Daily Dialogue — November 22, 2018

Benjamin: Oh, my God!
Mrs. Robinson: Pardon?
Benjamin: Oh no, Mrs. Robinson. Oh no.
Mrs. Robinson: What’s wrong?
Benjamin: Mrs. Robinson, you didn’t… I mean, you didn’t expect…
Mrs. Robinson: What?
Benjamin: I mean, you didn’t really think I’d do something like THAT.
Mrs. Robinson: Like what?
Benjamin: What do you think?
Mrs. Robinson: Well, I don’t know.
Benjamin: For God’s sake, Mrs. Robinson. Here we are. You got me into your house. You give me a drink. You… put on music. Now, you start opening up your personal life to me and tell me your husband won’t be home for hours.
Mrs. Robinson: So?
Benjamin: Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me!
Mrs. Robinson: [laughs] Huh?
Benjamin: Aren’t you?

— The Graduate (1967), screenplay by Calder Willingham, Buck Henry, novel by Charles Webb

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Seduction

Trivia: Like the “Please don’t tease” sign on the chimpanzee cage much later, there’s a subliminal message on a sign very early in the film. At the conclusion of the title sequence and the first rendition of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence,” the camera smoothly tracks Benjamin’s suitcase along a baggage conveyor. Just before it drops into the carousel, a sign flashes by: “Do They Match?” . . . a potential question about several couples in the movie, and perhaps even Benjamin and his entire world.

Dialogue On Dialogue: One of the most famous seduction scenes in movie history. It’s got a nifty three act structure: Benjamin accuses Mrs. Robinson of trying to seduce him. Then he apologizes as he thinks he got it wrong. And then actually DOES try to seduce him.