Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)
Directed by Paul Mazursky
After returning to Los Angeles from a group therapy session, documentary filmmaker Bob Sanders and his wife, Carol, find themselves becoming vigilante couples counselors, offering unsolicited advice to their best friends, Ted and Alice Henderson. Not wanting to be rude, the Hendersons play along, but some latent sexual tension among the four soon comes bubbling to the surface, and long-buried desires don't stay buried for long.
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What critics compared Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice to
There are shades of Steven Shainberg’s Secretary in Babygirl, but by its finale, it ends up strangely reminiscent of Paul Mazursky’s revelatory Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. In that film, Mazursky follows the four leads as they wander out of their hotel room following their (kind of) sexual escapades. They dreamily wander around Las Vegas, drifting back to their respective partners to gaze up at them lovingly before the screen fades to black.
In one scene, director Will Gluck (Easy A) shows a television playing the 1969 Paul Mazursky couples-swapping comedy Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.
In fact, the pervasiveness of this idea in non-controversy-courting movies aimed at the mainstream multiplex may be a relatively recent development, but "Friends with Benefits" acknowledges its place as a Justin-come-lately in the history of sex-in-the-cinema by placing "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" (1969) on a television screen in the background of one scene.
As with “Easy A,” “Friends With Benefits” is a thinly-veiled showcase of Sony electronic and entertainment products: Sony VAIO laptops, Columbia Pictures’ “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice” playing on a Sony flat-screen and Kris Kross’s “Jump” courtesy of Columbia Records blasting out of a Sony Ericsson phone.
Old movies like On the Waterfront and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice play on screens in the background.
Upon its release in 1969, Paul Mazursky’s Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice was both praised and criticised for being a social commentary and a verdict on marriage (and Americans) that was conveyable only through comedy. The film’s watershed financial success made it possible for others to follow suit and explore themes of consensual promiscuity on screen.
Paul Mazursky’s BOB & CAROL & TED & ALICE in 1969 also treads similar ground but had oodles more maturity and profundity.
In "Shampoo" or "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice", to take two examples, the characters were constantly in and out of the sack with either strangers or each other.