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Nichols often responded to the question of what happened to Ben and Elaine with, "They grew up and became their parents." Disappointing not a few, I'd imagine.

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I think you meant "Frederick Wiseman," not Frederic Weisman.

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IIRC correctly, Grodin was high up on Nichols's list to play Benjamin. Nichols did cast him in Catch-22 (and May used him again in Ishtar.) The other Nichols and May crossover is the famous Mrs.-Robinson-blows-smoke-during-kiss moment, that is a direct lift from the Nichols and May teenagers skit.

Dustin Hoffman's characters frequently gave us some pretty bad dating advice. This movie, obviously, but his interaction with Marthe Keller in Marathon Man is worse (though made slightly more palatable because ... spoilers).

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And it’s fascinating that the ending of The Graduate was improvised. Nicholas simply didn’t call cut and Ross and Hoffman kept acting or not acting—it’s hard to say. In either case, falling out of character as actors matches the characters falling out of their bizarre dream logic (or nightmare logic as the case might be).

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"and this may be why most romcoms dispense with the courtship in a music-video montage)." Nah, it's because writing romance is the most difficult kind of dialog to write. Especially these days. Better to bury the charm, the spontaneity, the chemistry of word play, bury it all in the music video montage.

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