David Mamet's work as a dramatist has been studied in depth and been subject
of great critical interest. But Mamet is a varied and prolific author who has worked in
other fields, including poetry, novels, children's books and plays, and films. He
started his career in cinema as a screenwriter but since 1987 he has written and
directed eight films in a variety of genres and topics, from confidence men to
adaptations of Terence Rattigan's plays.
In contrast with his theatrical oeuvre, Mamet's work on film has received little
systematic attention, and when analysed has always been compared to his plays. With
my thesis I intend to redress the balance by studying his films, not only in the context
of his work for the stage, but also in that of the film genre tradition. Although many of
the themes he treats in his cinema are common to his plays also, his choice of
classical filmic genres to express them creates a tension that questions both the
themes and the generic conventions.
I base my thesis on an auteurist concept, using interviews with the author, his
own essays, and other works as complementary texts to the films (especially his
theoretical writing on acting and directing films). My Inain emphasis is placed on
close readings of certain scenes to illustrate Mamet's approach to genre, gender, his
characteristic use of language, his favourite themes, his direction of actors, and his
development of his own cinematic style. I also place the movies in the cinematic
tradition by comparing them to other films of the same genre, or by directors who
share similarities with Mamet (like Quentin Tarantino, Alfred Hitchcock, or Preston
Sturges). Mamet is not a dramatist who sometimes makes movies, but a
dramatist/filmmaker and I hope my thesis contributes to a more complete
understanding of his career
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