FILM 2365: MANK (2020)

TRIVIA: The script was written by David Fincher's late father, Jack Fincher.

Shot on RED Monstrochrome 8K cameras, no color version of this film exists.

David Fincher and Gary Oldman share a connection in that they were both married to Donya Fiorentino. Fincher was married to Fiorentino from 1990 to 1995, while Oldman was married to Fiorentino from 1997 to 2001. As a result, Fincher's daughter and Oldman's two sons with Fiorentino are half-siblings. Both marriages reportedly ended in disaster. It is rumored that Fincher's and Oldman's troubled experiences with Fiorentino became a strong inspiration for Fincher's directing "Gone Girl (2014)."

David Fincher hired Maurice LaMarche to read every line of Orson Welles's dialogue in order for Tom Burke to practice his performance. LaMarche provided the dubbed speaking voice for Vincent D'Onofrio's performance as Welles in Ed Wood (1994).

David Fincher, in an extensive New York Magazine interview, explained how the film transports you into the period of Hollywood of the 1930s and early '40s through its visuals and sound design. "Ren Klyce, who is the sound designer, and I started talking years ago about how we wanted to make this feel like it was found in the UCLA archives - or in Martin Scorsese's basement on its way to restoration," Fincher said. "Everything has been compressed and made to sound like the 1940s. The music has been recorded with older microphones, so it has a sort of sizzle and wheeze around the edges - you get it from strings, but you mostly get it from brass. What you're hearing is a revival house - an old theater playing a movie." Fincher further mentioned that in screenings so far, viewers have reacted to the noticeably vintage sound quality. "It's funny because I've played it for some people who ask, 'What is going on with the sound? It's so warm.', and I respond, 'Well, what you mean when you say "warm" is it sounds like an old movie. It sounds analog.'" Fincher also added that the process of degrading the sound design dragged the post-production process on longer than expected. "We went three weeks over schedule on the mix trying to figure out how to split that atom," Fincher said. "[Visually,] our notion was we're going to shoot super-high resolution, and then we're going to degrade it. So we took most everything and softened it to an absurd extent to try to match the look of the era. We probably lost two-thirds of the resolution in order to make it have the same feel, and then we put in little scratches and digs and cigarette burns." Another throwback to the Hollywood of yesteryear, the film also features the reel-change circles you'd see throughout an old celluloid print in a movie theater. "We made the soundtrack pop like it does when you do a reel changeover. It's one of the most comforting sounds in my life. They're so little that they're very difficult to hear until you hear them. It has what we ended up calling patina; these tiny little pops and crackles that happen, and they're very beautiful."

This is the second film to detail the process of creating Citizen Kane (1941), following the semi-fictitious RKO 281 (1999) which starred John Malkovich as Herman J. Mankiewiczand Liev Schreiber as Orson Welles.

Speaking with French magazine Premiere, David Fincher revealed he signed an exclusive deal with Netflix for the next four years. Fincher did the deal after having completed Mank(2020) for Netflix. Here's what Fincher said, "Yes, it's an exclusivity deal with Netflix for another four years". Fincher continued by jokingly saying, "Depending on 'Mank's' reception, I'll either go see them sheepishly asking them what I can do to redeem myself or take the attitude of the arrogant a**hole who'll require making other films in black and white". He further added, "No, I'm here to deliver them 'content' - whatever it means - likely to bring them spectators, in my small sphere of influence." Fincher will have creative control of his projects now because he signed this Netflix deal. Fincher goes on to explain, "It's also because I'd like to work like Picasso painted, to try to break the shape or change the operating mode." He claims to like the idea of having a body of work as he mentions, "Yes, it feels strange, after forty years in this profession, to only have ten films under my belt. Well, eleven, but ten that are mine. Yes, objectively, it is a pretty terrifying observation."

Marion Davies was a major film star from 1917-1937 and was ranked #1 female box office star in 1923. She was crowned Queen of the Screen by theater owners. She was a write-in candidate for a best actress Oscar in 1934 for Peg o' My Heart (1933) when there were only three nominees in that category. She ranked as one of MGM's most popular stars for the ten years she was with that studio.

Gary Oldman is the eighth Oscar winner to play an Oscar winner in a movie, after Faye Dunaway (as Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest (1981)), Nicolas Cage (as Charlie Kaufman in Adaptation. (2002)), Cate Blanchett (as Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator(2004) and as Bob Dylan in I'm Not There (2007)), Christian Bale and Heath Ledger (as Bob Dylan in I'm Not There (2007)), Tom Hanks (as Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks(2013)), and Nicole Kidman (as Grace Kelly in Grace of Monaco (2014)).

This is featured on the podcast Blank Check episode Mank with Sean Fennessey