Mike Nichols

The Cuomo proxy (Ozio--wants to snipe from his ivory tower; we only see his son) and Tsongas proxy (Harris--a heart attack stands in for Tsongas's health issues) are in the film. Wasn't sure if the Daisy Green character was Myers or Mandy Grunwald. I couldn't match Picker (Hagman) either. He's more like Fred Thompson a decade too early. The film doesn't have a Perot...never read the book.

cuomo's an interesting figure, it would be ridiculous to start a thread about him but curious about how ppl who are old enough to have 'been there' (both of you lol) remember him or felt about him at the time. most of my memories of him are tied to his possible presidential campaigns and hamlet like agonizing over them, that he was against the death penalty when this was not popular, the enmity w/ koch, that he from the 84 convention speech at least on this last best hope for liberalism, that his running/not running meant something different than the other hamlets of the time (nunn, bradley) who were more new democrats, and that he was enough of a titan in 92 that his running would've somewhat cleared the field but by 94 he was able to get swept out of office by the likes of george pataki. plus phil hartman in this - http://snltranscripts.jt.org/91/91edebate.phtml

My aunt, conservative to her toenails, admitted a couple years ago that his '84 convention speech was the greatest she'd ever heard. "I didn't believe a word of it," she said, "but it was powerful." It's on YouTube; maybe I'll watch it later. I wonder if its reviews reflect voter dissatisfaction with Mondale or hearing a Democrat in the Reagan era air his liberalism for the last time without apology.

Pretty sure I watched that speech, but only a dim memory. I remember the party and media getting a little impatient with the Hamlet evasiveness in '92. I found him somewhat intrusive in Ken Burns baseball film two years later--his visibility as a politician seemed to be the sole reason he was there (he had a bit of minor-league experience).

Joe Klein, who wrote that book, was a NY Mag columnist notorious for predicting that Do the Right Thing would cause riots.

The late great Doug Ireland said, "Mario Cuomo is the only politician who hides behind his own candor.”

Such a lotta jabber over a mediocre movie; I guess destined to be Elaine May's last writing credit.

Stayed up till 2 to watch Carnal Knowledge last night. I've seen it four or five times over the years. I think most of it's pretty good; not much to look at, and talky, but I like the performers--even Garfunkel's non-acting and Kael's bête noire, Candice Bergen. The last two scenes, Nicholson's slide show (and Carol Kane's reaction) and Rita Moreno's scene, are amazing and depressing.

VF has this oral history of him in its October issue — I thought it was good.
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/09/remembering-director-mike-nichols

No idea why I went to see Virginia Woolf at the Lightbox. It's like a Pavlovian response--things like that turn up on the schedule, I order a ticket. I'd already seen it two or three times without really warming to it, and tonight it especially seemed like an ordeal. Impressive, I guess, but possibly the blueprint for a number of grotesque films I've hated over the years.

a landmark of American theatre

so Nichols and Richard Avedon had a running thing. I guess MN was the guy to adapt Albee and Kushner after all.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/avedon-biography-provides-sex-art-beauty-and-the_us_5a32b6bbe4b028728a884b1b

from Criterion Current

Last month, when theater and film critic John Simon died at the age of ninety-four, New York magazine’s Christopher Bonanos wrote that “John was, in his prime, probably the most notorious critic alive.” And if you’re at all familiar with Simon’s work and reputation, you’ll appreciate the understatement. Earlier this month, the New York Times ran a review—a rare upbeat one—by Simon of the oral history Life Isn’t Everything: Mike Nichols, as Remembered by 150 of His Closest Friends. “Ash Carter, a writer and editor, and Sam Kashner, the author or co-author of several books, have skillfully handled things in fourteen chapters and a coda,” wrote Simon, who admired Nichols and his work.

Carter and Kashner talk about their book on a recent NYT Book Review podcast: “Elaine May was the dangerous genius that entered Mike Nichols’s life and changed him,” says Kashner. And Carter adds: “She was kind of the combustion engine, and he was the steering wheel.” A few weeks ago, Michael Schulman gathered Cynthia Nixon, Christine Baranski, Glenn Close, and Whoopi Goldberg, all of whom are interviewed for the book, to reminisce a little more about their time with Nichols for the New Yorker.

links here

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6741-december-books

So I got the oral bio Life Isn’t Everything (ment'd above) from the library, and it's a v breezy read if you like showbiz stories.

Gene Hackman was fired from playing Mr Robinson after a week of shooting!

A key episode of Mad Men, the first one of the second half of the last season, is dedicated to Nichols. Just timing--it aired right after his death.

Closer is on HBO Now, Natalie Portman still completely unbelievable as an erotic dancer.

George Segal said that on the Woolf set, some guy would bring a pair of Bloody Marys for the Burtons every day at 5pm, and that meant shooting was over. And Liz would not show up til 10am. "Those were the days!"

