MoMA announces Nichols retrospective

NEW YORK, March 27 (UPI) -- The Museum of Modern Art in New York says it is planning a two-week retrospective of filmmaker Mike Nichols' work.

The exhibition includes 17 movies that illustrate the wide range of Nichols' directing career.

Spanning more than four decades, the series comprises a collection of Nichols' most significant works in film from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "The Graduate" to "Charlie Wilson's War" and the HBO dramas "Wit" and "Angels in America."

The influential but rarely screened films "Carnal Knowledge" and "Catch 22" are to open and close the two-week exhibition, the museum said.

"Mike Nichols" will run April 14 through May 1 in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters, and is organized by Rajendra Roy, the museum's chief curator of film.

"While remaining one of the most productive forces in the creative industries -- film and theater -- Mike Nichols' body of work is clearly one of the most referenced and revered in contemporary cinema," Roy said in a statement. "His ability to form lasting and consistently fruitful partnerships with writers and actors places him among the standard bearers for the great collaborative traditions of Hollywood. Emerging filmmakers have much to learn from the intellect and timeless humanity of Nichols' work."

"Mike Nichols in Conversation," an informal conversation with Nichols and some of his closest writing and acting collaborators like Nora Ephron, Elaine May and Buck Henry, is to take place at MoMA April 18.