@Adam K
Yeah, I liked Un Flic as well. However, I think that Delon and Crenna’s roles should have been switched. I mean… I just don’t buy them as cop and criminal, respectively.
My personal favorite actor working today is Guy Pearce. And I agree with the other posters who mentioned Daniel Day-Lewis, and I will go one step further and say that he’s the greatest actor working to day. As hackneyed as it currently is today, I liked Christian Bale before it was cool (American Psycho, etc…). And, I do have an affinity for George Clooney.
As for actresses, I very much like the work of Juliette Binoche. I used to like Jennifer Garner until she… you know, stopped actually acting. Although, as pervasive and overlisted as she I, I still do like Meryl Streep’s work. Catherine Zeta-Jones is a good approximation to the air and grace that a “movie star” should have, and I do like her work (sometimes…). And finally, I think that the almost unknown Diane Venora (Vincent Hanna’s wife in Heat, or Jeffrey Wigand’s wife in The Insider) is a great (if criminally underrated) actress.
Very cool work by Mann, implicates lots of things about his entire oeuvre (as the first film by a director usually does). Well structured, and also very real. For a film whose subject matter is distant from most viewers, the characters (and therefore performances) are so textured and three dimensional that you can’t help but feel that you’ve bumped into one or two on the street on the way to the theater. As a longtime fan of Michael Mann, it was quite enjoyable to see his roots.
Underrated:
Chris Nolan
Manohla Dargis (critic)
Michael Mann
Overrated:
Steven Spielberg
Fight Club (actually, the entire body of work by David Fincher, with the exceptions of Se7en and Zodiac )
Paul Thomas Anderson
Star Wars
Lord of the Rings
The Shawshank Redemption
Bryan Singer
Breathless… Actually, the entire oeuvre of Jean-Luc Godard
etc…
[Note: I’m not saying anything in the “Overrated” section is complete fodder, and doesn’t deserve mention, just that I think it is… well, overrated. The converse it true for the “Underrated” section.]
It’s impossible to have a favorite ten, or even a hundred films, not to mention a single one. Instead, I’ll list five of my utmost favorite films:
Collateral – Michael Mann.
A favorite director of mine, almost all of his works could have found Collateral ’s place instead
Le Samourai – Jean-Pierre Melville
My favorite director and my favorite film of his. Granted Army of Shadows is a greater work, but when Melville meets crime, the only thing left is stylish union in “cool”. But, like Mann, any of his films could replace this on my list.
L.A. Confidential – Curtis Hanson
The revisionist revisionist noir. Perhaps I’m showing my inability to like the classics, but of all the noirs I’ve seen (classic and/or neo-noir), this one is the most interesting, and consummately well photographed.
Menilmontant – Dimitri Kirsanoff
The greatest silent picture I’ve ever seen (which probably shows my inexperience more than anything else). The beauty of a story told entirely with images, but with the most dazzling cuts (better than Eisenstein, I think!) I’ve ever seen.
And finally… Memento – Christopher Nolan
In addition to a favorite, one of the greatest of all pictures, I think. The structure is beautiful, writing memorable, and the direction brilliant. I could in fact be wildly wrong, but my love of this film still stands.
What is theauteurs’ opinion of Michael Mann?
I happen to think he gets a critical underrating because he’s apparently a “genre director”
Favorite films, trivia, or general impressions in this thread.
My favorite film of his Collateral but Heat and especially The Insider come quite close.
@JP Belmondo
I dunno whether or not the comparison of Melville is entirely accurate. From what I’ve observed of his films, Mann never tries to make his characters teach us something, or illustrate any finer points about the nature of crime (outside of their actions), the same way Melville does. Melville uses criminals as sort of a study for what crime means, and philosophizes thereupon. Mann, I think, isn’t trying to inspect criminals, or the nature of crime, so much as he is showing what it really means in the world.
Bobby Wise
I think that Daniel Kasman was just referring to Miami Vice as a film that’s almost essentially composed of Mann’s style. I would say that it can be considered avant-garde because of the technical novelty of the film, what with it being almost entirely shot in HD digital video.
Alanedit
Apart from the overtly philosophical introspection of Melville’s criminals, I agree with you that Mann is somewhat of a spiritual successor to Melville: Unadulterated and accurate depictions crime, real-world technology, the kinds of personalities who would be (and are) involved in the criminal and law enforcement worlds. Great filmmakers, them.