There's a new biography by Mark Harris, who wrote the excellent Pictures at a Revolution--will buy this for sure, as soon as the price comes down a bit.

https://images3.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9780399562242

Fantastic extract here; I wasn’t expecting the ‘happy ending’ as I didn’t know much about him and Diane Sawyer. Harris is such a great storyteller.

https://www.vulture.com/amp/article/mike-nichols-a-life-mark-harris-excerpt.html

Read a chunk at the bookstore last week -- quite entertaining

I know someone who actually interviewed Nichols at his home for some television program. I never saw it when it aired but I remember talking about what that was like and Nichols sounded wonderful. Apparently he hadn't lost a step since his Nichols & May days because he turned everyone into his straight man - that is, you'd say something innocuous and he'd respond with his quick and hilarious wit every single time. (Like one person would say "you have a beautiful home" and he'd say "I had a beautiful home!" referencing the mess they made to set up his interview. He made a similar joke again when he had to do something like flip a switch, not realizing they had torn it out for some weird electrical reason, and he told them "look at this! It's like rape!") When someone told him the air date, he replied "oh good, I'll be dead by then." (He was more or less healthy but already quite old.)

Anyway, he used to appear at a lot of screenings around NYC, and when I managed to catch a few, he really was like that, not to mention intelligent and articulate. To be brutally honest, I'm not the biggest fan of his films - they're not bad at all, but a lot of them are underwhelming to me - and it's frustrating because I feel like he was capable of much better work given how sharp and insightful he was in person. If you can find them, look for his Lincoln Center talk with Elaine May on Ishtar (I think it was from the late '00s) and also his MoMA talk with Judd Apatow (from the '10s). The transcript for the former was on Lincoln Center's website for a long time, and a recording of the latter was available somewhere on MoMA's site.

He also made an appearance for a Lincoln Center screening of Carnal Knowledge around 2011 - except for one joke, what he had to say wasn't as memorable as the other appearances. (He insisted that New York City had become a much nicer town. "You should have seen it before! It was like PARIS!" The way he emphasized "Paris" was hilarious.) But Jason Reitman moderated and a ton of filmmakers like Noah Baumbach and Lena Dunham (before Girls) were all in the audience. (Which reminds me, Paul Rudd and some others were at the MoMA talk as audience members.) I'm not exactly a fan of every one of those filmmakers, but it kind of says a lot when you have these young, high-profile figures dropping by to listen to someone in his 80's who hadn't made a film in 5 years and never would again.

And no one voted for Angels in America? I finally caught up with it and was really impressed - it may be a TV series but it's probably the best film directing he's ever done.

I posted positively about it in a thread for the movie. (I said I loved the music in one post; honestly don't remember anything about the soundtrack a few years later.)

When I looked up Giuseppe Rotunno, who died a day or two ago, I noticed he shot Carnal Knowledge. Another film I like, though I remember it having kind of a dingy, washed-out look.

Good man. Yeah, Rotunno shot a few others for Nichols too. I actually wasn't a fan of Carnal Knowledge. The acting was good (usually is in Nichols's films), but I found the whole thing off-putting.

I'm reading the bio. This killed me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJtUtF2gxK4

enjoyed seeing Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? again

much acting drunk

Impressive stretch for Taylor & Burton

Segal and Dennis were also pretty good

What is the best opening title sequence you've seen in a movie?

WORKING GIRL is a great one. https://t.co/Uiq8pTNhob pic.twitter.com/NhJlCgiUAC

— Jackson Boren (@JacksonBoren) February 21, 2024

"Working Girl" seems to have been forgotten, but boy, not only is this opening title sequence great, it reminded me of all the shit *I* forgot about, especially the cast. Besides Griffith and Weaver and Ford (in one of his best performances), there's Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack, Oliver Platt, Nora Dunn, Kevin Spacey (?), Olympia Dukakis, Ricki Lake, songs by Carly Simon. Michael Ballhaus was the DP. (And Griffith was reportedly gacked out on cocaine the entire shoot.)

Its gender politics and reliance on screwball conventions were naff even in 1988, but, yes, I saw it again last summer and the Griffith-Ford and (especially) Griffith-Weaver exchanges are gold.

yeah I watched it for the first time last year and there's a lot to like about it

I wish Weaver had played more comedy.

Yeah, she works really well in ensembles, like in "Ghostbusters" or "The Ice Storm" or "Galaxy Quest."

This is great

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/harrison-ford-melanie-griffith-working-girl-oral-history-1164247/amp/

WEAVER Sam O’Steen came in every day to see Mike. He was his editor and would tell Mike what shots he needed for each scene. We were never there agonizing or spending a lot of time on how to shoot something. One of the most fun things I got to do was speak German when I’m calling Helmut about the reservation, standing there in my little ski boots. Mike had given me the German a couple of nights before. The accent was so over the top and outrageous. One of my lines was, “Did you tell him it was me?” That’s sort of Katherine’s MO through the whole thing, you know? Separate rules for me, please.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nyba4TMiJk