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Q&A: Frank Rich on the Role of the Unconscious in “Becoming Mike Nichols”

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Before his death in 2014 at the age of 83, Mike Nichols was developing an HBO film version of Terrence McNally’s “Master Class” that was to star Meryl Streep. The movie never came to fruition, but in its stead comes a different kind of “master class” with the legendary director as its subject: HBO’s “Becoming Mike Nichols,” directed by Doug McGrath, which debuts on Monday, February 22.Just months before his passing, Mike Nichols sat down with his good friend and fellow director Jack O’Brien for a series of casual and intimate conversations at the Golden Theatre. Fifty-five years ago, that same house hosted the smash hit, “An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May,” the apex in the career of a groundbreaking improvisational comedy team. The documentary casts a fond look back at this beginning, after which Nichols would embark on an astonishing, award-winning career that would encompass directing Broadway smash hits, stellar television specials, and such classic films as “The Graduate” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”   “Becoming Mike Nichols” is the brainchild of Frank Rich, the co-executive producer of HBO’s political comedy “Veep” and the former first-string theater critic for The New York Times. Its genesis was sparked when his wife, the writer Alex Witchel, was seated at a dinner party next to O’Brien, who expressed concern that Nichols, then ailing, would die without a record of his expansive creativity since he refused to write a memoir.In “Becoming Mike Nichols,” O’Brien’s incisive interviews, interspersed with film clips, evince a man with nothing to lose and much to convey with his treasure trove of stories and subtle, often self-effacing, sense of humor. At times, he calls himself both “a prick” and “a darling” in dealing with his collaborators.Rich recently spoke with ARTINFO about this quintessentially American artist, born Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky in 1931 Berlin, who arrived in this country at age seven knowing only two phrases: “I don’t speak English” and  “Please don’t kiss me.” Is the title “Becoming Mike Nichols” a clue as to your focus on a career of such extraordinary breadth and depth?  Yes, but it was a sort of a found object. What we discovered when we filmed three fairly lengthy sessions in July of 2014 was that Mike really wanted to talk about the early stuff. He was proudest of his early work. And I do think that careers in America, particularly show business careers, the first act is the most exciting and exhilarating. That’s really where Mike steered us and it inspired this idea of the portrait of the artist as a young man.In speaking about his improvisational work with Elaine May, Nichols says, “We learned to revere the unconscious,” a subject he returns to in talking about “The Graduate.” What did he mean? Well, sad to say, he could answer the question better than I can. But what I understood him to be saying is you can’t just summon the unconscious like a flame to do what you want. You go by gut instinct to a certain extent. You can rehearse and do all the mechanics of filmmaking but in the end, if it’s clicking, all of you is coming into play without you being able to articulate it at the time. That’s often the way it works in art. At a certain point, actors or directors have a gut instinct to twist or turn something at the last minute that seems to come from someplace other than the literal mechanics of script or story. It doesn’t happen all the time and Mike would be the first to say some of his projects didn’t have that extra spark.Is it possible to define a “Nichols style” or “aesthetic”? It’s a style with tremendous care with the text. “The Graduate” went through three screenwriters before Mike got what he wanted from Buck Henry. He cast his actors extremely well and he had a sympathy and rapport with them whether you’re talking about the Burtons [“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”] or Dustin Hoffman in “The Graduate” or Walter Matthau and Art Carney in “The Odd Couple.” Some of this comes from his stated hero, [director] Elia Kazan. But Kazan had a more distinctive cinematic style, the kind of neo-realism sweeping through European cinema as well.  Mike’s style of filmmaking was more in the tradition of classic Hollywood, a cinematic bravura in the classy old school of [George] Cukor and[Howard] Hawks and the romantic comedy period of the 30s and 40s.Nichols notes that George Stevens’s “A Place in the Sun” taught him everything he needed to know about filmmaking. Stevens did great work in all sorts of genres — musicals, dramas and classic screwball comedy — and so did Mike. He did “Working Girl” but also “Angels in America,” “Silkwood,” “Virginia Woolf” and “Heartburn.” He even produced a Broadway musical or two.  [“Annie”.]In the film Buck Henry, a classmate at Dalton’s private school, said that Nichols was then “an outsider in every possible way.” Did this fuel his creativity? I think Mike had the ability of standing outside and looking in and it really served him well. I find it very hard to watch “The Graduate” without thinking that at some level, Dustin Hoffman’s performance as Benjamin reflects Mike’s point of view. He’s a bystander to his own life. That’s very much Mike the immigrant who came to America and didn’t know English when he arrived. He has that outsider’s view and a sardonic tone, which he has in common with other Hollywood directors, Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder among them.   Is it surprising that Nichols thought of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple” as the playwright’s best and among the best — if not the best — of all his own work?I agree with both. I was fortunate enough as a teenager to see Mike’s original production of “The Odd Couple” in Washington, D.C. as they repeatedly worked on it. To this day the first act of “The Odd Couple” is nonpareil in the history of Broadway comedy.  When people think of “The Odd Couple,” they think of the movie or the TV series that Mike had nothing to do with. But in the original, Art Carney brought a quality to it that has never been realized since, that you thought Felix might kill himself — not in a histrionic way but a comic way — because he was so upset that his wife left him. It’s no wonder that Mike was later attracted to directing Chekhov, because it added a kind of tragedy to the comedy that was overwhelming. Another thing I remember vividly was that during the poker game — and I don’t know how they did it — but someone opened a beer can and the beer spritzed in an arc across the entire length of the stage!What are your personal favorites of his work? So much to choose from, but in the theater, the aforementioned “The Odd Couple,” his version of “The Real Thing,” and his production of “Death of A Salesman.” In movies, “The Graduate,” “Carnal Knowledge,” and “Angels in America.” Most adaptations of great American plays are pretty bad but three that have succeeded are “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “Virginia Woolf,” and “Angels in America.”Given the extensive research, what did you learn about Nichols that you may not have known before?I found the whole issue of the subconscious and the role it played in his direction and career in general fascinating. Another thing that really struck me was his affection for Elaine May. It’s no secret they were close friends but the way he talks about her and re-creates their careers together: the way they ended Nicholas and May of their own volition, the play she wrote for him to star in which flopped,  the temporary disillusionment in their relationship that put him on the path to being a director. I found that all very compelling and touching and the somewhat unexpected subplot of “Becoming Mike Nichols.”

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