Michael Mann Masters Of Cinema

Michael Mann (born 1943) is one of the most interesting directors of our time, whose work lies at the intersection of the mainstream cinema and the avant-garde, of public entertainment and private obsession. Throughout his career, Mann has moved freely between television and cinema: he produced 'Miami Vice' and 'Crime Story' - two of the most successful TV series of the 1980's - in addition to directing the historical epic 'The Last of the Mohican's (1992), the biopic 'Ali'(2001), and more recently the crime thriller 'Collateral (2004) and the gangster drama 'Public Enemies' (2009). Although varied in genre, Mann's films often share the same preoccupations and style: the depiction of solitary men in conflict with the society in which they live.

It took Michael Mann (b. 1943), today a major figure in contemporary American cinema, many years to establish himself: his experience as a flamboyant television producer in the 1980s – notably on the series Miami Vice – overshadowed his early work as a filmmaker. In 1991 Mann exploded into the mainstream with the success of The Last of the Mohicans. Since then his work has focused on the crime movie, with Heat in 1995, Collateral in 2004 and Public Enemies in 2009.

Few other contemporary Hollywood filmmakers fit the category of 'genre stylist' as well as Michael Mann, the director of such films as Heat, The Insider, Ali, Collateral, Manhunter, Thief, and Miami Vice. Mann's film style marks him as a director who chooses the iconographic backdrop of a genre as a canvas upon which he and his collaborators can craft a unique cinematic vision. The Cinema of Michael Mann traces the innovative and under-explored stylistic contours of Mann's work, the director's inflection upon and innovation within preexisting genre frameworks, and the relationship of both style and genre to issues of authorship and film criticism. Steven Rybin's critical study of Mann's cinema, and the importance of the filmmaker's themes to our contemporary world, is valuable for both film scholars and cinephiles alike.

Michael Mann is one of the most important American filmmakers of the past forty years. His films exhibit the existential concerns of art cinema, articulated through a conspicuous and recognizable visual style and yet integrated within classical Hollywood narrative and genre frameworks. Since his beginnings as a screenwriter in the 1970s, Mann has become a key figure within contemporary American popular culture as writer, director, and producer for film and television. This volume offers a detailed study of Mann's feature films, from The Jericho Mile (1979) to Public Enemies (2009), with consideration also being given to parallels in the production, style, and characterization in his television work. It explores Mann's relationship with classical genres, his thematic concentration on issues of morality and masculinity, his film adaptations from literature, and the development and significance of his trademark visual style within modern American cinema.

Director and screenwriter Michael Mann is the creative force behind such movies as Last of the Mohicans and Ali. Markedly reticent, Mann prefers that his personal background remain an enigma, but his disparate films contain clear and consistent messages. One of Mann's focuses is on the Information Age. He addresses the nature of modern communication, its use to manipulate and coerce, and the resultant subjugation of truth. The perils inherent in modern technology and communication stand in stark contrast to the power of symbolic and oral exchange, the trusted medium of Mann's protagonists. This critical exploration of the films of Michael Mann examines his recurring focus on the nature of modern communication and information and their effect on the individual and society. Mann's films highlight the struggle to maintain a connection to reality in a world where information is a commodity manipulated and abused by forces that exert increasing control over its content and dissemination. Each chapter examines one of Mann's films--including Manhunter, The Keep, Last of the Mohicans, The Insider and Ali--in which the protagonist longs for a sense of human connection but is pitted against forces that devalue and destroy individuality. Photographs illustrate specific moments from the films. A bibliography and an index are included.

This reader is the first to bring together a selection of Mann's own interviews where he reflects on his film and television productions. The sixteen interviews provide historical context, interpretation and evaluation of the auteur's work. They encompass his entire career as a feature filmmaker and television producer/director as he and others reflect on his themes, working methods, artistic development and career achievements. The book aims to open up Mann's body of work, making it available for comparison with the work of his contemporaries, and to provide fresh insights into his film and television work. A substantive introductory essay, chronology and filmography provide additional bases for understanding the interviews, essays and work of this major filmmaker.

In Michael Mann: Crime Auteur, Steven Rybin looks at the television programs and films that Michael Mann has stamped with his personal signature. This book closely examines the themes and techniques used in films such as Manhunter, Heat, The Insider, and Collateral and connects these elements to his work on the non-genre films The Last of the Mohicans and Ali. A revised and significantly expanded edition of The Cinema of Michael Mann (2007), this book includes new chapters on Public Enemies and the big screen version of Miami Vice, as well as Mann's work on the shows Crime Story and Luck.

Time is Luck: The Cinema of Michael Mann approaches director Michael Mann's work through the lens of transformations in labour practices, technologies of seeing, and strategies of dissent over the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Applying extensive textual analysis to each of Mann's features, this study explores how these transformations are reflected in the filmmaker's output, formally and thematically. As much as Mann expresses anguish at the pervasive nature of technologically advanced systems which exist to exploit the common man, curtail civil liberties, and prop up corrupt regimes, there always remains space for protest and resistance in his cinema. This aspect of Mann's art is essential to keep in mind and is too often ignored: the filmmaker being accused of nihilism or anti-humanism. This book covers all of Mann's major films, with extensive critical commentaries, while comparing and contrasting the styles, the characters and the themes. An essential read for all fans of Mann's work, and those interested in the textual and visual history of the very best that cinema can offer. Includes analyis of: The Jericho Mile (1979); Thief (1981); The Keep (1983); Manhunter (1986); The Last of the Mohicans (1992); Heat (1995); The Insider (1999); Ali (2001); Collateral (2004); Miami Vice (2006); Public Enemies (2009); Blackhat (2015).