2000. He has written more than 35 books, plays and screenplays. His first of many collections of satirical cartoons, Sick, Sick, Sick, was published in 1958, and his first novel, Harry, the Rat With Women, in 1963. He wrote The Great Comic Book Heroes in 1965: the first history of the comic-book superheroes of the late 1930s and early 1940s and a tribute to their creators. In 1979 Feiffer created his first graphic novel, Tantrum. By 1993 he began writing and illustrating books aimed at young readers, with several of them winning awards. Feiffer began writing for the theater and film in 1961, with plays including Little Murders (1967), Feiffer's People (1969), and Knock Knock (1976). He wrote the screenplay for Carnal Knowledge (1971), directed by Mike Nichols, and Popeye (1980), directed by Robert Altman. Besides writing, he is currently an instructor with the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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    "Carnal Knowledge" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Aug. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/carnal_knowledge_5090>.

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