Kids by Larry Clark Gummo by Harmony Korine. (To a lesser extent: thirteen by Catherine Hardwick)
Both of those films (and even the entire body of Larry Clark) shook and depressed me very greatly. Kids is, in a single film, the tales of the destruction and total (and that’s no abuse of the superlative) loss of innocence of youth, and made so close and so devastating that it has made me question whether or not each teenager I brush by on the street has walked out of that film. Gummo is another film that is brutal. Essentially plotless, it’s a string of vingettes about the tornado-stricken town Xenia, Ohio, and the broken, backwards, and repulsive lives of its inhabitants. The film borders (actually, probably is ) exploitation, but is still a showcase of the very least of humanity, and still very sad >_<. thirteen is not nearly as taxing, but is like a miniature version of Kids and slightly more optimistic, but still serves as a wake up call for the absence (and/or misaction and inaction) of parents.
Maybe so. The reason I liked it was just that it was an entire film composed of Mann’s style. I mean, to me it almost reads as a syllabus of how Michael Mann ideally directs a film.[shrug] I dunno, maybe that’s wrong. Anyway, I actually would like to hear the opinion of it being an “avant-garde” blockbuster. How I answered was just my presumption, I mean… I really don’t know Daniel Kasman’s reasoning behind it, but I am interested in reading it. I dunno if I’d call it “avant-garde”.. I just thought it was very slick.
To be quite cynical:
David Fincher’s doing this to get his Oscar; Brad Pitt: “me too”; the cinematography was replete with bloom and absent purpose; it was a mediocre film with production values high enough to make the willfully believeing viewer forget his/her life for 168 minutes.
Regarding Forrest Gump , it’ s a lesser film than Forrest Gump . While the latter is inclined towards social commentary and a survey of three decades of American history in a semi-subjective manner and how it got where it was. The former was just… A story. Or, as I would say, the attempt and waste of a story from an otherwise interesting concept.
Kevin Salyers
I’d watch/comment on The Keep but I can’t find it anywhere on DVD. Maybe I should dig out my VHS player, and peruse eBay for it. My only reservation would be that, from what I read, Mann’s preferred cut would be around 3-4 hours, and that the studio butchered it.
Ray M
I like Ali for the same reasons you seem to: the stylistics. As man has a unique and distinctive visual style, what endears me to the work is the reason that I have a strong affinity for Miami Vice .
I own roughly 30 DVDs. I try to be really selective about what I purchase (exceptions being gifts), and limiting to things that have really had a (usually) profound effect on me.
My name is Matthias Galvin. What I enjoy in a film most is the presence of innovation, style, and things unique to film, making a second consideration to the story and (written) literary content. To put it simply: While I enjoy both, I will always choose Citizen Kane over The Rules of the Game . My favorite directors are Jean-Pierre Melville, Michael Mann, but I think that the greatest directors are Jean Renoir, Orson Welles, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Guy Maddin, and few others. Some of my favorite films are Le Samourai , Collateral , L.A. Confidential , Menilmontant , Vampyr , and Yojimbo .
I take it from your sarcasm that your respect for the film or its technique is at best minimal? I’m interested in the work because Michael Mann is a personal favorite director of mine, and not because I expect it to be anything that great (as there is ample evidence that it isn’t).
Ah. Just wondering. I guess I come from the Internet too much when it’s standard nature to assume that people are intentionally trying to deceive you when they have an opinion that seems foreign. My mistake. Also, the DVD does look quite presentable. I do however wish that Mann could do something with the film, so that it would be easier to see.
Gummo scares the living daylights out of me. I tried watching it, but I… I can’t view it in its entireity. Just the unsettling scenarios, the very very bleak outlook on life. The attempt at making it “entertaining”… It’s all so… Powerfully awful.
What films do you always catch shit for for not liking? over 3 years ago
Breathless
Fight Club
The collected work of David Lynch
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What's your favorite Jean-Pierre Melville film? over 3 years ago
As highly as I think of Army of Shadows, as hackneyed as it is to say, my personal favorite Melville film is Le Samourai.
Anyone else?
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Movies Not On Criterion (& therefore, not on TheAuteurs) over 3 years ago
Menilmontant (the short by Kirsanoff)
Man with a Movie Camera
The Magnificent Ambersons (why, oh WHY won’t TCM give Criterion the DVD rights?)
The Insider by Michael Mann
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What's your favorite Jean-Pierre Melville film? over 3 years ago
@Vellaem
Ah; what are the other two you’ve seen?
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What's your favorite Jean-Pierre Melville film? over 3 years ago
@Adam K
Yeah, I liked Un Flic as well. However, I think that Delon and Crenna’s roles should have been switched. I mean… I just don’t buy them as cop and criminal, respectively.
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Movies that should be in the library over 3 years ago
The Magnificent Ambersons
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THE BEST ACTORS WORKING TODAY? over 3 years ago
My personal favorite actor working today is Guy Pearce. And I agree with the other posters who mentioned Daniel Day-Lewis, and I will go one step further and say that he’s the greatest actor working to day. As hackneyed as it currently is today, I liked Christian Bale before it was cool (American Psycho, etc…). And, I do have an affinity for George Clooney.
As for actresses, I very much like the work of Juliette Binoche. I used to like Jennifer Garner until she… you know, stopped actually acting. Although, as pervasive and overlisted as she I, I still do like Meryl Streep’s work. Catherine Zeta-Jones is a good approximation to the air and grace that a “movie star” should have, and I do like her work (sometimes…). And finally, I think that the almost unknown Diane Venora (Vincent Hanna’s wife in Heat, or Jeffrey Wigand’s wife in The Insider) is a great (if criminally underrated) actress.
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Rate The Last Film You Watched over 3 years ago
Michael Mann’s Thief
Very cool work by Mann, implicates lots of things about his entire oeuvre (as the first film by a director usually does). Well structured, and also very real. For a film whose subject matter is distant from most viewers, the characters (and therefore performances) are so textured and three dimensional that you can’t help but feel that you’ve bumped into one or two on the street on the way to the theater. As a longtime fan of Michael Mann, it was quite enjoyable to see his roots.
Go to Comment
Underrated / overrated over 3 years ago
Underrated:
Chris Nolan
Manohla Dargis (critic)
Michael Mann
Overrated:
Steven Spielberg
Fight Club (actually, the entire body of work by David Fincher, with the exceptions of Se7en and Zodiac )
Paul Thomas Anderson
Star Wars
Lord of the Rings
The Shawshank Redemption
Bryan Singer
Breathless… Actually, the entire oeuvre of Jean-Luc Godard
etc…
[Note: I’m not saying anything in the “Overrated” section is complete fodder, and doesn’t deserve mention, just that I think it is… well, overrated. The converse it true for the “Underrated” section.]
Go to Comment
If you had to pick ONE film as your favorite... over 3 years ago
It’s impossible to have a favorite ten, or even a hundred films, not to mention a single one. Instead, I’ll list five of my utmost favorite films:
Collateral – Michael Mann.
A favorite director of mine, almost all of his works could have found Collateral ’s place instead
Le Samourai – Jean-Pierre Melville
My favorite director and my favorite film of his. Granted Army of Shadows is a greater work, but when Melville meets crime, the only thing left is stylish union in “cool”. But, like Mann, any of his films could replace this on my list.
L.A. Confidential – Curtis Hanson
The revisionist revisionist noir. Perhaps I’m showing my inability to like the classics, but of all the noirs I’ve seen (classic and/or neo-noir), this one is the most interesting, and consummately well photographed.
Menilmontant – Dimitri Kirsanoff
The greatest silent picture I’ve ever seen (which probably shows my inexperience more than anything else). The beauty of a story told entirely with images, but with the most dazzling cuts (better than Eisenstein, I think!) I’ve ever seen.
And finally…
Memento – Christopher Nolan
In addition to a favorite, one of the greatest of all pictures, I think. The structure is beautiful, writing memorable, and the direction brilliant. I could in fact be wildly wrong, but my love of this film still stands.
Go to Comment
Michael Mann over 3 years ago
What is theauteurs’ opinion of Michael Mann?
I happen to think he gets a critical underrating because he’s apparently a “genre director”
Favorite films, trivia, or general impressions in this thread.
My favorite film of his Collateral but Heat and especially The Insider come quite close.
Go to Comment
Michael Mann over 3 years ago
@Elmen
What else have you seen by him?
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Michael Mann over 3 years ago
@JP Belmondo
I dunno whether or not the comparison of Melville is entirely accurate. From what I’ve observed of his films, Mann never tries to make his characters teach us something, or illustrate any finer points about the nature of crime (outside of their actions), the same way Melville does. Melville uses criminals as sort of a study for what crime means, and philosophizes thereupon. Mann, I think, isn’t trying to inspect criminals, or the nature of crime, so much as he is showing what it really means in the world.
Go to Comment
Film: Is it art or entertainment? over 3 years ago
Yes.
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Michael Mann over 3 years ago
Bobby Wise
I think that Daniel Kasman was just referring to Miami Vice as a film that’s almost essentially composed of Mann’s style. I would say that it can be considered avant-garde because of the technical novelty of the film, what with it being almost entirely shot in HD digital video.
Alanedit
Apart from the overtly philosophical introspection of Melville’s criminals, I agree with you that Mann is somewhat of a spiritual successor to Melville: Unadulterated and accurate depictions crime, real-world technology, the kinds of personalities who would be (and are) involved in the criminal and law enforcement worlds. Great filmmakers, them.
Go to Comment
Michael Mann over 3 years ago
Yeah man! The Dark Knight is awesome!
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Pulp Fiction v Reservoir Dogs over 3 years ago
Pulp Fiction. It’s funnier.
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merry christmas over 3 years ago
Have a Happy Christmas all. Have much Peace, and more Love.
