Fincher originally intended to makeMank after he completedThe Game (1997), withKevin Spacey andJodie Foster as the leads, but the project did not come to fruition. Eventually, the project was officially announced in July 2019, and filming took place aroundLos Angeles from November 2019 to February 2020. To pay homage to thefilms of the 1930s,Mank was shot inblack-and-white usingRED cameras.[citation needed]
In 1940,Orson Welles is given complete creative freedom for his next project byRKO. For the screenplay, Welles recruitsHerman J. Mankiewicz, who is inVictorville, California, recovering from a broken leg he sustained in a car crash. Hermandictates the script to his secretary, Rita Alexander, who notices similarities between the main character (Charles Foster Kane) andWilliam Randolph Hearst. ProducerJohn Houseman is concerned about Herman's dense,nonlinear screenplay, while Herman's brotherJoseph worries that it may anger the powerful Hearst.
In 1930, Herman visits anMGMlocation where he and the female lead,Marion Davies, recognize each other. She introduces him to Hearst, her benefactor and lover, who takes a liking to Herman. In 1933, Herman and his wife Sara attendLouis B. Mayer's birthday party atHearst Castle with manyHollywood bigwigs. They discuss the rise ofNazi Germany and the upcominggubernatorial election, in particular candidateUpton Sinclair. Herman and Marion go for a stroll, where they bond over discussions on politics and thefilm industry.
In 1940, Houseman grows impatient over Herman's lack of progress. Rita is also concerned with the timing of the writing and Herman'salcoholism. He does finishthe screenplay in time. Houseman is impressed but reminds Herman that he will receive no credit for his work.
In 1934, Herman and Joseph begin working at MGM under Mayer. Studio executives, includingIrving Thalberg, actively work againstSinclair's gubernatorial campaign. The studio producespropaganda films for asmear campaign, funded by Hearst, against Sinclair. Herman approaches Marion to pull the films but is unsuccessful as she has already left the studio forWarner Bros. Herman and Sara later attend anelection night watch party at theTrocadero Nightclub, where Mayer announces the winner,Frank Merriam. Herman's colleague, director Shelly Metcalf, shoots andkills himself after being diagnosed withParkinson's disease and guilt-ridden over his role in the smear campaign, despite personally supporting Sinclair.
In 1940,Charles Lederer picks up the screenplay from Herman to deliver to the studio. Joseph visits Herman after reading it, warning him of Hearst's reaction and how it might affect Marion. He does, however, believe that it is the finest thing Herman has ever written. Marion also visits and does her best to persuade Herman to change the screenplay but to no avail. She tells Herman she will try to stop the picture from getting made.
In 1937, Hermancrashes a party at Hearst Castle, where he drunkenly pitches the idea for the film he will later write, offending everyone present, including Hearst, Mayer, and Marion. An enraged Mayer reveals that Herman is on Hearst's payroll and calls him acourt jester. Hearst tells him anallegory about a monkey and anorgan grinder and sees him out.
In 1940, despite pressure from Hearst, Welles is determined to make the film and intends to do a re-write without Herman. He visits Herman and offers him abuyout from the studio. However, reneging on the terms of his contract, Herman requests credit for the script, declaring it his greatest work. An upset Welles tells Herman that he has gone to bat for him before leaving angrily. Herman ultimately receives joint credit with Welles, and they win theAcademy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film (Citizen Kane) two years later.
Jamie McShane as "Shelly Metcalf", test shot director and Herman's friend. Although Metcalf is fictional,Felix E. Feist was the test shot director atMGM, who shot thepropaganda films against Upton Sinclair that Metcalf shoots inMank.[7]
The 120-page draft of the initial script revealed that Jack Fincher closely followed a claim voiced byPauline Kael in her 1971New Yorker article "Raising Kane" that Welles did not deserve screenwriting credit.[14] The article angered many critics, including Welles's friend and fellow filmmakerPeter Bogdanovich who rebutted Kael's claims point by point in "The Kane Mutiny", an October 1972 article forEsquire.[15] Her argument was discredited by several film scholars through the years, including Robert L. Carringer in his study of "The Scripts ofCitizen Kane."[16]
Many current academics and critics were sparked to action byMank's many-times over debunked premise that the script was Mankiewicz's alone, includingNY Times writer Ben Kenigsberg,[17] andJonathan Rosenbaum, editor of the Welles-Bogdanovich bookThis Is Orson Welles, who wrote "...Finchers Senior and Junior, willing and eager to accept and further spread Kael's inaccurate assertion that Herman J. Mankiewicz was the only screenwriter on Citizen Kane, not bothering to research the matter."[18]
Mank producerEric Roth reportedly polished the script prior to filming,[19] with David Fincher saying he felt early drafts were too anti-Welles.[20] When asked about the controversy surrounding authorship, Fincher stated that his movie does not aim to settle the issue: "It was not my interest to make a movie about a posthumous credit arbitration. I was interested in making a movie about a man who agreed not to take any credit. And who then changed his mind. That was interesting to me."[17]
