Mike Nichols : sex, language, and the reinvention of psychological realism

273 Pages·2015·3.641 MB·English

by  Stevens, Kyle

Mike Nichols

Mike Nichols: Sex, Language,
and the Reinvention of 
Psychological Realism
Kyle Stevens
1
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stevens, Kyle.
Mike Nichols : sex, language, and the reinvention of psychological realism / Kyle Stevens.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–19–937580–6 (cloth) — ISBN 978–0–19–937581–3 (pbk.) 1. Nichols, Mike—
Criticism and interpretation. I. Title.
PN1998.3.N54S84 2015
791.4302ʹ33092—dc23
2015000087
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For James, with whom I can be silent,
and without whom I would be

{ Contents }
List of Figures  ix
Acknowledgments  xi
Introduction: Mike Nichols and the Politics of Character  1
1. Nothing Goes Unheard: Nichols and May, Improvisation,
and the Skewing of Language  27
2. Nichols’ Comedy of Remarriage  53
3. The Graduate and the Subversion of Silence  85
4. Carnal Knowledge: The Close-Up, Duration,
and Affective Impotence  113
5. The Minds of Chameleons: Nichols and Streep  150
Conclusion: Nichols’ Cinema of Conversation  187
Notes  203
Bibliography  227
Index  243

{ List of Figures }
I.1 Primary Colors asks us to pay close attention to gestures from the
start by scrutinizing the political implications of different kinds
of handshakes.  19
1.1 “Teenagers,” the sketch that first propelled Nichols and May to
stardom, mocks American middle-class sexual mores and the
conflicting gendered attitudes that subtend them. 36
2.1 George and Martha cannot escape the debris that clutters
their home.  60
2.2 Honey listens, awaiting her cue to reenter the scene.  63
2.3 We will never know whether or not George recounts the facts
of his childhood, or whether such facts exist.  64
2.4 The camera travels over the ocean, performing the immigrant’s
journey into America, identified as Miami and the diegetic The
Birdcage, as well as the film itself.  75
2.5 Armand and Albert sign palimony papers, the only legal
attachment available to them. 83
3.1 Ben’s scuba mask, which, by limiting his ability to see and hear his
parents, emphasizes their exaggerated address; it also emphasizes
his refusal to react, to occupy a second-person position.  100
3.2 We see only silhouettes while Ben and Mrs. Robinson talk about
not talking as it becomes increasingly clear that darkness will
not remain Ben’s “old friend.”  102
3.3 Ben fails to meet his obligation to return Elaine’s gaze.  110
4.1 Susan schools Sandy on being “an act” as Jonathan looks on, not
privy to this crucial lesson.  120
4.2 Nichols renders facial expression strange in Carnal Knowledge.
Here, Susan’s laughing face appears increasingly strange through
the shot’s frontality, static composition, and duration of over
one hundred seconds.  123
4.3 The words a spectator attributes to Vivian’s facial expression in the
opening shot of Wit determines, in part, the premise of the film.  144
4.4 In Closer, Alice, confronting her own face, contemplates the
aesthetics and politics of facial close-ups.  146
4.5 Unlike Jonathan, who has nothing to express, Louise expresses
nothing in Carnal Knowledge’s long final close-ups.  148