Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Cher will be some of those on hand to honor the great Mike Nichols at the American Film Institute June 10, 2010. The event is organized by Warren Beatty, Harrison Ford, Dustin Hoffman, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Robert Redford and Elizabeth Taylor. I hope Elaine May is there. Nora Ephron? Melanie Griffith maybe, and Sigourney Weaver? God willing, Emma Thompson.
Nichols has directed great films. He’s directed mediocre ones. He’s inspired generations of filmmakers. Of his body of work, most would consider The Graduate and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf at the top, followed by Carnal Knowledge, Postcards from the Edge, Silkwood and Heartburn (my guilty pleasure), Primary Colors and the glorious Angels in America.
But my favorite Mike Nichols film remains Wit for HBO. The one-woman show starring Emma Thompson as a professor dying of cancer. Or, rather, dying from the treatment of cancer. The pic remains my all-time favorite film dealing with death, and I think it’s the best thing Emma Thompson has ever done.