Mike Nichols

[tpfkabi]

AMC just showed the Graduate. i love this film so much. i wondered how his other films compare. do they have the same feel or style?
what do you recommend?

[Cecil]

whos afraid of virginia woolf
carnal knowledge

[MacGuffin]

Catch 22
Silkwood
Biloxi Blues

[SoNowThen]

Carnal Knowledge and Catch 22 are the most underrated films of all time. Both are in my top 20 list. My favorite American version of minimalist directing, doing as much as possible in masters. Or in the case of Carnal, one piece of coverage for a whole scene. Rock on, I love Mike Nichols.

[©brad]

i liked regarding henry, and i thought primary colors was excellent. and then there's birdcage of course, which is just hysterical stuff. nichols is good.

[Gloria]

I just saw The Graduate yesterday, and I thought it was a creative and interesting movie. I thought Dustin Hoffman was brilliant and Ann Robinson was wickedly superb in such a detailed movie.  I finally realize the movie the Simpson's were referencing (you know, the episode where Marge's mother dates Grandpa Simpson and Mr. Burns??)  Overall, I don't know if this movie has stood the test of time, though. I'm sure I didn't see it as shocking as some people in the 70s saw it. It is still a creative and wonderfully acted film.

[Redlum]

Also has one of the best cuts in film history (right up there with the 2001 one), when Ben jumps up onto the lilo, and then it cuts to him landing on top of Mrs Robinson.

[Ghostboy]

I just saw The Graduate yesterday, and I thought it was a creative and interesting movie. I thought Dustin Hoffman was brilliant and Ann Robinson was wickedly superb in such a detailed movie.  I finally realize the movie the Simpson's were referencing (you know, the episode where Marge's mother dates Grandpa Simpson and Mr. Burns??)  Overall, I don't know if this movie has stood the test of time, though. I'm sure I didn't see it as shocking as some people in the 70s saw it. It is still a creative and wonderfully acted film.

I think it's stood the test of time. It's not meant to be shocking...that it ever was was just indicative of the time period. Where its brilliance lies is in the disillusionment and aimlessness of Hoffmans' character, something that's as relatable now as it was when it was first released.

No discussion of Mike Nichosl would be complete without mentioning his masterpiece, What Planet Are You From? Ben Kingsley was robbed at Oscar time for that one, I tell you! Robbed!

[SoNowThen]

that movie did have its funny moments...

[MacGuffin]

'Always one more thing'
Nichols, honored for lifetime achievement, has no plans to stop.
Source: Los Angeles Times

In 1966, Mike Nichols got a Directors Guild of America nomination for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," his feature film debut. His sophomore outing, "The Graduate," won him the award — as well as a best director Oscar.

Over the years, such movie and TV projects as "Silkwood" (1983), "Working Girl" (1988) and last year's critically acclaimed "Angels in America" have reaffirmed his talent.

With an Academy Award, two Emmys, seven Tonys and a shared Grammy (with comic collaborator Elaine May) to his credit, Nichols will become the 30th recipient of the Directors Guild's lifetime achievement award at the Century Plaza Hotel tonight.

Flattering as that is, he says on the phone from London, he can't leave the set of his movie, an adaptation of playwright Patrick Marber's "Closer." With each day of the shoot costing $250,000, he'll be conveying his gratitude on tape. The 72-year-old director took time, however, to reflect: on his professional ups and downs, on his marriage to ABC News interviewer Diane Sawyer, on his legacy and on what really matters.

Question: Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Frank Capra — the Directors Guild award puts you in some pretty classy company.

Answer: It has an emotional significance, throwing me back to the immense kindness my heroes showed me when I first entered the business. Billy Wilder, for one, lent me his editorial assistant and, since it was too late for breeches and boots, told me to wear windbreakers on the set. He also gave me some brilliant advice: Leave a little string for the pearl instead of making every moment a jewel. I remember the first time I accepted a DGA award. After the host, Walter Matthau, said "And now, for best direction of a feature film: Mike Nichols, '...Virginia Woolf,' " I walked onstage and spoke movingly for three minutes. Then, Matthau called out the second nominee, Fred Zinnemann, who went on to win the award. It was so confusing and beyond embarrassing. The next year, when I did win for "The Graduate," I had the producer, Larry Turman, pick [the statuette] up for me and say, "Mike already thanked you last year."

Q: Was it difficult following up such early success?

A: A week after we arrived in New York, Elaine [May] and I were at the Blue Angel and, within a month, had our own TV hour. Then, I had 12 smash plays in a row. Still, like my pal Steven Soderbergh and Woody Allen, I have anhedonic reactions: the inability to feel pleasure. I didn't think I deserved all that. I'm such a kvetch; I complain as a way of touching wood. Gentiles think if you name something it brings it on. Jews think it wards it off. That kvetching is called "social comment" in my movies, all of which are "yes, but" at heart. Though I point out things, there's an underlying positivism, saying "ain't life grand, despite."

