David Mamet
David Mamet | |
|---|---|
 David Mamet at the premiere of Redbelt | |
| Occupation | Author playwright screenwriter film director |
| Nationality | American |
| Notable works | Play Lakeboat (1970) Film The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) Book Writing in Restaurants (1987) Television series The Unit (2006) |
David Alan Mamet (born November 30, 1947) is an American author, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and film director. His works are known for their clever, terse, sometimes vulgar dialogue and arcane stylized phrasing, as well as for his exploration of masculinity.
As a playwright, he received Tony nominations for Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988). As a screenwriter, he received Oscar nominations for The Verdict (1982) and Wag the Dog (1997).
His recent books include The Old Religion (1997), a novel about the lynching of Leo Frank; Five Cities of Refuge: Weekly Reflections on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy (2004), a Torah commentary, with Rabbi Lawrence Kushner; The Wicked Son (2006), a study of Jewish self-hatred and antisemitism; and Bambi vs. Godzilla, an acerbic commentary on the movie business.
Early years
Mamet was born to a Jewish family in Chicago. One of his first jobs was as a busboy at Chicago's The Second City. He was educated at the Francis W. Parker School and at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. David is a founding member of the Atlantic Theater Company; he first gained acclaim for a trio of off-Broadway plays in 1976, The Duck Variations, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and American Buffalo.[1] He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for Glengarry Glen Ross, which received its first Broadway revival in the summer of 2005.
Later years
Family
Mamet and actress Lindsay Crouse were married from 1977 to 1990, and have two children together, Willa and Zosia (pronounced Zoh-sha). Since 1991, Mamet has been married to actress and singer-songwriter, Rebecca Pidgeon. They have two children, Clara and Noah.
Transition to film
Mamet's first produced screenplay was the 1981 production of The Postman Always Rings Twice (directed by Bob Rafelson), based upon James M. Cain's novel. He received an Academy Award nomination one year later for his first script, The Verdict; written in the late 1970s.
In 1987, Mamet made his film directing debut with House of Games, starring his then-wife, Lindsay Crouse, and a host of longtime stage associates. He remains a prolific writer and director, and has assembled an informal repertory company for his films, including William H. Macy, Joe Mantegna, Crouse, Rebecca Pidgeon, and Ricky Jay.
Like independent director John Sayles, Mamet funds his own films with the pay he gets from credited and uncredited rewrites of typically big-budget films. For instance, Mamet did a rewrite of the script for Ronin under the pseudonym "Richard Weisz", and turned in an early version of a script for Malcolm X that director Spike Lee rejected.[2]
Three of Mamet's own films, House of Games, The Spanish Prisoner, and Heist have involved the world of con artists.
In 2000, Mamet directed, but did not write Catastrophe, based on the one-act play by Samuel Beckett, and featuring Harold Pinter and John Gielgud (in his final screen performance).
Mamet has published three novels, The Village in 1994, The Old Religion in 1997, and Wilson: a Consideration of the Sources in 2000. He has also written several non-fiction texts, as well as a number of poems and children's stories.
Since May 2005 he has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post. The majority of his posts are scans of his own doodles, all political satires laced with humor. His first post journaled his astonishment that one can communicate on a computer.[3]
He has also published a lauded version of the classical Faust story, Faustus, in 2004. However, the play, when staged in San Francisco during the spring of 2004, was not well received by the critics.[4]
Recently, he has completed the Mixed Martial Arts movie 'Redbelt', a film about a martial arts instructor hoodwinked into fighting in a professional bout.
Writing in The Village Voice[5], he announced that he was no longer a 'brain-dead liberal,' but instead believed in free market thinkers, such as Thomas Sowell, "our greatest contemporary philosopher."
Television
He is also the creator, producer and frequent writer of the television series The Unit, co-produced with Shawn Ryan of The Shield.
In 2007, Mamet directed two television commercials for Ford Motor Company. The two 30-second ads featured the Ford Edge and were filmed in Mamet's signature style of fast-paced dialogue and clear, simple imagery.
BBC Radio
In recent years, Mamet has also contributed several dramas to BBC Radio through Jarvis & Ayres Productions, including an adaptation of Glengarry Glen Ross for BBC Radio 3 and new dramas for BBC Radio 4. His most recent work is a comedy entitled Keep Your Pantheon, or On the Whole I'd Rather Be in Mesopotamia (aired 28 May 2007).
