S8: Mitch Hampton Trio Concert, Summer into Fall

Inside this Episode with your host, Mitch HamptonWith this exciting new publication of a book, Hollywood Renegade, Todd Berliner has for the first time in his career put the focus on one particular artist and one of her movies - Elaine May and Mikey And Nicky. I have been a fan of the film for as long as I have known it; while not as fortunate to have seen the initial debut in 1975 I saw the more famous rerelease in the mid 1980s. Berliner has been one of our leading scholars of film and I can't think of anybody better to write on this particular subject. Like the spirit of our podcast overall he sees movies as an art form more than anything else and accordingly gives that kind of care and attention to May's unique film, unique even for a decade that was and is defined for uniqueness. I've seen thousands of movies, possibly hundreds of 70s movies and I have never seen a film like Mikey And Nicky and there are few movies in fact from any era as good as it is. It was a joy to discuss this with Berliner and his book and upcoming in person introductions for screenings in New York, North Carolina and elsewhere gives me hope for the future of film and art in general.About his new, wonderful book :  Hollywood Renegade Elaine May, Mikey and Nicky, and the Making of a MasterpieceExamines 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 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.Links to his many amazing  books, socials*Books Linked HereMore on Professor BerlinerTodd Berliner is Professor of Film Studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he teaches film aesthetics, narration, and style, and American film history. He is the author of HOLLYWOOD INCOHERENT: NARRATION IN SEVENTIES CINEMA (University of Texas Press, 2010), HOLLYWOOD AESTHETIC: PLEASURE IN AMERICAN CINEMA (Oxford University Press, 2017), and HOLLYWOOD RENEGADE: ELAINE MAY, MIKEY AND NICKY, AND THE MAKING OF A MASTERPIECE (University of Texas Press, 2026). Professor Berliner was the founding chair of UNCW’s Film Studies Department and the recipient of two Fulbright Scholar awards, including the prestigious Distinguished Chair Award, Fulbright's highest honor. He holds masters and doctorate degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.