''A Married Couple'' is a Canadian documentary film, directed by

Allan King Allan Winton King, (February 6, 1930 – June 15, 2009), was a Canadian film director. Life Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, during the Great Depression, King attended Henry Hudson Elementary School, in Kitsilano.Thom Ernst Thom Ernst is a Canadian film critic and television host, best known as the final host of the television film series '' Saturday Night at the Movies''.Peter Howell, "Curtain prepares to close on TV show: Saturday Night at the Movies wraps up on TVO ...

"A Married Couple"
''

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available fo ...

'', August 29, 2013. The film is a

cinema vérité Cinema may refer to: Film * Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking * ...

portrait of Billy and Antoinette Edwards, a married couple living in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

"Elusive Reality:'A Married Couple,' by Allan King, Opens"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', February 3, 1970.

Production

Billy Edwards, the son of

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...

officer Harold Edwards, was an advertising executive who had helped to design the poster for King's 1967 film '' Warrendale''. Sensing trouble in his friend's marriage and wanting to make a film about marital conflict, King convinced the Edwards to allow their home life to be filmed for ten weeks by cinematographer

Richard Leiterman Richard Leiterman (March 7, 1935 – July 14, 2005) was a Canadian cinematographer, best known for documentary and feature film work in the 1960s and 1970s. His cinéma vérité, or direct camera, style helped define Canadian cinema at the time. ...

and sound technician Chris Wangler; however, to ensure that his presence did not accidentally distract Billy and Antoinette Edwards from behaving naturally, King himself did not enter their house at all and "directed" the film only when editing the footage after each day's shooting. The film had a budget of $203,000 ().

Distribution

The film faced some difficulties with the Ontario Censor Board. The board unexpectedly permitted a

skinny dipping Nude swimming is the practice of swimming without clothing, whether in natural bodies of water or in swimming pools. A colloquial term for nude swimming is ''skinny-dipping''. In both British and American English, to swim means "to move through ...

scene to remain in the film, but insisted that four of the film's 32 uses of the word "

fuck ''Fuck'' is an English-language expletive. It often refers to the act of sexual intercourse, but is also commonly used as an intensifier or to convey disdain. While its origin is obscure, it is usually considered to be first attested to aro ...

" had to be cut from the dialogue.Blaik Kirby, "Stars of Couple found film showed too little". ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', November 7, 1969. The film premiered in

on November 6, 1969. The film was selected as Canada's official submission to the

1970 Cannes Film Festival The 23rd Cannes Film Festival ran from 3 to 18 May 1970. This year, Robert Favre LeBret, the founder of the festival, decided not to include any films from Russia and Japan (their flags were missing on the Croisette). He was tired of the "Slavi ...

. It was not selected for competition, but was screened in the

Directors' Fortnight The Directors' Fortnight (french: Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) is an independent selection of the Cannes Film Festival. It was started in 1969 by the French Directors Guild after the events of May 1968 resulted in cancellation of the Cannes festiv ...

program.

Response

The film is considered a landmark documentary and one of King's most significant films, although it received a mixed response from critics at the time.

of ''

'' wrote that "What King ultimately proves, I think, is that something that is neither fact nor fiction is less meta-truth than sophisticated sideshow. As I've never believed there is a novel in everybody, nor even a tape-recorded book, I now am convinced there are probably very few people worthy of being the subjects of an actuality drama. Better than any other instrument, perhaps, the documentary camera can capture the sense and feeling of events, of social climates, and even of people in public crisis, but meaningful private drama must always elude it since the camera is stopped by what

Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are '' All My Sons'' (1947), ''Death of a Salesman'' ( ...

once called 'the wall of the skin'." ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' wrote that the film "in its utter nakedness, makes

John Cassavetes John Nicholas Cassavetes ( ; December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989) was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. First known as a television and film actor, Cassavetes also helped pioneer American independent cinema, writing and dire ...

’s ''

Faces The face is the front of an animal's head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may affe ...

'' look like early

Doris Day Doris Day (born Doris Mary Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922 – May 13, 2019) was an American actress, singer, and activist. She began her career as a big band singer in 1939, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, " Sent ...

Legacy

The film led Billy and Antoinette to decide to have a second child, although they divorced by 1972. The film was screened at the 1984 Festival of Festivals as part of Front & Centre, a special retrospective program highlighting selected films from throughout the history of Canadian cinema. In 2017 it was included in Canada On Screen, a special program highlighting 150 landmarks from Canadian film history as part of

Canada 150 The 150th anniversary of Canada, also known as the 150th anniversary of Confederation and promoted by the Government of Canada, Canadian government as Canada 150, occurred in 2017 as Canada marked the sesquicentennial of Canadian Confederati ...

."Canada On Screen / Canada à l'écran"

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

References

Works cited

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Married Couple, A 1969 films 1969 documentary films Canadian documentary films Films directed by Allan King 1960s English-language films 1960s Canadian films