Mike Nichols Biography Helps Defy This Wartime – Tracey Thorn

For the past three weeks or so, I’ve been listening to Mark Harris’ audiobook Mike Nichols: a life. It took me three weeks for the audiobook to last 20 hours, which may seem like a long time, but it’s actually barely enough to contain all the action and contingencies Nichols has faced in his life.

The story of how he went from improvisational comedy to theater and then to film direction has accompanied me in my daily life these weeks, becoming a sort of motivating soundtrack: “Look, realize how much you could achieve in a single life if only you dedicated yourself to it “.

So, one cold morning, I was going to the moor with the sun glinting refracting on the blades of grass made rigid as blades by ice and in the meantime I listened to Mike – who at that time was still called Mikhail – who was only seven years old he left Berlin and went to New York to escape the Nazis, with his three-year-old brother Robert as his only company. He had lost all his hair as a result of an allergic reaction and when he arrived in the United States he couldn’t say a single word in English, but it quickly became clear that none of this was going to stop him.

The call of the cinema
As I sat on the train to Newbury, staring out the window at the fields, blurred by the rain, young Nichols teamed up with Elaine May, and together they brought modern satirical comedy to life. I hunted for photos of their shows and was blown away by their wit and comedic prowess as they impersonated a kissing couple flipping a lit cigarette from hand to hand and spinning them around behind their backs.

The next evening I was in the kitchen making risotto, using the breadbox as a support for my cell phone, and in the meantime I heard about when Nichols began directing plays collaborating with Neil Simon and collecting one hit after another on Broadway and many others. Tony award to fill the mantelpiece. Then there was the call from the cinema and so he made his way into that world as a director of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ?, a film that shocked the audience and won several Oscars: a dream that comes true, don’t you think? But with the next film, The bachelor, Nichols created the model of modern pop soundtracks using the songs of Simon and Garfunkel to bring out the scenes like no one had ever done before.

It was pouring with rain one morning and I purposely donned waterproof clothes to walk to the office – an hour’s walk through Kilburn’s water-filled streets – with Nichols’ life flowing like a raging river in my headphones. At that point in his story he had already married a couple of times, the second with Margot Callas, who had been the inspirational muse of the poet Robert Graves for writing The white goddess. The marriage didn’t last long, but Nichols wasn’t alone for long: he spent his evenings dating various women, including Gloria Steinem.

I kept listening as I walked towards the shops and felt how events began to whirl around. In the space of a few pages, Nichols discovered crack, suffered a heart attack, became addicted to sleeping pills, had a nervous breakdown during which he borrowed $ 25 million from a friend, went to rehab, or he went out and back again to shoot movies.

After a short break to recover, he got married again. With his fourth wife he finally seemed to have found happiness – cheers – but not even sentimental happiness slowed him down: he continued with movies and plays, dinners and social life until his very last minute, when he suddenly died after spending a pleasant night out.

I was almost at the end of the book when the notification with the latest news appeared on my phone. You will all imagine what it was, the moment when, once again, world events were turning for the worst: Ukraine had been invaded.

And I’m not sure why I wrote this piece about Nichols, whose life may not interest you at all. I don’t have much to say about it, other than the fact that like many of you at the moment I can’t devote my attention to anything other than war; on that subject, however, I am unable to offer any particular insights or provide new data, so I offer you a brief distraction.

In the latter period of his life, Nichols was obsessed with the thought that he had been one step away from being killed by the Nazis. And maybe he has merged all his work, love, pleasure and the ups and downs of his life together, as in some kind of… act of defiance? I want to see it like this. A good life, and a gigantic “go to hell!” to all the murderous bastards, then and now.

(Translation by Mariachiara Benini)