Read instead…in Print

”I liked the theater very much.
But movies were where you could watch and not be you.
You could be a lot of other people. I liked that.”

Read instead…in print #27

Mike Nichols: A Life, by Mark Harris. An intimate and sincere account of a life, of making movies, of success and failure alike. A rich portrait of the man, the artist the self-made myth, a complex, complicated and consequential figure of the world of theater and film. But it’s the making movies part that fascinates me the most, the creative collaboration with Elaine May, the ups and downs of the creative process of an original, how each movie came to be, the stories within, the way everything was a collaborative craft. The movies, the way it used to be. The only way. Mike Nichols meant making movies, not business, and, my God, doesn’t that make all the difference!

”It’s only when rehearsals start, and the characters
begin to be people, that I see what’s happening
and what has to be made stronger.
That’s when I begin to have my ideas.”

Read instead… in print is about a good book about cinema or filmmakers. No discursive, pretentious analyses, no verbose scrutiny. Because the idea is to invite you to read the book, not read about it here. But instead of using social media, I use my journal. Back to basics. Take it as a wish to break free of over-reliance on social media (even if it’s just for posting a photo of a good book) for presenting my work, cultural finds and interests. These are things to be enjoyed as stand-alone pieces in a more substantial and meaningful way than showing them in the black hole of Instagram thronged with an audience with a short attention span. This is also a look through my voluminous collection of books about film that I use as research in my adamant decision to rely less and less on the online and more on more on print materials.