Download Mike Nichols and the Cinema of Transformation by J. W. Whitehead PDF

By J. W. Whitehead

Mike Nichols burst onto the yankee cultural scene within the past due Fifties as one half the comedian cabaret staff of Nichols and should. He turned a Broadway directing sensation, then moved directly to Hollywood, the place his first films--Who's terrified of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and The Graduate (1967)--earned a complete of 20 Academy Award nominations. Nichols received the 1968 Oscar for most sensible Director and later joined the rarefied EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) membership. He made many different American cinematic classics, together with Catch-22 (1970), Carnal wisdom (1971), Silkwood (1983), operating lady (1988), Postcards from the sting (1990), and his past due masterpieces for HBO, Wit (2001) and Angels in the United States (2003). Filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and Steven Soderbergh regard him with reverence. this primary full-career retrospective examine of this protean strength within the American arts starts off with the roots of his filmmaking in satirical comedy and Broadway theatre and devotes separate chapters to every of his 20 function movies. Nichols' everlasting achievements are his critique of the ways that tradition constructs conformity and his tempered optimism approximately individuals' liberation by means of transformative awakening.

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It’s a shame, though, that the auteurists have treated so much of the work of these and other directors so dismissively. Whatever the reason (or reasons), it’s also a shame that Walsh remains one of classic Hollywood’s best-kept secrets. Yet, despite his low profile today, the growing interest both in noir crime dramas and the darker post-war westerns is leading more people to learn about the “underrated” master who excelled in these genres, particularly during the 1940s. With their stark, gritty takes on the world, these films are a far cry from the genteel Victorian sensibility of Walsh’s mentor, D.

Never have I seen such beauty, a naked kind of beauty,” Wellman said years later as he recalled viewing the rushes for the first time. “Bill [Clothier] and I saw the first print back from the lab. ”11 Unfortunately for Jack Warner—whose studio was paying the bills— 1. The Darkening West 37 these rushes provoked a decidedly different emotion. ” 12 k “American cinema has always been full of oddballs charging into environs no one else anywhere on the planet would go near,” Josh Anderson noted in his article about Wellman’s later westerns.

Finally, a subject Wellman explored repeatedly during his career is justice and judgment. What responsibility, if any, do we as individuals or as a society have in addressing economic and social injustices? We see this idea explored in films such as Beggars of Life (1928), Heroes for Sale (1932), and Wild Boys of the Road (1933). And who decides what’s just and what’s unjust, and ultimately who is entitled to pass judgment on people accused of crimes or socially unacceptable behavior? Wellman films that make these issues the essence of the action range from Frisco Jenny to Midnight Mary (1933) to Ox-Bow, to Yellow Sky (1948).

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