Overview

With iconic movies like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate, and Carnal Knowledge, Mike Nichols was the most prominent American director during the cultural upheavals of the 1960s. Mike Nichols: Sex, Language, and the Reinvention of Psychological Realism argues that he overhauled the style of psychological realism, and, in doing so, continues to shape the legacies of Hollywood cinema. It also reveals that misreadings of his films were central to foundational debates at the emergence of Cinema Studies as a discipline, inviting new reflections on critical dogma.Focusing on Nichols' classic movies, as well as later films such as Silkwood, The Birdcage, and Angels in America, Kyle Stevens demonstrates that Nichols' realism lies not in the plausibility of his characters but in their inherent mystery. By attending to the puzzling words and silences, breaths and laughter, that comprise these characters, Stevens uncovers new insights into the subversive potential of a range of cinematic elements, and reveals how Nichols' satirical oeuvre, and Hollywood itself, participated in several of the nation's most urgent social, political, and philosophical advances.

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9780199375806

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Reviews

Employing innovative conceptual models attuned to the complexities of psychological realism, language and dialogic silence, and 'chameleon' acting styles, Stevens argues incisively and convincingly for a full reassessment of Nichols' achievement and of the way critic/scholars designate cinematic auteurs. Absolutely engaging and beautifully written, Mike Nichols is intriguing every step of the way. --Timothy Corrigan, author of The Essay Film: From Montaigne, After Marker This is not just a study of Nichols--although it surely ranks as an appreciative and nuanced assessment of the late director's career. Using Nichols' films as a fulcrum, Stevens rethinks some of the central assumptions of narrative fiction film, namely its theatrical and expressive functions and roots. --Amy Villarejo, author of Ethereal Queer: Television, Historicity, Desire

Employing innovative conceptual models attuned to the complexities of psychological realism, language and dialogic silence, and 'chameleon' acting styles, Stevens argues incisively and convincingly for a full reassessment of Nichols' achievement and of the way critic/scholars designate cinematic auteurs. Absolutely engaging and beautifully written, Mike Nichols is intriguing every step of the way. --Timothy Corrigan, author of The Essay Film: From Montaigne, After Marker This is not just a study of Nichols--although it surely ranks as an appreciative and nuanced assessment of the late director's career. Using Nichols' films as a fulcrum, Stevens rethinks some of the central assumptions of narrative fiction film, namely its theatrical and expressive functions and roots. --Amy Villarejo, author of Ethereal Queer: Television, Historicity, Desire ...this clear, elegant analysis does justice to the great director... For all of Stevens's command of theory, his great gift is his close analyses of individual shots, phrases, and moments from Nichols's work. -- CHOICE Stevens's analysis proves equally illuminating when discussing the aesthetic and political role of improvisational dialogue in Nichols and [Elaine] May's sketches... -Film Quarterly This special book tells the fascinating tale of Mike Nichols, an extraordinary man who made many major contributions to the American stage and cinema as an actor and producer as well as a theater and film director...[a] mature and thoughtful rendering of the long and complicated life of Mike Nichols. No doubt others will have a go at it as well in the years ahead, but surely this book will provide much that is useful for such future efforts. --Journal of American Culture

Employing innovative conceptual models attuned to the complexities of psychological realism, language and dialogic silence, and 'chameleon' acting styles, Stevens argues incisively and convincingly for a full reassessment of Nichols' achievement and of the way critic/scholars designate cinematic auteurs. Absolutely engaging and beautifully written, Mike Nichols is intriguing every step of the way. --Timothy Corrigan, author of The Essay Film: From Montaigne, After Marker This is not just a study of Nichols--although it surely ranks as an appreciative and nuanced assessment of the late director's career. Using Nichols' films as a fulcrum, Stevens rethinks some of the central assumptions of narrative fiction film, namely its theatrical and expressive functions and roots. --Amy Villarejo, author of Ethereal Queer: Television, Historicity, Desire .. .this clear, elegant analysis does justice to the great director... For all of Stevens's command of theory, his great gift is his close analyses of individual shots, phrases, and moments from Nichols's work. -- CHOICE

Author Information

Kyle Stevens is Visiting Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies and English at Colby College.

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