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| David Fincher: Mank (US 2020). |
Mank / Mank.
US © 2020 Netflix. PC: Netflix International Pictures. P: Ceán Chaffin, Eric Roth, Douglas Urbanski.
D: David Fincher. SC: Jack Fincher. Cin: Erik Messerschmidt – b&w – 2.20:1 – source format: Redcode RAW 8K – digital intermediate 6K – release format: D-Cinema. PD: Donald Graham Burt. AD: Dan Webster. Set dec: Jan Pascale. Cost: Trish Summerville. Makeup: Gigi Williams. Hair: Kimberley Spiteri. SFX: John C. Carlucci. VFX: Territory Studio, Artemple Hollywood, ILM, Ollin VFX. M: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross [Wikipedia lists 52 titles in the original score track listing]. S: Jeremy Molod. ED: Kirk Baxter. Casting: Laray Mayfield.
CAST as edited in Wikipedia:
Gary Oldman as Herman J. Mankiewicz
Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies
Lily Collins as Rita Alexander, Herman's secretary, from whom Susan Alexander Kane gets her name.
Arliss Howard as Louis B. Mayer
Tom Pelphrey as Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Charles Dance as William Randolph Hearst
Sam Troughton as John Houseman
Ferdinand Kingsley as Irving Thalberg
Tuppence Middleton as Sara Mankiewicz, Herman's wife
Tom Burke as Orson Welles
Joseph Cross as Charles Lederer
Jamie McShane as Shelly Metcalf, test shot director and Herman’s friend. Although Metcalf is fictional, Felix E. Feist was the test shot director at MGM, who shot the propaganda films against Upton Sinclair that Metcalf shoots in Mank.
Toby Leonard Moore as David O. Selznick
Monika Gossmann as Fräulein Frieda, Herman's housekeeper
Leven Rambin as Eve, Metcalf's wife
Bill Nye as Upton Sinclair
Jeff Harms as Ben Hecht
"Many other Hollywood icons are portrayed, including George S. Kaufman, Greta Garbo, Josef von Sternberg, Norma Shearer, Eleanor Boardman, Joan Crawford, Charlie Chaplin, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Billie Dove, Rexford Tugwell, Bette Davis, Clark Gable, Charles MacArthur, Darryl F. Zanuck, S. J. Perelman, Carole Lombard, and Eddie Cantor." (End of cast listing from Wikipedia).
Loc: Victorville, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Center Studios, 1 Nov 2019 – 1 Feb 2020.
In memory of Jack Fincher.
131 min
US premiere (limited): 13 Nov 2020
Netflix release: 4 Dec 2020
Finnish premiere (limited): 20 Nov 2020 – released by Cinemanse with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Annemarie Oksanen / Anne Norman.
Corona emergency security: 25% capacity, face masks, distancing, hand hygiene.
Viewed at Kino Engel 1, Helsinki, 20 Nov 2020.
IMDb synopsis: "1930's Hollywood is reevaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane (1941)."
AA: Mank is the best movie of the year 2020.
How can I say this although Mank does gross injustice to Orson Welles?
For three reasons. Because of all the films I saw in 2020, this is the one in which I most repeatedly had the feeling that I need to see it again as soon as possible. Because of all the films discussing the boy wonder this is the one with the panache to match. And because, despite the character assassination approach, the film nevertheless conveys the singularity of Orson Welles's achievement better than any other fiction.
I had had a similar experience before. When I wrote my first piece on Citizen Kane, a program note for the film society Monroe in Tampere 45 years ago, my main sources were The Citizen Kane Book containing an ignorant essay by a critic colleague, and Charles Higham's The Films of Orson Welles. I had blithely dived into a pool of sharks, but the power of Citizen Kane and the pleasure of reading its screenplay were so overwhelming that they transcended the attempts of the feeble sharks. (I still possess my 45-year-old paperback copy of The Citizen Kane Book, invaluable because of the manuscript, reduced long ago into a loose-leaf wad held together by rubber band).
Every time Citizen Kane is different, and every time it is about the pleasure of the cinema. Herman J. Mankiewicz's credit is undeniable. But so is the fact that Orson Welles electrified his colleagues to an achievement unique for all.
The real conditions of making Citizen Kane have been documented by Andrew Sarris, Joseph McBride, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Robert Carringer, Harlan Lebo – and Peter Bogdanovich fronting for Orson Welles, himself. There are fact-checking reviews of Mank the movie online by Joseph McBride, David Walsh, and others.
The entire movie plays fast and loose with facts. Dozens of references are half-accurate at best. David Fincher creates a parallel Hollywoodian universe with familiar characters, but everything has been altered. In a way Mank resembles Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.
Of Fincher's own movies, Mank is closest to The Social Network, also set in a real institution (Facebook) and with a real celebrity as protagonist (Mark Zuckerberg), but it did not do justice to either. It was also a brilliant satire set in a plausible parallel universe.
