Mike Nichols
5 titles · american classical
George and Martha invite a younger couple back after a faculty party and spend the night using them as ammunition, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? barely leaves the house. Nichols came from theatre and the films keep its virtues: performers given room, dialogue as the weapon, a small cast in a confined space. The Graduate has a young man with no plans and an older woman with an arrangement, and the famous last shot lets the smiles fade to nothing.
Signature
- Theatrical construction: few characters, long scenes, cruel talk.
- Actors given the frame and trusted with it.
- Comedy that turns without warning.
- Endings that withhold reassurance.
fit
Lineage
Earlier films these works draw on, and the films they went on to shape — each link checked to name a film that actually came first.