Mike Nichols and the Cinema of Transformation
(0 vote)Average rating:
| 0 | rating |  = We can do without |
| 0 | rating |  = Good book |
| 0 | rating |  = Excellent book |
| 0 | rating |  = Unique / a reference |
Your rating: -
Book Presentation:
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.
About the Author:
J.W. Whitehead directs the fine arts and honors programs at Wheeling Jesuit University in Wheeling, West Virginia, where he teaches film, creative writing, and contemporary literature.
Press Reviews:
"highly recommended…a must"—Examiner.com.
See the publisher website: McFarland & Co
See the complete filmography of Mike Nichols on the website: IMDB ...
> From the same author:
Appraising The Graduate (2011)
The Mike Nichols Classic and Its Impact in Hollywood
Subject: One Film > The Graduate
> On a related topic:
Life isn't everything (2020)
Mike Nichols, as remembered by 150 of his closest friends.
by Ash Carter and Sam Kashner
Subject: Director > Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols (2015)
Sex, Language, and the Reinvention of Psychological Realism
by Kyle Stevens
Subject: Director > Mike Nichols
Cocktails with George and Martha (2025)
Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Subject: One Film > Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Seduced by Mrs. Robinson (2017)
How The Graduate Became the Touchstone of a Generation
by Beverly Gray
Subject: One Film > The Graduate
Pictures at a Revolution (2009)
Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood
by Mark Harris
Subject: Countries > United States
The Oneiric in the Films of David Lynch (2026)
A Phenomenological Approach
Subject: Director > David Lynch
Back
