PLAZA SUITE
US, 1971, 104 minutes, Colour.
Walter Matthau, Maureen Stapleton, Barbara Harris, Lee Grant.
Directed by Arthur Hiller.
Walter Matthau fans will be pleased to know that he plays three roles in three stories that take place in the one hotel suite. They are comedy dramas with points about love and marriage. The treatment is lightly serious. I liked the first story best. Maureen Stapleton as a 47 year old wife trying to hold her husband is both exasperating and pitiful. The second story is a sex/comedy spoof with Barbara Harris as a housewife deceiving herself. The third is a farce about a wedding with wry comments. Playwright Neil Simon blends humour and pathos.
1. The effect and success of the device of using Walter Matthau for the three episodes? Was the linking of the hotel room a successful means for making a unified film?
2. Was the film funny? Why? Was the film humane? Did it appeal to you? Why?
3. Did the film offer insight into marriage, human relationships. human foibles. the comedy of human behaviour?
4. The first story: Karin and Sam. The love of husband and wife on their anniversary, the ageing wife and husband. the relationship between the two, Karin's mistakes the truth of the situation, Karin's fear, her joy, the decision of Sam whether to leave Karin or not?
5. The second story: Jesse Kiplinger and Muriel Tate. The success of the blend of satire and humour? Jesse Kiplinger as self-centred, vain. arrogant, lacking in self-knowledge? Why did Muriel Tate go to the suite? What did she gain from the experience with Jesse? How much happiness and unhappiness were there in these two peoples' lives? How much truth was told in this story of love and lust, even though the style was a spoof?
6. The wedding: Roy and Norma Hubley. Was this an enjoyable farce? What made it so funny? What was the point being made in this farce? What point was being made about the difference in generations,, the telling of truth, the nature of marriage. styles and conformity? What kind of a girl was Mimsey? What kind of man was Borden? The humour and irony of Borden's getting Mimsey out of the room with "cool it"?, especially after Roy had gone to all that trouble to get her out?
7. What values do Neil Simon's plays have? Do they show us something of the reality of twentieth century men and women? Something of the humour of the American way of life? How?
