Michael Mann - Cinema and Television

'Editors Palmer and Sanders have expertly and artfully drawn together an essential volume of conversation and commentary in which we are offered a meaningful engagement with the compelling ways in which Michael Mann makes moving images of subtlety and force, and in his work achieves a rare coupling of emotional intensity and intellectual nuance. Mann is deserving of much critical attention and this lively and engrossing collection goes some distance in helping readers and viewers appreciate anew his unique achievements as a creator of enduring, culturally resonant, television and film.' David LaRocca, Visiting Scholar at Cornell University and Lecturer in Aesthetics and Film at the College at Cortland, State University of New York From philosopher/cinephiles Steven Sanders and R. Barton Palmer, Michael Mann/Cinema and Television: Interviews, 1980-2012 comprises sixteen incisive interviews by an international roster of scholars, critics, commentators, journalists, and film insiders. Spanning the entire career of the award-winning screenwriter-director-producer, these interviews elicit some of his most revealing comments on his themes, methods, and style. He offers an assessment of his work in film and television and describes some of the things of which he is most proud. Throughout, topics and themes such as location shooting, working with stars, and developing technologies in cinema are introduced, elucidated, and applied to his work. Some of the interviews discuss Mann's existentialist ideas. In others he discusses his critique of the corporatization of crime and the evolution of a wholly new model of criminal trafficking on a global scale. And in others he shares his enjoyment in filming in the megalopolises of L.A. and Miami. The book includes a substantive introduction, chronology, and filmography, making it invaluable for scholars and their students. It is the definitive account of Mann's reflections on his contributions to cinema and television. Steven Sanders is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, Bridgewater State University. His work has appeared in A Companion to Film Noir (2013), Film Noir: the Directors (2012), and The Philosophy of Martin Scorsese (2009). He is the author of the philosophical monograph Miami Vice (2010) and editor of The Philosophy of Science Fiction Film (2008). R. Barton Palmer is the Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature at Clemson University, where he directs the film studies program. He is the author, editor, or general editor of many books including Hollywood's Dark Cinema: The American Film Noir (1994), After Hitchcock: Influence, Imitation, and Intertextuality (2006), and A Little Solitaire: John Frankenheimer and American Film (2011).