Q: In 1975, you stopped making movies for eight years.

A: I bailed out to focus on the stage ["Annie"] and TV ["Family"]. It's funny, because that's when I really got good. There's something about not doing something that lets it grow inside you. You're saying, "I'm not a career. I'm a person." Julia Roberts stopped after "Pretty Woman." So did Albert Finney after "Tom Jones." When I came back with "Silkwood," my friend Kurt Russell asked, "Are you always that light on your feet with a camera?" I knew what I wanted and didn't make a big deal of it. Before that, I loved post[-production] and editing but was afraid of shooting. Now I love all of it. Directing, in truth, is the best job there is. You have 150 people asking, "What do you want me to do, boss?" You say: "I don't like Rome the way it is, would you put it there, instead, and surround it with water?" You can have anything you want.

Q: As a refugee from Nazi Germany who grew up in poverty, you've always felt different, you've said. Has that fed you, creatively?

A: I was the most popular of the unpopular kids in school. My dad died when I was 11 and my mom had to raise two boys in a country where she had no craft or money. For me, the way out started with reading, listening to music and meeting a lot of other weirdos like myself at the University of Chicago. I've been lucky in that I can share my feelings and experiences on film. For me, they're grist. "That really hurt but, man, it's useful." Making movies heals the wounds.

Q: Are there projects you regret taking on?

A: At the Kennedy Center honors last year, Tom Stoppard made a speech about me. Fame is fleeting, life is short, he said — and he's there to remind everyone that I made the Garry Shandling movie ["What Planet Are You From?" a box office flop in 2000]. He didn't have to remind me. But I like failures, in a way. They give you a perspective on things and, spiritually, it feels better for a while. To win an Academy Award is to be back at the Beverly Hills Hotel at midnight feeling empty. To lose is to realize that the happiness is right there in your house.

Q: Your marriage to Diane Sawyer has survived. What's your secret?

A: We've managed to be together most of the time, which is important when you're both working with the cutest people in the world. We've also battled for equality. If one person becomes more important, you get knocked off kilter, especially if it's not the guy. A network person at an affiliate meeting once asked me what I did and I said, "I take her phone messages and rinse out her delicate underthings." If I didn't get called for a job for five or six months, that could cause problems. But I'm happy to be waiting for her. I know who I am.

Q: Do you think about death?

A: A lot. It's part of my nature, and the fact of death makes everything so sweet. It's good to have a time limit, and having kids helps. They are themselves—and me. As a filmmaker, however, I don't know what I'll leave behind. I'm startled by how quickly great directors are so totally gone when they're gone. Jerome Robbins is barely remembered. It doesn't take very long. There's no guarantee that your work endures, and it's a blind alley to think about it. Modigliani was completely unsuccessful in life and a giant after he left, and that didn't do him any good. I'm glad that I connected with people, cheering them up in the dark. But posterity? Memories, reputation don't mean a lot to me. When it's over, it's over.

Q: Is "winding down" part of your game plan?

A: Though my dentist so cruelly says "for a man of your age," I feel 30 or 32. I'm good at doing nothing, but there's always one more thing I want to tackle — and one more after that. Next September, I start on a stage musical based on "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and, then, possibly another movie in England. Though I get bored with things, movies — along with the people I love — are the singular exceptions. I like directing too much to quit … and, fortunately, they still let me do it.

[MacGuffin]

Roberts & Nichols SWITCH
Julia Roberts and Mike Nichols reteaming for romantic comedy at Columbia Pictures.

Oscar winner Julia Roberts and Oscar-winning Angels in America helmer Mike Nichols have started negotiations to develop the romantic comedy Seven-Year Switch. Red Wagon partners Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher will be producing the project, which will reunite Roberts and Nichols who recently filmed the drama Closer.

Seven-Year Switch would star Roberts as a woman who has been in a relationship for sevens years and has reached the proverbial seven-year itch. The whole experience takes on a new meaning, however, when she gets to see what her life would have been like if she had made different decisions.

[Finn]

Julia Roberts = Overrated

[tpfkabi]

julia roberts does an non Christmas It's A Wonderful Life / The Family Man?

[hedwig]

Ann Robinson

I've only seen The Graduate (my favorite movie) and Primary Colors which I loved but I will be soon watching Angels In America.

I think Mike Nichols is so great and funny but I really like the style of The Graduate and it doesn't seem like his other films are similar at all.

It's a great thing and a bad thing.

[modage]

watched Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf which really seemed like a play.  it was like being at the worst party on earth, with the two most obnoxious/craziest people on the planet and drinking till morning.  at 2 hours 10 minutes it was the longest seeming film ever.    like, you just want to LEAVE like you want the characters to just get the hell out of there.  its like torture.  performances were good, but watching the movie was a painful experience.