Filming began on November 1, 2019, inLos Angeles.[21] It also took place inVictorville, California, and wrapped on February 4, 2020.[22] The film was shot in black and white on Fincher's preferredRED digital camera and made reference to the aesthetics ofCitizen Kane cinematographerGregg Toland.[23] Dance stated that a scene involving a drunken Mankiewicz took over 100 takes,[24] while Seyfried said that one of her scenes took over a week and 200 takes to shoot.[25] She stated, "It does feel likeGroundhog Day, in a way, but that's how [Fincher] captures things that most people don't."[24] The moonlight stroll between Mankiewicz and Davies was filmed atHuntington Gardens and aPasadena mansion during the day, although it takes place at night. This was done using theday for night technique. Shooting it during the day was necessary for the lighting Messerschmidt needed for the scene.[23]
For designing the costumes, costume designerTrish Summerville and production designerDonald Graham Burt used thenoir andmonochromatic filters on theiriPhones to see how they would look in black and white. Because the film was shot in black and white and not converted afterwards, it meant Summerville had to pick colors that would pop. She looked at photos from 1930s Hollywood to see what was worn at the time.[26]
Fincher's frequent collaboratorsTrent Reznor andAtticus Ross composed the score forMank. Forgoing their usual synth-heavy style, Reznor and Ross used period-authentic instrumentation from the 1940s to accompany the film.[27] As a result of theCOVID-19 pandemic, each member of the orchestra recorded their sections for the score from home.[28] The entire soundtrack is composed of songs written and performed by Reznor and Ross and runs for 52 tracks at over an hour and a half,[29][30] and was released by The Null Corporation on December 4, 2020, the same day coinciding with the film's release.[31] An extended soundtrack (featuring unreleased music and demos not featured in the film) that runs over three hours with 87 tracks, was released through Bandcamp the following week, December 11.[30][32]
Mank was released in alimited theatrical release in the United States on November 13, 2020,[20] before beginning to stream worldwide on Netflix on December 4, 2020.[2]
IndieWire reported the film played in 75 theaters during its opening weekend and did "similar business" as other new indie releasesThe Climb andAmmonite, which each averaged about $300 per venue (which would mean a $22,500 debut forMank).[33] Upon the film's release onto Netflix, it only managed to finish in the top-10 on its first day. IndieWire wrote that it just "didn't gain the attention of other high-profile originals likeDa 5 Bloods,The Trial of the Chicago 7, andHillbilly Elegy," all of which debuted in first or second place.[34]
Review aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes reports that 83% of 351 critic reviews were positive, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Sharply written and brilliantly performed,Mank peers behind the scenes ofCitizen Kane to tell an old Hollywood story that could end up being a classic in its own right."[35] According toMetacritic, which compiled 52 reviews and calculated a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, the film received "generally favorable reviews".[36]
Eric Kohn ofIndieWire gave the film a "B+" and wrote: "However much credit Mankiewicz deserves forKane, Fincher's remarkable movie makes a compelling argument for appreciating the prescience behind its conception. His life had a rough ending, but the movie about it gives him one last bitter laugh."[37] Writing for theLos Angeles Times,Justin Chang said, "Mank demands your surrender, but also your heightened attention. It's a pleasurably discombobulating experience, sometimes playing like mordant drawing-room comedy and sometimes flirting with expressionist nightmare, as when Welles' dark silhouette looms over a bedridden Mank and his mummified leg."[38]
Owen Gleiberman ofVariety praised the performances and production design, saying, "Mank is a tale ofOld Hollywood that's more steeped in Old Hollywood – its glamour and sleaze, its layer-cake hierarchies, its corruption and glory – than just about any movie you've seen, and the effect is to lend it a dizzying time-machine splendor."[39]Peter Travers, reviewing the film forABC News, wrote: "Mank is the most gorgeous piece of cinema you'll see anywhere. Brilliantly shot in black-and-white byErik Messerschmidt, with costumes to die for by Trish Summerville and a period-authentic score byTrent Reznor andAtticus Ross that somehow isn't defeated by the retromono sound,Mank is meant to match the look and feel of its era, as if it's eight decades ago and you just bought a ticket."[40]
Jason Bailey ofThe Playlist was more mixed and gave the film a "C+" grade, calling it a "gorgeously mounted but ultimately distant biopic".[41]The A.V. Club'sIgnatiy Vishnevetsky thought it was "conventional to a fault", writing that parts of the film "bear an uncanny resemblance to the kind of awards-bait middlebrow drama usually essayed by BBC-trained hacks."[42]
Mank appeared on 50 critics' year-end top-10 lists, including four first-place rankings and five second place ones.[43]
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