I know it's not for everybody, but "Postcards from the Edge" is one of my favorite films. Nichols just seemed to bring out the best in his actors, something raw and vulnerable. So glad he made movies that I now get to watch.
Mike Nichols and his family would most likely have been murdered in the Holocaust if they hadn’t fled Germany (as were my own father’s first wife and young children). It boggles the mind to think of the wonderful talents as well as ordinary lives that perished.
I agree. So many jews are smart and creative and inventive. We will never know the contributation they could have made. That is true of everything though. Watch a doc called Harry and Snowman to see what i mean. As a teen Harry w/his father saved jews and servicemen in Holland from the Nazis. He also saved starving horses the Nazis left behind (1000). He came to the US and saved a plowhorse destined for slsughter by buying him off a killers truck for 80.00. He turned the horse into a world class jumper. A lovely movie.
I met him around 25 years ago when he was directing "Death and the Maiden" on Broadway. I did not see the show but was passing by the theater as a weekend matinee had just ended, and lots of people were waiting at the stage door to hopefully see Glenn Close, Richard Dreyfuss or Gene Hackman. None of them came out but Nichols did and signed autographs. As he signed my piece of paper, I told him, "I loved 'Gilda Live.'" No reaction. Then I said, "I loved 'Heartburn.'" He looked at me, totally amused, and said, "You like the obscure ones." "No," I said. "'The Graduate' was good."
It doesn't appear as though it flopped at the box office, either. Budget of $25 million and it grossed $43 million domestically, which seems to indicate that it turned a modest profit.
I stood in line for 3 hrs to get a good seat to see the Graduate. It was truly worth it. I was only 18 but I knew I was seeing something very special. Having gone to the movies at least once a week since a little kid (my parents didn't believe in babysitters) I saw everything from the Creature From the Black Lagoon to Goldfinger. The Graduate is a treasure🍷
As far as brain injury patients go, Regarding Henry is the very closest any healthy person can get to understanding just how hard brain injury is to do any sort of recovering from. That movie shows everything from the patient’s point of view, and how pain truly isn’t as therapeutic as healthy people think. The suffering from nerve damage is lifelong, affects every area of your body, and is a relentlessness that you somehow become adapted to and work with.
@@lisarice4402 oh my gosh Lisa, you worded so clearly my experience. And it's invisible to most people, the subtleties and the constance. In my case, my family is very patient and sweet and we say my daughter has a learned brain injury because she is so sensitive to the way I think and can translate it to the world. Bless you my friend, I rewatched Regarding Henry before I wrote you, in the movie.... I forgot, one of the "benefits" of my wound is I can't lie to myself. I wasn't so much like the main character before but I was sarcastic and cynical and those qualities are no more available to me. Thank you for responding. Keeping your well being and kindness in my thoughts.❤️
Rebekah - thank you for the positive comments. As you know, dealing with brain injury is very hard work no matter how severe or how “mild” your brain is injured. What matters is getting excellent rehab so you can bring yourself to the strongest point its ever been. Some days are good and some you don’t get out of bed - you still wake up and nothing is better than that 😉 !!
I only know him for "Wit", starring Emma Thompson, which is one of my favorite films of all time. I've long wanted to watch "The Graduate", but I had no idea that it was his, too. Wow.
Thanks for the reference. Very funny. Her talking about the open ended final scene of The Graduate and other stories supports the idea that it influenced the similar ending scene of The Heartbreak Kid (1972).
“Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me. Aren’t you?” A legendary movie with a unique and slightly unfinished ending- his style, his magic, and his greatness of film. Miss you, Mike.
They touched on his Broadway work but overlooked one of the most famous shows of all time. In 1977 Mr. Nichols teamed up with the producing team of a fledgling new show coming out of a regional theater in Connecticut and nurtured it to Broadway and a Tony Award for Best Musical and instant classic status. Bet your bottom dollar, that show was ANNIE.
From "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" to "The Birdcage." And so much else in between. At the top of his profession both on Broadway and in Hollywood. Never has there been an American director with such range.
Nichols is an inspiration to every person who wasn't born with good looks. His ability to triumph, with only his enormous talent and intelligence is a testament for everyone to consider. For further insight into the man, look at Carly Simon's book, "Touched by the Sun." Nichols had big problems in his adult life not covered here by Mo Rocca.
@@flannerymonaghan-morris4825 Well, not a grotesque ogre by any means, but he didn't hold a candle to pretty boys like Robert Redford or Warren Beatty.
Although I was an Arts And Letters major in college, I never felt I had the "art gene", sort of like being color blind. But I saw "Carnal Knowledge", and it was pitched artistically right where I was: not too arty so that it went over my head, but arty enough that it was intriguing and great overall. It might be my favorite movie.
We were lucky enough to have third row seats for Nichols and. May. It was a glorious series of skits- the bereaved busband at the funeral parlor as Elaine helpfully offers him funeral music “the philharmonic” or for $120 a high school senior singing Blues in the Night
My mom turned me onto Nichols &May in the 50s, And love them ever since, I didn’t know that they made the birdcage til recently, But not surprised. One of my all-time favorites, Just wish My mom had lived long enough to see it, God she would have loved it!
I slipped into the movie "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf" when I was about ten years old ...when I went in I was a boy when I came out...I felt like a man....I had never seen anything like that before on screen...but I knew people like that in real life!!! At that time I had never heard of. Elizabeth Taylor or Richard Burton...but in that movie they seemed like they were playing themselves ( truth is stranger than fiction)...This man made one of the most Iconic movies of all times. (" The Graduate "was great also)... Genius at work....Thank you Sir!!!
We saw the Broadway production Yes wifb Arthur Hill and Uta Hagen. and it was stunning. That was the same season O’Neill’s “Lomg Day’s Journey into Night” also began its Broadway run. Mike Nichols took every actor in the film version to an even more intense errformance. with inspired camera work.
Thank you Mike Nichols... "It is natural for the heart and spirit to take pleasure and enjoyment in all things that show forth symmetry, harmony, and perfection. For instance: a beautiful house, a well designed garden, a symmetrical line, a graceful motion, a well written book,..." ~ Abdul-Baha, Baha'i Faith
Great, diverse director (though John Leguizamo had a funny anecdote about pissing in his cappuccino machine when he was snide to him when John played a mugger in the film Regarding Henry).
I had no idea that Nichols had directed Whoopi's one woman show. I really loved her doing that and it is my favorite of her work. It is a shame that you never see or hear of it much anymore.
they don't make that quality of movies, these new age directors simply can't. Just rewatched Closer yesterday. Saw it when it came out in the cinema as well.
*I disagree over "Catch-22" being a 'failure' or a 'flop'* *I was not a 'huge Hit' as "The Graduate" was...but the under-tones of 'WW-2' were not 'ancient history' and 'Middle-America' did not appreciate the irony and sarcasm involved in fighting a war where you could just as easily die from someone's mistake as you could from battle, and people don't like being reminded of such things* ( The 'under 30's 'got it' & the 'over 40's' did not) *Nichol's family escape from Germany just prior to the outbreak of the War in '39 was worthy of a movie of it's own since such escapes were extremely difficult even with masses of bribes involved because money would paid to 'this one' and 'that one' and still be arrested and detained at any time, anywhere in Europe*
Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! For the Lord, the Most High, is terrible, a great king over all the earth. He subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet. He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom he loves.
