Description
Book SynopsisFew 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.
Trade ReviewIn this book, Steven Rybin takes the reader on a remarkable tour of the world of Michael Mann, a place replete with epic cityscapes, digitally composited dreamscapes, and domestic interiors intermittently inhabited by characters cut off from collective identity and meaning. Interrelating visual design and soundtrack with theme and mood, Rybin's work is the perfect guide to the consummately stylized postmodernist vision of Mann's films. From Rybin's analysis of influences such as Vertov and Kubrick, to his championing of The Insider, to his probing study of Miami Vice as movie, he demonstrates a command of the auteur that makes this book a pleasure to read. -- Susan Linville, Department of English, University of Colorado at Denver
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Chapter One: Beginnings in Television andThe Jericho Mile Chapter 3 Chapter Two:Thief Chapter 4 Chapter Three:The Keep Chapter 5 Chapter Four:Manhunter Chapter 6 Chapter Five:The Last of the Mohicans Chapter 7 Chapter Six: Heat Chapter 8 Chapter Seven:The Insider Chapter 9 Chapter Eight:Ali Chapter 10 Chapter Nine:Collateral Chapter 11 Conclusion: Michael Mann andMiami Vice in the Shadow of New Hollywood Chapter 12 Michael Mann Filmography