:D
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movies that shake you to the core over 3 years ago
Kids by Larry Clark
Gummo by Harmony Korine. (To a lesser extent: thirteen by Catherine Hardwick)
Both of those films (and even the entire body of Larry Clark) shook and depressed me very greatly. Kids is, in a single film, the tales of the destruction and total (and that’s no abuse of the superlative) loss of innocence of youth, and made so close and so devastating that it has made me question whether or not each teenager I brush by on the street has walked out of that film. Gummo is another film that is brutal. Essentially plotless, it’s a string of vingettes about the tornado-stricken town Xenia, Ohio, and the broken, backwards, and repulsive lives of its inhabitants. The film borders (actually, probably is ) exploitation, but is still a showcase of the very least of humanity, and still very sad >_<. thirteen is not nearly as taxing, but is like a miniature version of Kids and slightly more optimistic, but still serves as a wake up call for the absence (and/or misaction and inaction) of parents.
Go to Comment
Michael Mann over 3 years ago
Maybe so. The reason I liked it was just that it was an entire film composed of Mann’s style. I mean, to me it almost reads as a syllabus of how Michael Mann ideally directs a film.[shrug] I dunno, maybe that’s wrong. Anyway, I actually would like to hear the opinion of it being an “avant-garde” blockbuster. How I answered was just my presumption, I mean… I really don’t know Daniel Kasman’s reasoning behind it, but I am interested in reading it. I dunno if I’d call it “avant-garde”.. I just thought it was very slick.
Go to Comment
Benjamin Gump over 3 years ago
To be quite cynical:
David Fincher’s doing this to get his Oscar; Brad Pitt: “me too”; the cinematography was replete with bloom and absent purpose; it was a mediocre film with production values high enough to make the willfully believeing viewer forget his/her life for 168 minutes.
Regarding Forrest Gump , it’ s a lesser film than Forrest Gump . While the latter is inclined towards social commentary and a survey of three decades of American history in a semi-subjective manner and how it got where it was. The former was just… A story. Or, as I would say, the attempt and waste of a story from an otherwise interesting concept.
Go to Comment
Michael Mann over 3 years ago
Kevin Salyers
I’d watch/comment on The Keep but I can’t find it anywhere on DVD. Maybe I should dig out my VHS player, and peruse eBay for it. My only reservation would be that, from what I read, Mann’s preferred cut would be around 3-4 hours, and that the studio butchered it.
Ray M
I like Ali for the same reasons you seem to: the stylistics. As man has a unique and distinctive visual style, what endears me to the work is the reason that I have a strong affinity for Miami Vice .
Go to Comment
How Big Is Your DVD Collection? over 3 years ago
I own roughly 30 DVDs. I try to be really selective about what I purchase (exceptions being gifts), and limiting to things that have really had a (usually) profound effect on me.
Go to Comment
New to The Auteurs? You Belong Here over 3 years ago
My name is Matthias Galvin. What I enjoy in a film most is the presence of innovation, style, and things unique to film, making a second consideration to the story and (written) literary content. To put it simply: While I enjoy both, I will always choose Citizen Kane over The Rules of the Game . My favorite directors are Jean-Pierre Melville, Michael Mann, but I think that the greatest directors are Jean Renoir, Orson Welles, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Guy Maddin, and few others. Some of my favorite films are Le Samourai , Collateral , L.A. Confidential , Menilmontant , Vampyr , and Yojimbo .
Go to Comment
Michael Mann over 3 years ago
I take it from your sarcasm that your respect for the film or its technique is at best minimal? I’m interested in the work because Michael Mann is a personal favorite director of mine, and not because I expect it to be anything that great (as there is ample evidence that it isn’t).
Go to Comment
Michael Mann over 3 years ago
Ah. Just wondering. I guess I come from the Internet too much when it’s standard nature to assume that people are intentionally trying to deceive you when they have an opinion that seems foreign. My mistake. Also, the DVD does look quite presentable. I do however wish that Mann could do something with the film, so that it would be easier to see.
Go to Comment
Harmony Korine over 3 years ago
Gummo scares the living daylights out of me. I tried watching it, but I… I can’t view it in its entireity. Just the unsettling scenarios, the very very bleak outlook on life. The attempt at making it “entertaining”… It’s all so… Powerfully awful.
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List the most exemplary acting performance(s) over 3 years ago
Hackneyed, but true:
Renée Falconetti in The Passion of Joan of Arc
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Can Objective Criticism Exist? over 3 years ago
Can Objective Criticism Exist?
No.
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WHICH MOVIES...PUT OUT IN LAST 5 YEARS...DO YOU THINK WILL ONE DAY JOIN THE CRITERION COLLECTION? over 3 years ago
4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
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