Thursday, March 27, 2008

Elsewheres on screen for the day.


manhunter
miami vice

[1. Manhunter / 2. Miami Vice]

4 comments:

  1. Picture in a picture? Split screen? Mann steals from Godard and DePalma on this one.

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  2. That's one way to look at it, I guess.

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  3. Virgil. Fine to credit antecedents I guess, but I don't think these are trademarked shots. Further, I'm not sure they're derivative of Godard or even DePalma. Maybe you could say why you think they are (which films and why especially or exclusively these directors?)

    Even so though, I think those shots derive meaning from their place in Mann's film, not via extrinsic reference.

    Or even further: one would have to work slightly hard to NOT end up with these kinds of shots!

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  4. "Good poets borrow, great poets steal." -- TS Eliot

    I'm not slamming Michael Mann. He steals and makes it his own. But by the time Mann used these shots, they had been trademarked by Godard and his slavish disciple DePalma, so all I'm saying is that I don't think these are sterling examples of Mann's originality. I'd like to see other examples of a shot that Mann owns... perhaps most of it to be found in his later hi-def work.

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