Michael mann

This has been more than demonstrated in his latest film, Collateral , an example of how to create tension without being artificial. No yelling or surprises behind the door. Mann is a true specialist in that it is the atmosphere itself that challenges the viewer’s sensibility and involves him in the script, often polished and always plausible. Perhaps that is why his films are so intense: he does not dwell on gruesomeness, his characters are resolute as life itself, but also, as happens with people, they show convulsive, contradictory, dissatisfied interiors. And that is something that in Michael Mann’s cinema unites heroes and villains; which basically is the same as saying that they are not so much, that the line that separates them is very thin.

Michael Kenneth Mann was born in Chicago (Illinois) on February 5, 1943. Among his favorite films are Passion of the Strong , Potemkin Battleship , Faust , Apocalypse Now , The Wild Bunch , Last Year at Marienbad , The Passion of Joan of Arc , Raging Bull , Citizen Kane and Red Telephone we fly to Moscow. He studied English literature at the University of Wisconsin, after which he went to London to study film at the International Film School. He began his first steps in the world of images with commercials and documentaries for television, until in 1971 his short film De él Jaunpuri won the Jury Prize at Cannes. Around those years he married Summer, with whom he has four children. He then combined work as a screenwriter ( Police Story , 1973; Starsky and Hutch , 1975; River of Promises , 1977; Vega$ , 1978) and his first steps in directing with Police Woman (1974) and the aforementioned Vega$. As can be seen in these television productions, from the beginning Michael Mann’s genre was the thriller; there he forged his technique and his particular and intense narrative style, where the rhythm never falters. And perhaps because he knows that gift better than anyone, he has seldom ventured on other paths. Although, paradoxically, his first feature film was the sports drama Freeman ( 1979), a superb telefilm starring Peter Strauss (then famous “rich brother” of Nick Nolte ). But soon he returned to his place: Thief (1981), a more than remarkable criminal thriller starring James Caan, was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Mann showed that his talent was not going to be fleeting and also served for the first time as a director, screenwriter and executive producer. He then directed El torreón (1983) and continued with production work on the Miami Vice series (1984) or Crime Story (1986). In 1986 he directed the horror thriller Hunter , based on Harris’s novel that years later would be brought to the screen again as The Red Dragon , the third film about Hannibal Lecter.

Then came the five films that have cemented his genius; a good handful of Oscar nominations endorse them. The first was The Last of the Mohicans (1992), an example of how epic should be in an adventure film. Then he faced Robert De Niro and Al Pacino for the first time in Heat (1995). Later came The Dilemma (1999), perhaps his most well-rounded film, for which he was nominated for an Oscar for best director, and Ali (2001), an extensive biopic of the mythical Cassius Clay. The only one in which he has not worked as a screenwriter has been in Collateral. In all of them, Mann has proven to be a master of mood creation and dramatic use of light and color. In fact, he often acts as a camera operator on his films. He is currently shooting Miami Vice , with Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx .