JOHN AND MARY
US, 1969, 91 minutes, Colour.
Dustin Hoffman, Mia Farrow.
Directed by Peter Yates.
John and Mary may have been slightly before its time. On first release it was attacked as a fairly cold and calculated box office use of the theme of communication and the modern lack of it and of the two young stars. The stars have made many more films since, and audiences take for granted their presence. The theme has become more prevalent and, now, within this setting, John and Mary seems quite a good film; certainly a very interesting one in its presentation of the facets of a relationship over twenty-four hours. It uses flashbacks to fill in the necessary past, spoken commentaries to counterpoint what is being said with what is being thought and planned. It offers a contemporary young man and young woman adrift in the contemporary cities encountering one another.
Peter Yates is an English director who made his mark in America with Bullitt (1968) and its famous car-chase. John and Mary followed, and since then he has made Murphy's War (1971) with Peter O'Toole; the delightful robbery-caper The Hot Rock (1971) with Robert Redford and George Segal. Dustin Hoffman made this film just after Midnight Cowboy. It was his third major film before Little Big Man; Straw Dogs, etc. John and Mary provides a lot of material for discussion on love and communication.
1. The implications of the title? John and Mary as names for ordinary people? By the end of the film, more ironic when they introduce each other?
2. The style of the film - how effective? Colour, panavision (too large for this small theme?), John's apartment and furnishings, flashbacks, talk-over sequences of thought counterpointing what is really said, the main story taking only twenty-four hours? Which aspects were successful? Why?
3. The first impressions - getting up, exploring, pretences, impression of an affair? What mood did this create for the audience?
4. Second impressions - breakfast, manoeuvres on both sides?
5. How did the film show them getting to know each other? Was it convincing? How did they begin to reveal themselves? How much more important was this kind of communication than previous acquaintance or physical intercourse?
6. What did they originally want or hope to get from each other? Why?
7. What kind of person was John - flat, girl-friends, work; his parents - mother and causes (Mary the same); friendship with Stan in a "crowded subway-booze"?
8. What kind of person was Mary - did we get to know her? The party, her friends, conversation about trendy films, her affair with the politician? Did she love him - his speeches, the rendezvous, secrecy, time-tabling? What did she gain from this affair? Her relationship with the girls in the flat? Her imagining (shown visually) of leaving John's flat, shopping and explaining to her friends what had happened?
9. Third impression and phase of the relationship - listening to records, lunch, afternoon sleep? flow had their friendship grown by this time?
10. Why did Mary finally leave - the background of the party?
11. What made John search for Mary - why did he want her?
12. Why had she come back - why did she want to go back?
13. The final imagining had they gone to the party? The love-making - how different from twenty-four hours previously? Why? The irony and symbolism of the exchanging of names?
14. What did the film have to offer on themes of love, marriage, sexuality, communication, young people of this period, city life?