Writing style
Mamet's dialogue, marked by a cynical, street-smart edge, is precisely crafted for effect and impact.[citation needed] He often uses italics and quotation marks to highlight particular words and to draw attention to his characters' frequent manipulation and deceitful use of language. His characters frequently interrupt one another, their sentences trail off unfinished, and their dialogue overlaps. Mamet himself has criticized his (and other writers') tendency to write "pretty" at the expense of sound, logical plots.[6]
When once asked how he developed his knack for writing abusive, obscene dialogue Mamet once commented, "In my family, in the days prior to television, we liked to while away the evenings by making ourselves miserable, based solely on our ability to speak the language viciously. That's probably where my ability was honed."[7]
One classic instance of Mamet's dialogue style can be found in Glengarry Glen Ross, in which two down-on-their-luck realtors are considering breaking into their employer's office to steal a list of good leads. George Aaronow and Dave Moss finagle the meaning of "talk" and "speak", steeped in fraudulent connivance of the language and meaning:
- Moss No. What do you mean? Have I talked to him about this [Pause]
- Aaronow Yes. I mean are you actually talking about this, or are we just...
- Moss No, we're just...
- Aaronow We're just "talking" about it.
- Moss We're just speaking about it. [Pause] As an idea.
- Aaronow As an idea.
- Moss Yes.
- Aaronow We're not actually talking about it.
- Moss No.
- Aaronow Talking about it as a...
- Moss No.
- Aaronow As a robbery.
- Moss As a "robbery"? No.
Mamet dedicated Glengarry Glen Ross to Harold Pinter, who was instrumental in its being first staged at the Royal National Theatre, in 1983, and whom Mamet has acknowledged as an influence on its success, and on his other work.[8]
Mamet's writing has developed over the years, primarily in his skill at sustaining longer plots, and his use of tantalizing, playful surprises [citation needed]. He himself has expressed that he grew tired of writing short plays — largely exercises in dialogue — before the audience grew tired of attending them [citation needed].
Directing style
In Mamet's book, On Directing Film, he reiterates the objectivity of film making. He believes meaning is found in juxtaposing cuts, and that when shooting a scene, the director should consistently follow what the point of the scene is. He doesn't believe film should follow the protagonist or consist of visually beautiful or intriguing shots, but should be simply functional in getting a point across in an essential and necessary way. He wants his films to be perpetuated by logical ways of creating order from disorder in search for the superobjective.
Other endeavors
In 1990 Mamet published a 55-page collection of poetry called The Hero Pony. Mamet has also published a series of short plays and monologues. Also, as a part of his contributions to The Huffington Post, Mamet is also a cartoonist, having drawn many cartoons relating to current strife in Israel. [1]
Written work
See also
References
- ^ "David Mamet Biography". FilmMakers Magazine. Retrieved 2007-01-18.
- ^ Simpson, Janet. "The Battle To Film Malcolm X". Time. Retrieved 2007-03-20.
- ^ Levy, Steven. "Huffington's Post: Not Yet Toast". Newsweek. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
- ^ von Buchau, Stephanie. "Dr. Faustus". TheaterMania. Retrieved 2004-03-13.
- ^ "David Mamet: Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal'". March 11th, 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-14.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Mamet, David. Writing in Restaurants.
- ^ Stephen Randall, ed. (2006). "David Mamet: April 1996, interviewed by Geoffrey Norman and John Rezek". The Playboy Interviews: The Directors. M Press. pp. p.276.
{{cite book}}:|pages=has extra text (help) - ^ "Landmarks," on Night Waves BBC Radio, March 3, 2005, accessed January 17, 2007.
Further information
- Mamet, David (2007-02-12). "David Mamet: Bambi vs. Godzilla" (Interview). Interviewed by Leonard Lopate.
{{cite interview}}: Unknown parameter|callsign=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|city=ignored (|location=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|program=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|subjectlink=ignored (|subject-link=suggested) (help) - David Mamet's papers reside at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin.
External links
- David Mamet: Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal' (Village Voice)
- David Mamet Bio at CBS - The Unit
- David Mamet at IMDb
- David Mamet's writings and cartoons on the Huffington Post
- Interview at salon.com
- Interview by Cathy Pryor in the London 'Independent on Sunday'
- Book Review of True and False
- First-hand account of Mamet reading from Dr. Faustus at the 92nd Street Y
- Book Review of The Wicked Son
- Book Review of The Wicked Son by an American academic
- Book Review of The Wicked Son from the Toronto Star
- 1947 births
- American dramatists and playwrights
- American screenwriters
- Goddard College alumni
- People from Chicago
- Jewish American film directors
- Jewish American writers
- Baalei teshuva
- Acting theorists
- Living people
- Members of The American Academy of Arts and Letters
- Writers from Chicago
- Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners
- Vermont culture
- People from Vermont