Event

MIKEY AND NICKEY in 35mm

Monday, November 12 @ 7:00 PM / Music Box Theatre
MIKEY AND NICKY
Directed by Elaine May 1976
Riding high on the critical and commercial success of THE HEAERTBREAK KID, Elaine May was given the chance to write and direct a gangster story shed been contemplating for two decades. Shot in the scuzziest and least brotherly corners of Philadelphia and steeped in the desiccated dreams of its low-level hoodlums, MIKEY AND NICKEY emerged as a decidedly unromantic addition to the genre. Nicky (John Cassavetes) owes a small sum to the mafia and turns to his childhood friend Mikey (Peter Falk) to find the light at the end of the tunnel. In keeping with the rambling, low-key vibe, even the hired gun tracking them down (Ned Beatty) looks more like a cheesed-off storefront accountant than a fearsome assassin. May is an acute observer of tiresome masculinity and keeps MIKEY AND NICKEY moving sideways towards its sad-sack, seemingly inevitable conclusion. After two years of editing, Paramount soured on Mays free-spending ways (over a million feet of film had been exposed during production) and gave a compromised version of Mikey and Nicky a cursory theatrical release. Comedian and May admirer Patton Oswalt memorably summed up the rest of the story: She stole the print from the studio, hid it in her garage like a punk-fucking-rocker, and stared the studio down to put out the version she wanted. Avert your gaze as she passes by! Thats Elaine May, goddammit! (KW)
119 min - Paramount Pictures - 35mm from Julian Schlossberg
Short: Where It All Began: Philadelphia (Michael E. Smith, 1975) 10 min - 16mm