Index. A lovingly obsessive tribute to Mike Nichols, by Elaine May / Elaine May: Chronology -- Mike Nichols: Filmography -- Elaine May: Filmography -- Profile: A tilted insight / Richard Brody -- Elaine May: Q&A about her play / Richard F. Shepard -- The cold loneliness of it all / Vincent Canby -- Mike Nichols: director as star / Mel Gussow -- Whatever happened to Elaine May? / Thomas Thompson -- Elaine May has a thing on not talking to press: nonlinear interview with Elaine May / Joyce Haber -- It depends on how you look at it / Barry Day -- On location with Catch-22 / Nora Ephron -- How to succeed in interviewing Elaine May (try, really try) / Frank Rich -- Elaine May: too tough for Hollywood? or, the Benadryl Tapes / Michael Rivlin (interview by Leonard Probst) -- Elaine May: a new film, but not a New Leaf / Andrew Tobias -- Mike Nichols / Jeffrey Sweet -- Mike Nichols: the special risks and rewards of the director's art / Barbara Gelb -- Did Mike Nicholas squander his luck on Heartburn? / Paul Rosenfield -- The road to Ishtar: how Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, and Elaine May made a farce in the desert for just $40 million / David Blum -- Mike Nichols: a new feeling about films / Charles Champlin -- Nichols, May honored by TV, radio museum / Jane Hall -- Who's afraid of the big bad Wolf? / Peter Biskind -- They all have a secret / Patrick Goldstein -- Of metaphors and purpose: an interview with Mike Nichols / Gavin Smith -- City of angels / David Ansen and Marc Peyser -- Elaine May in conversation with Mike Nichols / Mike Nichols -- Elaine May salutes Mike Nichols at the AFI Life Achievement Award / Elaine May -- Blind camels, idiot execs, and five other Ishtar revelations from director Elaine May / S. T. VanAirsdale -- Who's afraid of Nichols and May? / Sam Kashner -- A lovingly obsessive tribute to Mike Nichols, by Elaine May / Richard Brody -- Additional interviews and profiles -- Index.
Summary:
"In the late 1950s, Mike Nichols (1931-2014) and Elaine May (b. 1932) soared to superstar status as a sketch comedy duo in live shows and television. After their 1962 breakup, both went on to long and distinguished careers in other areas of show business-mostly separately, but sporadically together again. In Nichols and May: Interviews, twenty-seven interviews and profiles ranging over more than five decades tell their stories in their own words. Nichols quickly became an A-list stage and film director, while May, like many women in her field, often found herself thwarted in her attempts to make her distinctive voice heard in projects she could control herself. Yet, in recent years, Nichols's work as a filmmaker has been perhaps unfairly devalued, while May's accomplishments, particularly as a screenwriter and director, have become more appreciated, leading to her present widespread acceptance as a groundbreaking female artist and a creative genius of and for our time. Nichols gave numerous interviews during his career, and editor Robert E. Kapsis culled hundreds of potential selections to include in this volume the most revealing and those that focus on his filmmaking career. May, however, was a reluctant interview subject at best. She often subverted the whole interview process, producing instead a hilarious parody or even a comedy sketch-with or without the cooperation of the sometimes-oblivious interviewer. With its contrasting selection of interviews conventional and oddball, this volume is an important contribution to the study of the careers of Nichols and May"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.