Mike Nichols and the Cinema of Transformation
By: J. W. Whitehead
Publisher: McFarland & Company
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Jefferson, USA
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 332
ISBN-13: 9780786471454
Copyright date: 2014 J. W. Whitehead. All rights reserved
Description: Mike Nichols burst onto the American cultural scene in the late 1950s as one half of the comic cabaret team of Nichols and May. He became a Broadway directing sensation, then moved on to Hollywood, where his first two films—Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and The Graduate (1967)—earned a total of 20 Academy Award nominations. Nichols won the 1968 Oscar for Best Director and later joined the rarefied EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) club. He made many other American cinematic classics, including Catch-22 (1970), Carnal Knowledge (1971), Silkwood (1983), Working Girl (1988), Postcards from the Edge (1990), and his late masterpieces for HBO, Wit (2001) and Angels in America (2003). Filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and Steven Soderbergh regard him with reverence. This first full-career retrospective study of this protean force in the American arts begins with the roots of his filmmaking in satirical comedy and Broadway theatre and devotes separate chapters to each of his 20 feature films. Nichols’ permanent achievements are his critique of the ways in which culture constructs conformity and his tempered optimism about individuals’ liberation by transformative awakening.
Table of contents: title: Acknowledgments
pagenum: ix; title: Preface
pagenum: 1; label: Part I.
title: Taking the Stage; label: 1.
title: The Little Exile, the Cabaret Comic, the Broadway Midas
pagenum: 13; label: Part II.
title: The Auteur; label: 2.
title: “Peel the label”: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
pagenum: 25; label: 3.
title: “This afternoon’s feature attraction”: The Graduate (1967)
pagenum: 36; label: 4.
title: “Like us”: Catch-22 (1970)
pagenum: 52; label: 5.
title: “Just act natural”: Carnal Knowledge (1971)
pagenum: 73; label: 6.
title: “Man is bad”: The Day of the Dolphin (1973)
pagenum: 89; label: 7.
title: “I must be dreaming”: The Fortune (1975)
pagenum: 103; label: Part III.
title: The Pro; label: 8.
title: “A moral imperative”: Silkwood (1983)
pagenum: 115; label: 9.
title: “Willing to play the game”: Heartburn (1986)
pagenum: 129; label: 10.
title: “You have to take sides”: Biloxi Blues (1988)
pagenum: 137; label: 11.
title: “She’s your man”: Working Girl (1988)
pagenum: 144; label: 12.
title: “Not like in the movies”: Postcards from the Edge (1990)
pagenum: 155; label: 13.
title: “Say when”: Regarding Henry (1991)
pagenum: 170; label: 14.
title: “What God meant”: Wolf (1994)
pagenum: 183; label: 15.
title: “Family values”: The Birdcage (1996)
pagenum: 192; label: 16.
title: “True believerism”: Primary Colors (1998)
pagenum: 201; label: 17.
title: “Like a human being”: What Planet Are You From? (2000)
pagenum: 216; label: Part IV.
title: The Late Nichols; label: 18.
title: “A little allegory of the soul”: Wit (2001)
pagenum: 225; label: 19.
title: “Threshold of revelation”: Angels in America (2003)
pagenum: 236; label: 20.
title: “RU4 real?”: Closer (2004)
pagenum: 273; label: 21.
title: “We’ll see”: Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)
pagenum: 286; label: Part V.
title: Among the Stars; label: 22.
title: Tempered Optimism: The Cinematic Legacy of Mike Nichols
pagenum: 297; title: Filmography
pagenum: 309; title: Chapter Notes
pagenum: 313; title: Bibliography
pagenum: 323; title: Index
pagenum: 327