Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966), directed by Mike Nichols (The

Graduate), is a cinematographic adaptation of the play with the same name.
As an adaptation, the great screenwriter Ernest Lehman (West Side Story,
North by Northwest) had to adapt the original play by Edward Albee. Before
talking about the plot, I want to mention the only four actors: Elizabeth
Taylor (Giant, Cleopatra), Richard Burton (Look Back in Anger, Cleopatra),
Sandy Dennis (Splendor in the Grass), George Segal (Blume in Love).
The story is starred by Martha and George. She’s the daughter of the
director of the university where her husband works; she’s an alcoholic,
strident and gross women. He’s also alcoholic, aggressive and an
unsuccessful History professor and a failed novelist. They are married and
they hate each other.
The story passes by a Saturday night. Martha and George have guests: a
newlywed couple. During this long night we, and also the guests, can
witness the games played by Martha and George, where the objective is to
cause the highest psychological damage. Not only the hosts participate in
the game, but also the guests get involved in it and the audience discover
that the young couple will take Martha and George’s lead.
During the viewing of the film I felt as when I saw The Hateful Eight for the
first time: I was violented by the verbal rawness (although in The Hateful
Eight there’s a great explosion of visual violence at the end, during the
eighty per cent of the film, the characters chat between them). I could never
have imagined so much violence without blood, knives, guns or entrails.
Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf teaches us that it’s possible to make the
audience tremble without visual violence: it’s only necessary a great script,
some brilliant actors and actresses and a suggestive direction. The end of
the film is bittersweet: on one hand, the spectator who appreciates the good
cinema is satisfied (brilliant script, fabulous performances, good direction,
set and costume design, characterization, etc.); on the other hand, however,
the end is hopeless for Martha and George and also for the young couple.
To sum it up, I insistently recommend you this masterpiece of the drama
because it’s something totally different from actual cinema. I also invite you
to draw your own conclusions about the film and the characters and to go
beyond the yells and the marriage arguments in order to find a deeper
meaning.