subscribe to this pageGavin Smith’s extensive interview with Mike Nichols on his career and his films is preceded by an honest and astute critique of the renowned filmmaker. According to Smith, Mike Nichols was a certified genius at the age of twelve and had become a “show-business legend” by the mid-1950s with his comedic collaborations with Elaine May. He entered the world of directing in 1963 when he directed Neil Simon’s play, Barefoot in the Park. In 1966, he crossed the threshold from stage to film. Nichols did not transition from stage to film slowly, but rather agreed to direct Edward Albee’s high-profile Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. His first attempt at film direction culminated in an Academy Award nomination. His second film, The Graduate (1967) proved to be an even greater success than Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The Graduate earned him an Oscar for Best Director and a nomination for Best Picture.
Smith asserts that The Graduate, arguably Nichols’ best film, was one of the first films to transform the movie-going experience in the late 1960s, causing audience members to come back for multiple viewings, which led to the creation of “The Film Generation.” The Graduate has become a “time-capsule movie,” that not only provides a historical account of a past generation and environment, but also allows for the fond reminiscence of the lifestyle and sentiments of the 1950s and 1960s. More importantly, The Graduate, according to Smith, “plugs us back into a moment in the consciousness of the American movie audience.” With The Graduate, Nichols exploits the relationship between the viewer and the screen. Viewers were suddenly forced to notice camera placement, shot duration, and the focal length of lenses through Nichols’ use of awkwardly long takes, deep setups with shallow fields of focus, purposely unfocused shots, and jarring editing. In stark contrast to the continuous editing techniques and realistic filmic styles of typical Hollywood directors, Nichols makes the audience aware of the camera and manipulates the audience’s view of the world. Nichols exploits time, space, and reality to illustrate his themes of paranoia, entrapment, emptiness, and superficiality. While Nichols has not made any other films that address the transition from boyhood into adulthood and his filmic styles and cinematic techniques have evolved, his work in The Graduate set a strong foundation for his future successes.Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1998.A3 N487
In Mike Nichols, H. Wayne Schuth traces the career of the world-renowned director through his sudden and spectacular rise to fame and his subsequent disappointments. Schuth notes the unusual nature of Nichols’ career, in that he was given the opportunity to direct a high-profile film without first having to put in any long, tedious years gaining experience in the film industry. With this initial film, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Nichols was able to establish himself as a major film director. His next film, The Graduate, produced just one year later, made him a celebrity. While Schuth concentrates on the unique and extraordinary talent that Nichols possesses as a director, he also does not hesitate to focus on the films that Nichols has directed since his first two hits. While most authors tend to ignore or downplay the disappointing performances of films such as Catch-22, Carnal Knowledge, and The Fortune, Schuth addresses these films head-on and explores why they were not well-received by audiences. Schuth looks at the poor performances of these three films in the context of Nichols’ celebrated work on Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Graduate. Schuth not only considers the films themselves, but also what Nichols has said about his intentions with each of the films, to comprehensively compare and contrast the work that Nichols did on the different films.
The Graduate is arguably Nichols’ most successful film, so Schuth spends a great deal of time analyzing Nichols’ interpretation of the story and how he translated this interpretation cinematically. Schuth focuses on three elements—color, music, and visual motif—to examine Nichols’ intentions. These three elements are used both overtly and implicitly to symbolize different meanings and to convey or provoke various sentiments. Schuth presents many innovative and perceptive interpretations regarding the themes and relationships present in the film. For example, he perceives that the “idea that sex and love are separated, with sex destructive and love constructive” appears in the film. Schuth offers an in-depth analysis of the minute details of the film as well as the larger thematic aspects that bind the film as a whole.