Nichols

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Here's an mp3 of a three-question chat with director Mike Nichols at MOMA about 45 minutes ago. He was there to kick off a two-week retrospective of his films. I began by mentioning production designer Richard Sylbert, who worked with Nichols on The Graduate, Catch 22 and Carnal Knowledge, among others. We ended by discussing The Fortune, his 1975 bomb that costarred Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty and Stockard Channing (and which Nichols says he still doesn't care for).

Diane Sawyer, Mike Nichols outside MOMA's Titus theatre prior to this evening's launch of a two-week Nichols retrospective.

My middle question was whether he'd be interested in directing that possible HBO narrative film, just announced as a possibility today, based on the 2008 election. In the same vein, I was thinking, as his work on Primary Colors.

Here's his answer: "I would never again do a movie based on real life. It's too hard. You can't find a metaphor. You have to do what happened, and you're chained to a series of facts. Or even pseudo-facts. It doesn't matter [because] it's what everybody thinks happened. And you can't examine the story and find out what the secrets are. You have to turn yourself inside out to turn it into a metaphor and make it into a movie, but it's really hard."

Both Nichols and his wife Diane Sawyer looked very well tended. I'd like to look that well-tended down the road. I wouldn't mind looking that well-tended now.

Bateman On The List<< previous | next >>Forgotten Fortune

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on April 14, 2009 at 4:34 PM

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BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey says ...

This was good. Thanks Wells.

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JD says ...

The Fortune is a strange one. The Coens claim it's one of their favorite movies and I can definitely see the influence. If anyone's looking for it, you can find a 2.35:1 DVD in the UK.

Posted by JD at April 14, 2009 5:15 PM

comment #3

frankbooth says ...

Is he okay? When did he get so thin?

Posted by frankbooth at April 14, 2009 6:18 PM

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frankbooth says ...

The commentary on Catch-22 (with Soderbergh) is very entertaining, though Nichols has forgotten quite a bit and needs a lot of prompting.

Posted by frankbooth at April 14, 2009 6:20 PM

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Shut the fuck up, DZ.

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Gordon27 says ...

"And featuring Darrell Hammond as Robert Evans..."

Posted by Gordon27 at April 14, 2009 10:51 PM

comment #8

Gordon27 says ...

"The Fortune is a strange one. The Coens claim it's one of their favorite movies and I can definitely see the influence."

I have known a few people who cited it as among the funniest movies ever made. I watched it, and I do remember that it made me laugh once, but I can't remember what the joke was. For my money, I prefer 'Ishtar' as far as Elaine May comedies go.

Posted by Gordon27 at April 14, 2009 10:53 PM

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Gordon27 says ...

D'oh! Caught myself on that one right after I hit post -- it's not Elaine May who wrote it. Maybe that's the problem, right there.

Posted by Gordon27 at April 14, 2009 10:55 PM

comment #10

TVMCCA says ...

Gordon27 wrote:
"The Fortune is a strange one. The Coens claim it's one of their favorite movies and I can definitely see the influence."

In terms of THE FORTUNE, some of the few laughs come towards the beginning, when Nicholson has a monologue about a euphemism for sanitary napkins--"mouse beds.'

To me, Dub Taylor pretty much stole the film from Warren, Jack and a badly-misused Stockard Channing.

Posted by TVMCCA at April 15, 2009 12:37 AM

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Mike Nichols is the most overrated American director of the last 40 years. Elaine May was the genius of the two and she should be the one being honored as the short body of work she has produced is way better than Nichols' entire corpus.

Posted by MilkMan at April 15, 2009 11:13 AM

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D'oh! Caught myself on that one right after I hit post -- it's not Elaine May who wrote it. Maybe that's the problem, right there

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