Examines the career and unorthodox filmmaking practices of director Elaine May, whose Mikey and Nicky, over a span of fifty years, transformed from a fiasco to a masterpiece of seventies cinema. Elaine May's Mikey and Nicky stands out in the history of Hollywood. After a troubled production, massive cost overruns, and lawsuits between May and the studio, the film received scathing reviews and failed at the box office. But the very qualities that initially alienated viewers and reviewers led later generations to regard the film as an overlooked masterpiece. Written and directed by the period's only female New Hollywood filmmaker, Mikey and Nicky has not received the attention given to other unconventional films of the 1970s. But May worked for years to give each moment of the movie multiple areas of interest. She made every character, even peripheral ones, nuanced and memorable. And she designed every scene, even minor ones, as a performance event. Her lead actors, Peter Falk and John Cassavetes, thrived under her unorthodox directing style, earning acclaim even from reviewers who hated the movie. Decades in the making-years of scriptwriting, a shoot that spanned ten months, and almost three years spent editing-Mikey and Nicky shows us what Hollywood cinema can accomplish when talented filmmakers challenge Hollywood's limited notion of professionalism, rejecting the harsh time pressures of commercial filmmaking in order to get the most out of every scene.
Todd Berliner is a professor of film studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He is the author of Hollywood Incoherent: Narration in Seventies Cinema and Hollywood Aesthetic: Pleasure in American Cinema.
List of Illustrations Preface Introduction Part I. Elaine May 1. Comedian 2. Filmmaker Part II. Mikey and Nicky's Production History 3. Seventies Misfits 4. Making, Releasing, and Rereleasing Mikey and Nicky Part III. Mikey and Nicky's Artistic Design 5. Narrative 6. Style 7. Performance Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index
"Todd Berliner's splendidly written book focuses on one remarkable movie but takes in a far broader territory, including the nature of improvisation, nuances of film acting, and the interplay between Elaine May's intensive creativity and the distinctive talents of John Cassavetes and Peter Falk. Equally important, it explores the prejudice against amateurism in mainstream cinema. Intelligent, perceptive, and eminently readable, this is a trove of ideas, insights, and intriguing behind-the-scenes details." - David Sterritt, author of Jump Cuts, Tracking Shots, and Scherzos "Todd Berliner's compelling book demonstrates how Elaine May's Mikey and Nicky became a unique document on multiple levels-oblique storytelling, indirect dialogue and subtext, and spontaneous performance-elevating it above the small gangster story at its core. Berliner shows how Elaine May, the so-called amateur, dared to pull it off." - Alexandra Seros, author of Ida Lupino, Forgotten Auteur: From Film Noir to the Director's Chair "There are cult film classics, once overlooked but now insistent in their excellence, that owe their renewed reputation to the efforts of dedicated scholars and fan researchers. With Todd Berliner, Mikey and Nicky has found its strongest advocate as he situates the film in its original moment (and beyond) with rigor and analyzes its stylistic breakthroughs (especially around acting and physical performance) with verve. An essential book on an essential film." - Dana Polan, author of Dreams of Flight: The Great Escape in American Film and Culture
