In 1940, screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz recovers from a car crash while he dictates the script for Citizen Kane. Flashbacks to Hollywood in the 1930s show how he knew the people his script mocks. Fincher shot it in black and white to look like a film from that era.
Mank is a 2020 drama, biography and history film directed by David Fincher. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (2 narrative, 1 cinematography and 1 sound), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, The Odyssey uses several of the same techniques.
Telling the story out of order by jumping between time periods. The order you see events in changes how you understand them.
How this film uses it
Like Kane, the film jumps between 1940 and flashbacks to 1933, 1934 and 1937. Typed scene headings appear on screen in screenplay format, so you feel the script being written. Each jump shows where a piece of the Kane story came from.
Where to see it
The 1937 party. A drunk Mankiewicz insults Hearst at a party, and Louis B. Mayer calls him a court jester.
Making a film that criticizes the film industry from the inside. It shows the cruelty under the glamour of stardom and how easily talent gets thrown away.
How this film uses it
The film shows studios making fake propaganda films against Upton Sinclair in the 1934 governor's race. Shelly Metcalf, a fictional director, dies by suicide after the smear. The glamour is thin, and the people behind it are cruel.
Where to see it
The 1934 campaign films. Studio-backed propaganda attacks Sinclair, and Metcalf dies by suicide afterward.
Recreating the look of an earlier era's film or television using period cameras, film stock, lighting and contrast. The images feel like real records from that time or a tribute to it.
How this film uses it
Fincher and cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt shot in black and white on RED digital cameras, referencing the look of Gregg Toland, who shot Citizen Kane. The moonlit walk was shot in daylight with the day-for-night technique, where daytime footage is darkened to look like night.
Where to see it
The moonlight walk. Mankiewicz and Marion Davies stroll together under a night sky that was filmed in daytime.
Building a score from instruments and sounds that match the story's era, like ancient lyres, bronze and folk singing. The music feels made from the world on screen.
How this film uses it
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross wrote the score with 1940s-style instruments, and the musicians recorded from home because of COVID-19. The music sounds like it came from the period and keeps you in old Hollywood.
Where to see it
The 1933 party at Hearst Castle. Mankiewicz mixes with Hearst and Marion Davies at the castle.
Questions
Mank: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Mank use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Mank (2020): Non-Linear Narrative, Hollywood Self-Indictment, Period Film Look Imitation and Period Instrument Score.
Who directed Mank?
David Fincher directed Mank, released in 2020. CineCode also covers Alien³ (1992), Se7en (1995), The Game (1997), Fight Club (1999), Panic Room (2002), Zodiac (2007).
What films are similar to Mank?
Films that share techniques with Mank include The Odyssey (2026), Inception (2010), Pulp Fiction (1994), Sunset Boulevard (1950).
