About three years ago I wanted to write about the various, lasting directorial débuts in movie history, not just in my lifetime, but before I was even born. And what impact those first films had, how it shaped their careers, what it told us about the director, and where they may be going. Unlike many bloggers or movie critics or anybody who is anybody with a view on movies, I don’t appear to be an expert of movie history. I am certainly not, and have much more to learn. I do know, though, how I feel about movies, and I know what I like. And I tend to just let my mind and my heart do the talking. I don’t, then, claim to be an expert on Mike Nichols, the director who sadly died three years ago today aged 83. But an admirer, absolutely.

My early memories of who Mike Nichols was came…