If you look hard enough, you can find a video tribute on just about any notable director currently working today. That said, if you had to name one director whose career could use a proper video retrospective, Michael Mann would be an excellent pick. His filmography is only 12 films deep despite making his debut over 35 years ago, but he’s crafted many distinct worlds in each of his movies and each is always worth revisiting. Vimeo user Alexandre Gasulla has put together a 10-minute montage celebrating the filmmaker’s career, which reminds us why so many hold Mann in such high esteem.
READ MORE: Retrospective: The Films Of Michael Mann
Whether Mann is exploring nighttime cityscapes or having characters ponder their predicaments quietly by an ocean, Gasulla’s tribute demonstrates how closely related his films are. Crime, action, romance, loneliness —these seem to be the common ingredients in a Mann film, often with characters who always find themselves in circumstances they can’t break free from. And yet, despite cultivating such an easily recognizable style, the director always manages to find a way to have each film be distinct from each other.
Check out the montage below.
Droop – it\’s THIEF. Not a boy and man, but James Caan and blues-man Willie Dixon fishing. It\’s a beautiful little scene which was cut from all the versions I\’d seen prior to the recent, gorgeous 4K directors cut that Criterion released in the States, and Arrow Video brought out in the UK.
which movie is the shot of the boy and the man fishing from? i don\’t recall that at all. 1.85 aspect ratio? must be thief right? just don\’t remember that at all. is it james caan as a boy and willie nelson\’s character?
People who want Mann to go back to film are like those folkie drips who couldn\’t take it when Dylan went electric.
michael i urge you to consider shooting on film again — it\’s part of what made your great movies great… and the lack of it is what makes your awful films awful.
(Collateral was a mix of 35mm and digital, and it worked well… as a compromise, at least use film SOME of the time)