David Mamet
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| David Mamet | |
 David Mamet in the WNYC studios in Feb 2007 |
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| Born: | November 30, 1947 (age 59) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
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| Occupation: | Author playwright screenwriter film director |
| Nationality: | American |
| Debut 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, arcane stylized phrasing, and 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.
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[edit] Early years
Mamet was born to a Jewish family in Chicago. One of his first jobs was as a busboy at Chicago's Second City. Educated at the Francis W. Parker School and at Goddard College and 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.
[edit] Later years
[edit] Family
Mamet and actress Lindsay Crouse were married from 1977 to 1990, and have two children together, Willa and Zosia (pronounced Zasha). Since 1991, Mamet has been married to actress and singer-songwriter, Rebecca Pidgeon. They have two children, Clara and Noah.
[edit] Transition to film
Mamet's first screenplay was the 1981 production of The Postman Always Rings Twice based upon James M. Cain's novel. He won an Academy Award nomination for his next script, The Verdict.
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.
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's 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.[citation needed]
[edit] Television
He is also the creator, producer and frequent writer of the television series The Unit, co-produced with Shawn Ryan of The Shield.
[edit] 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.[4]
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."[5]
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":
- 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.[6]
Mamet's writing has developed over the years, primarily in his skill at sustaining longer plots, and his use of tantalizing, playful surprises. He himself has expressed that he grew tired of writing short plays — largely exercises in dialogue — before the audience grew tired of attending them.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Written work
| Year | Plays | Films | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | Lakeboat (revised 1980) | ||
| 1972 | The Duck Variations | ||
| 1974 | Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Squirrels | ||
| 1975 | American Buffalo | ||
| 1976 | Reunion, The Water Engine | ||
| 1977 | A Life in the Theatre | ||
| 1978 | Revenge of the Space Pandas, or Binky Rudich and the Two-Speed Clock | ||
| 1979 | The Woods, The Blue Hour | ||
| 1980 | Lakeboat (revision) | ||
| 1981 | The Postman Always Rings Twice | ||
| 1982 | Edmond | The Verdict | |
| 1983 | The Frog Prince | ||
| 1984 | Glengarry Glen Ross | ||
| 1985 | The Shawl | ||
| 1986 | About Last Night... | ||
| 1987 | House of Games (director), The Untouchables | Writing in Restaurants | |
| 1988 | Speed-the-Plow | Things change (director) | |
| 1989 | Bobby Gould In Hell | We're No Angels | |
| 1991 | Homicide (director) | ||
| 1992 | Oleanna | Hoffa (producer), Glengarry Glen Ross | On Directing Film |
| 1994 | Oleanna (director), Vanya on 42nd Street | The Village | |
| 1995 | The Cryptogram | ||
| 1996 | American Buffalo | Make-Believe Town: Essays and Remembraces, Three Uses of the Knife | |
| 1997 | The Old Neighborhood[1] | Wag the Dog, The Spanish Prisoner (director), The Edge | The Old Religion |
| 1998 | Ronin | ||
| 1999 | Boston Marriage | The Winslow Boy (director) | True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor The Chinaman (poems) |
| 2000 | Lakeboat, State and Main (director) | Wilson: a Consideration of the Sources | |
| 2001 | Hannibal, Heist (director) | ||
| 2004 | Faustus | Spartan (director) | |
| 2005 | Romance, The Voysey Inheritance (adapted) | Edmond | |
| 2006 | The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Self-hatred, and the Jews | ||
| 2007 | Bambi Vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business |
Mamet directed, but did not write the film Catastrophe in 2000.
[edit] References
- ^ David Mamet Biography. FilmMakers Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-01-18.
- ^ Simpson, Janet. The Battle To Film Malcolm X. Time. Retrieved on 2007-03-20.
- ^ Levy, Steven. Huffington's Post: Not Yet Toast. Newsweek. Retrieved on 2007-01-01.
- ^ Mamet, David. Writing in Restaurants.
- ^ (2006) "David Mamet: April 1996, interviewed by Geoffrey Norman and John Rezek", in Stephen Randall: The Playboy Interviews: The Directors. M Press, p.276.
- ^ "Landmarks," on Night Waves BBC Radio, March 3, 2005, accessed January 17, 2007.
[edit] Further information
- Mamet, David. Interview with Leonard Lopate. David Mamet: Bambi vs. Godzilla. The Leonard Lopate Show. WNYC, New York. 2007-02-12.
[edit] External links
- David Mamet Bio at CBS - The Unit
- David Mamet at the Internet Movie Database
- David Mamet's writings and cartoons on the Huffington Post
- The David Mamet Society
- Interview at salon.com
- Interview by Cathy Pryor in the London 'Independent on Sunday'
- Book Review of True and False
- Book Review of The Wicked Son
- Book Review of The Wicked Son by an American academic
American Buffalo, Bobby Gould in Hell, Boston Marriage, The Cryptogram, The Duck Variations, Edmond, Faustus, The Frog Prince, Glengarry Glen Ross, Lakeboat, A Life in the Theatre, Oleanna, Reunion, Romance, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, The Shawl, Speed-the-Plow, Squirrels, Vint, The Water Engine, The Woods
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mamet, David Alan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mamet, David |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | American author, playwright, screenwriter, and film director |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 30, 1947 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Chicago, Illinois |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | 1947 births | American dramatists and playwrights | American screenwriters | People from Chicago | Jewish American film directors | Jewish American writers | Living people | Members of The American Academy of Arts and Letters | People from Illinois | Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners | Vermont culture | People from Vermont