Mank is a reflection of Citizen Kane in many ways. In Citizen Kane, reporter Thompson embarks on a quest to divulge the secret of Rosebud (sujet) and the reminiscences of his interviewees are seen in flashbacks (fabula). In Mank, Herman J. Mankiewicz writes the screenplay of Citizen Kane (sujet) and reverts to his memories of Hollywood and San Simeon, seen in flashbacks (fabula).
In the center is a great performance by Gary Oldman as the alcoholic screenwriter who is given a golden chance to immortality by Orson Welles. Mank is both a brilliant wit and a mess as a human being. He is capable of generosity (helping persecuted Jews in Germany as a premature anti-fascist) and betrayal (his Susan Alexander caricature based on his good friend Marion Davies is unjust, mean and cruel).
The protagonist is a screenwriter, and the movie does honour his art and craft by breathtakingly witty dialogue. Like The Social Network, written by Aaron Sorkin, Mank is dialogue-driven. Like in The Social Network, women are belittled and marginalized, and it is difficult to say if this is a feature of David Fincher's cinema or the Hollywood of the 1930s.
Mank is also a political drama, featuring a mighty capitalist, William Randolph Hearst, and an idealistic socialist writer, Upton Sinclair. Like in Citizen Kane, freedom of the press and the power of money are at stake. Money talks, and with money it is possible to produce phony newsreels to discredit a rival candidate. The issues are based on reality, but details are again far from accurate. Mank is drama, not historiography.
Why was Orson Welles so hated by some?
There is a Finnish poem by Eino Leino called "Laulu onnesta" ["The Song of Happiness"] that starts with with the line "Kell' onni on, se onnen kätkeköön" ["If you find bliss, you must hide it"]. Poetry is what gets lost in translation, as Robert Frost said, but you get the idea.
Orson Welles was in trouble almost all his life, but he found bliss in his talent, creativity, friends and loves, a bliss he did not hide.
He must have been hurt by The Citizen Kane Book, and he would have been offended by Mank, but he would have soon overcome them, putting things into perspective as a modern Renaissance man, at home in the wavelengths of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Faust and Don Giovanni.
BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK:
PLOT FROM WIKIPEDIA:
"In 1940, Orson Welles is given complete creative freedom for his next project by RKO. For the screenplay, Welles recruits Herman J. Mankiewicz, who is in Victorville, California recovering from a broken leg he sustained in a car accident. Herman dictates the script to his secretary, Rita Alexander, who notices similarities between the main character and William Randolph Hearst. Producer John Houseman is concerned about Herman's dense, nonlinear screenplay, while Herman's brother Joseph worries that it may anger the powerful Hearst."
"In 1930, Herman visits an MGM location where he and the female lead, Marion Davies, recognize each other. She introduces him to Hearst, her benefactor and lover, who takes a liking to Herman. In 1933, Herman and his wife Sara attend Louis B. Mayer's birthday party at Hearst Castle with many Hollywood bigwigs. They discuss the rise of Nazi Germany and the upcoming gubernatorial election, in particular candidate Upton Sinclair. Herman and Marion go for a stroll, where they bond over discussions on politics and the film industry."
"In 1940, Houseman grows impatient over Herman's lack of progress. Rita is also concerned with the timing of the writing, as well as Herman's alcoholism. Herman eventually finishes the screenplay in time. Houseman is impressed but reminds Herman that he will receive no credit for his work."
"In 1934, Herman and Joseph begin working at MGM under Mayer. Studio executives, including Irving Thalberg, actively work against Sinclair's gubernatorial campaign. The studio produces propaganda films for a smear campaign, funded by Hearst, against Sinclair. Herman approaches Marion to get the films pulled, but is unsuccessful as she has already left the studio for Warner Brothers. Herman and Sara later attend an election night watch party at the Trocadero Nightclub, where Mayer announces the winner, Frank Merriam. Herman's colleague, director Shelly Metcalf, shoots and kills himself after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and guilt-ridden over his role in the smear campaign, in spite of personally supporting Sinclair."
"In 1940, Charles Lederer picks up the screenplay from Herman to deliver to the studio. Joseph visits Herman after reading the screenplay and warns him of Hearst's reaction and how it might affect Marion. He does, however, believe that it's the finest thing Herman has ever written. Marion also visits and does her best to persuade Herman to change the screenplay but to no avail. She tells Herman she will try to stop the picture from getting made."
"In 1937, Herman crashes a party at Hearst Castle, where he drunkenly pitches the idea for the film he will go on to write in 1940, offending everyone present including Hearst, Mayer and Marion. Mayer reveals that Herman is on Hearst's payroll and compares him to a court jester. Hearst tells him an allegory about a monkey and an organ grinder and sees him out."
"In 1940, despite pressure from Hearst, Welles is determined to make the film and intends to do a re-write without Herman. He visits Herman and offers him a buyout from the studio. However, reneging on the terms of his contract, Herman demands credit for the script, declaring it his greatest work. Welles is upset and tells Herman that he has gone to bat for him, before leaving angrily. Herman ultimately receives joint credit with Welles, and the two win the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film two years later. "
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