Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times
Published: 13 Dec 2020 10:22 AM BdST
Updated: 13 Dec 2020 10:22 AM BdST Gary Oldman, centre, as the title character in “Mank,” with Adam Shapiro, left, and Joseph Cross. The film argues that Orson Welles had little to do with the screenplay. Netflix
“Mank,” the new drama from David Fincher, revives an old charge against Orson Welles. Was Welles, who with “Citizen Kane” (1941) created what is often cited as the greatest movie ever made on his first try, actually standing on the shoulders of another genius? );
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The movie, streaming on Netflix, dramatises the writing of “Citizen Kane” through the eyes of Herman J Mankiewicz, who received top billing on the shared screenplay credit with Welles. The film focuses on the period when Mankiewicz wrote what became a 300-page doorstop called “American,” partly drawing on his own experiences as a dinner guest of William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper tycoon and inspiration for
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,
Gone Girl. It’s a rare filmmaker today who has such a solid list of credits. Fincher’s latest film, the much-hyped Netflix offering
Mank, is not a thriller but is, rather, the latest contribution to another major genre, the movie about Hollywood movie. Hollywood has always loved making movies about Hollywood, for the same reason that Narcissus loved looking at his reflection.
Mank is about Herman Mankiewicz, nicknamed Mank, who, depending on which story you believe, either co-wrote
Citizen Kane with Orson Welles or wrote it alone, only to see Welles slap his own name on the script.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,
Gone Girl. It’s a rare filmmaker today who has such a solid list of credits.
Fincher’s latest film, the much-hyped Netflix offering
Mank, is not a thriller but is, rather, the latest contribution to another major genre, the movie about Hollywood movie. Hollywood has always loved making movies about Hollywood, for the same reason that Narcissus loved looking at his reflection.
Mank is about Herman Mankiewicz, nicknamed Mank, who, depending on which story you believe, either co-wrote
Citizen Kane with Orson Welles or wrote it alone, only to see Welles slap his own name on the script.
Mank, directed by David Fincher (
Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Gone Girl) from a 1994 screenplay written by his late father, Jack Fincher, is a biographical drama about American screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and his role, or purported role, in the creation of
Citizen Kane (1941), the first film directed by and featuring Orson Welles. It is a Netflix Original film.
Much can be said about this subject, but we will have to limit ourselves.
Amanda Seyfried and Gary Oldman in
Mank
An initial title in
Mank informs us that Welles was brought to Hollywood in 1940 at the age of 24 by a struggling RKO Pictures and “given absolute creative autonomy, would suffer no oversight, and could make any movie, about any subject, with any collaborator he wished…”