Hollywood's Best Film Directors - Michael Mann

Here is a great interview with Michael Mann, covering his entire career in his own words. Excellent behind the scenes footage. Must see. No embed code on this video. Check out the link here.

Michael Mann Entertainment Weekly Omission

I was somewhat taken aback not to see Michael Mann on Entertainment Weekly's top 25 greatest working directors based on, "... the most talented, in-demand filmmakers behind the camera today." Michael Mann didn't feature anywhere. Incredulous. There are numerous other glaring omissions - see if you can spot your favourites missing.  I rather admire Ron Howard actually. Their poor list is as follows:

1. David Fincher
2. Christopher Nolan
3. Steven Spielberg
4. Martin Scorsese
5. Darren Aronofsky
6. Joel and Ethan Coen
7. Quentin Tarantino
8. Terrence Malick
9. Clint Eastwood
10. Pedro Almodovar
11. Paul Thomas Anderson
12. Guillermo del Toro
13. Roman Polanski
14. Danny Boyle
15. Kathryn Bigelow
16. David O. Russell
17. David Lynch
18. James Cameron
19. Peter Jackson
20. Edgar Wright
21. Spike Lee
22. J.J. Abrams
23. Brad Bird
24. Mike Leigh
25. Wes Anderson

Michael Mann's heat Movie Trivia

Well folks, if you thought you knew Michael Mann's movie Heat inside out, then try answering some of the questions on Heat from this movie trivia site. Visit the site here. If nothing else, it is a useful list of information if you are wanting to put together an essay on Heat.

If you want to see a list of Heat goofs, then look here:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113277/goofs

I always think listing goofs is a bit harsh and unfair, when you think just how minor they are when putting together something as meticulous and intricate as most movies require. But for those interested, enjoy.

Signed: Robert De Niro's character Neil from Michael Mann's Heat

I am not endorsing this product, but I am posting it here for anyone interested! I have no idea if it is authentic or not. Link to product is here. I would prefer a signed one of him in the blue interior house shot by the sea. I don't have any autographs - not even by Mann himself. Does anyone reading this have one? Any story behind it?

Product Description:

Robert DeNiro has personally hand signed this 8x10 Photo with a Silver paint pen. This great action shot is from the movie "Heat". The Black custom wood frame measures 13x15 inches, and includes double matting. Conservation Clear glass was used on this fine piece to protect the autograph from fading due to UltraViolet (UV) Rays, which will fade your autographed collectibles. This custom made frame is ready to hang on the wall, and would look great in any office, bedroom, or man cave! This item comes with a numbered Online Authentics.com authenticity sticker on the autographed photo, which you can verify online once you purchase it. Online Authentics.com is one of the top third party authenticators in the memorabilia industry. This item also comes with a REAL DEAL Memorabilia Certificate of Authenticity (COA). Get The REAL DEAL!


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Dante Spinotti & Michael Mann history of collaboration

One of the key people that has helped to bring Michael Mann success is his Director of Photography. Dante Spinotti was the first to collaborate with Mann on a feature film, this being Manhunter. Spinotti is now something of a cinematographer legend, and here is an excellent interview with him. I include an excerpt below about his arrival on the set of Last of the Mohicans, but he refers to some of the other movies he has worked on. To read the full interview click here, but an excerpt is included below:

DCR: What about The Last of the Mohicans?

SPINOTTI: Michael Mann called and spoke with me about this film, and he sent me the screenplay. What else would you want from life than a chance to film a great story set in 1700? Michael’s visual references included a couple of paintings, including Thomas Cole and Alfred Bierstadt. This is very typical of Michael. He shows you a simple image and says, ‘this is the movie.’ The paintings all showed how small human beings are in the scope of nature. Michael wanted everything to be extremely accurate. He offered me the picture, but it took a lot of time for him to put this project together. While I was waiting, Gary Marshall offered me a film called Frankie and Johnny. That was the film, which finally allowed me to get into the camera Guild. That opportunity was very important to me. It enabled me to work on other films in Hollywood, and also because I was always connected to union activities in Europe. Gary Marshall is a wonderful director and human being. A few weeks after we finished Frankie and Johnny, I was in Rome. 

One of the producers called and said Michael Mann wanted me to shoot The Last of the Mohicans. They booked me on a Concorde on a three-hour flight on Friday night. I was jet-lagged when I arrived and saw this amazing set of a British fort with actors dressed in military uniforms from 1700. All of our lighting was going to be based on sun and moonlight bonfires, torches and candles. There was a wonderful cast, including Daniel Day Lewis and Madeleine Stowe. Michael said he wanted was to keep the look monochromatic. One of the scenes that I was happiest with reproduced the pounding power of a waterfall in an interior shot set in a cave at night. You can’t see the waterfall, but you can feel its immense power in the pounding water on the faces of the actors. We bounced light from a couple of 4K Xenon’s with some big 12 x12 Mylar frames that a grip was shaking in front of them You can see the pattern of moving light on the faces and feel the power of the waterfall.

Full interview is here > 

See the effect Dante mentions about reproducing the flickering light on the faces in the scene below:

Michael Mann's The Insider Cinematography

Here is a good find on the net. A useful blog featuring top cinematography stills from history's most memorable movies. Featured amongst the greats is Michael Mann's The Insider - a personal favourite. The blogger also has a video of Quentin Tarantino giving his top 20 films. I am pleased to see The Insider at number 11. See it below this post or go to the link here.

Evan, the blogger, commented on The Insider stills in the following way:

It was shot 2:35. Unfortunately it hasn’t been released in an HD format yet except on tv. So this is an HD tv rip and they pretty much always use the same 16:9 aspect ratio for all their television releases. When it is released on blu-ray I’ll post it again. But it’s better than nothing for now.

In his later years Sydney Pollack would purposely frame shots with people at opposite edges of the frame so that his movies couldn’t be cropped to a different aspect ratio.

Another blog, with an excellent comment on the art of cinematography, with a comment on Public Enemies can be found here.

New Aesthetic Form in Michael Mann's Public Enemies

Thanks to Goga, who left me this link (on my Michael Mann social network site) to an interesting article on Public Enemies, an excerpt from which is below:

In making "Public Enemies," Mann opted for digital high definition video for the very reason I once thought it could never achieve the aesthetic appeal of film imagery—its "nowness." In interviews Mann has stated that in telling Dillinger's anti-heroic, Depression-era story, he did not want the distancing, nostalgic look conveyed by conventional emulsions. Rather he wanted the viewer to have a sense of 1933 happening in the present, a visual "now" style which he said might suggest a "hyper-reality." That style is as compelling as the narrative it underwrites. And having seen the movie a second time, closely studying the way the digital high definition camera can be used to create a new, uniquely expressive form of screen art, I must confess I can see a real future for it in movie theaters. With "Public Enemies," Michael Mann has paved the way.

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