Perhaps the finest film from the eclectic yet immensely talented Mike Nichols (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate), Carnal Knowledge is certainly the director’s most mature and perceptive depiction of male-female relationships. A suitably cocky Jack Nicholson and a more subdued but equally deluded Art Garfunkel play college pals whose pursuit of female partners is sketched over a period of more than 20 years as they drift through a marriage apiece and several frustrating liaisons with real women who can’t live up to their fantasies. Written by satirist Jules Feiffer, the film is both funny and serious, with Nichols guiding it from scenes of bawdy banter to the emotional desolation of the closing moments. Not yet a major star (Five Easy Pieces had yet to be released), Nicholson didn’t impress author Feiffer until well into filming. But director Nichols, who is superb with actors, knew exactly what he was doing and all the performances are terrific.