The movie Michael Mann said “laid the narrative” for cinema
If you were considering some of the most essential filmmakers of the 20th century, there is no doubt that the likes of Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and Steven Spielberg would make the cut, but far too many people forget about the influence of the great Michael Mann. Thriving in the latter half of the century, Mann influenced many of the aforementioned filmmakers with classic movies like Heat, Manhunter and The Insider.
Considered seminal among the greatest actors and directors, Mann helped elevate cinema in the 1990s, taking focus away from the high-budget flicks that were coming out in the era whilst crafting narratives like The Last of the Mohicans and Heat that would remind audiences of classic Hollywood. Working with the likes of Daniel Day-Lewis, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino during the ‘90s, Mann became a formidable talent.
Despite only truly thriving in the final decade of the century, Mann has a remarkable education when it comes to the movies that preceded his rise, being, first and foremost, a student of cinema. Such was illustrated when Mann gave his thoughts regarding the ten greatest movies ever made to the BFI, naming a range of movies that covered different genres, continents and countries.
One of the highlights of the list was the inclusion of the Sergei Eisenstein film Battleship Potemkin from 1925, a film that many consider to be one of the most important ever made. Speaking about the film, Mann stated, “Eisenstein not only laid the theoretical foundation for much of 20th-century modernist narrative but in 1924 made one of cinema’s great classics, applying dialectics to montage, composition and meaning. Its influence on British, Weimar and American cinema is huge”.
Based on a true story, Battleship Potemkin was one of the earliest examples of the movie montage, telling the story of the crew of the battleship Potemkin, who led a mutiny against the tyranny of the officers. Set in the midst of the Russian Revolution of 1905, the film leads to a demonstration in Odessa that brings a massacre from the authorities, birthing the iconic ‘Odessa Step Sequence’ as a result.
Elsewhere on his list of favourites, Mann includes the classic Orson Welles masterpiece Citizen Kane from 1941, with the director stating: “Citizen Kane was a watershed: a life’s linear history reassembled into a novelistic narrative by investigators querying its meaning. And done with Wellesian brio on a grand scale”.
Take a look at the iconic ‘Odessa Step Sequence’ below.
