Carnal Knowledge (film)
"Carnal Knowledge" is a 1971 film directed by Mike Nichols, based on a play by Jules Feiffer, who also wrote the screenplay. Featuring notable performances from actors such as Jack Nicholson, Ann-Margret, Candice Bergen, Art Garfunkel, and Rita Moreno, the film explores themes of sexuality and relationships from the late 1940s through the sexually revolutionary 1960s. It garnered critical acclaim and box office success, with Ann-Margret receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
The film's frank depiction of sexual content, including nudity and a controversial scene involving fellatio, led to legal challenges rooted in obscenity laws. In Albany, Georgia, police seized the film from a theater, resulting in the arrest of the theater manager, sparking a significant Supreme Court case that examined the boundaries of artistic expression versus community standards. The Court ultimately ruled that "Carnal Knowledge" did not constitute obscenity under the law, reinforcing the protection of artistic works under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. However, the case left unresolved issues regarding the definition of obscenity and freedom of expression in cinema. Overall, "Carnal Knowledge" remains a significant film in the context of cultural attitudes toward sexuality and the legal landscape surrounding film content.
Carnal Knowledge (film)
Type of work: Film
Released: 1971
Director: Mike Nichols (1931- )
Subject matter: Two college roommates pursue the “ideal woman,” engaging in plenty of sexual experimentation along the way
Significance: This acclaimed film was the basis of the 1974 Jenkins v. Georgia case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court found that nudity alone does not make material legally obscene
Carnal Knowledge, directed by Mike Nichols and written by Jules Feiffer, who also wrote the play on which the film was based, appeared in 1971 to critical acclaim and box office success. Ann-Margret was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress, and the film’s other stars included Jack Nicholson, Candice Bergen, Art Garfunkel, and Rita Moreno. The film, which covers the period from the late 1940’s to the sexually liberated 1960’s, contains some nudity and sex, including, at the end of the movie, a depiction of fellatio.
It was presumably the sexual nature of the film that led police in Albany, Georgia, to seize the film and arrest Billy Jenkins, the manager of the theater where it was being shown. The charge was distributing obscene material, and Jenkins was convicted by a jury in the Superior Court of Dogherty County. After the Supreme Court of Georgia refused to overturn the verdict, the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In considering the case, the Court would confront two earlier Supreme Court rulings: Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton (1973), in which the Georgia Supreme Court had supported the Atlanta district attorney’s petition to prevent two “adult” theatres from showing allegedly obscene films, and Miller v. California (1973). The pro-censorship rulings in these cases had caused concern on the part of the motion picture industry, which feared that even artistically responsible films with sexual content would be attacked by local pressure groups. Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, accordingly supported Jenkins’ case, which was argued by the famed attorney Louis Nizer. Rather than making a case for total freedom of expression in all films, Nizer argued that Carnal Knowledge was not hard-core pornography, and that the merit of a film should not be decided by whether or not it met community standards of decency.
The Court ruled that Carnal Knowledge did not present sex in the patently offensive way described in Miller, since the camera did not focus on the bodies of the actors in sexual scenes. The Court found that while there was some nudity, nudity alone does not legally constitute obscenity, and therefore the film came under the protection of the First and Fourteenth amendments. The problem of freedom of expression for all films, however, remained unresolved. The Court was not ready to reverse the Miller decision, and what emerged from the Carnal Knowledge case was a modification of the earlier ruling. Supreme Court justice William Rehnquist wrote that only explicit displays of patently offensive sexual conduct could be ruled obscene by local judges.