White Wall Cinema Presents: HEAT

Michael Mann’s sleekly romantic, emotional, hard hitting, epic Los Angeles crime saga, and first time face off between two acting giants in DeNiro and Pacino still stands as one of the great achievements of American cinema. A brilliantly crafted crime drama, Mann reaches into the heart of the inner lives of Lt. Vincent Hanna (Pacino) who whilst simultaneously trying to deal with a relationship breakdown with his wife (Venora) and daughter (Portman) attempts to track down career criminal Neil McCauley (DeNiro) and his high end heist crew.

For both lawbreakers and law-keepers Mann exquisitely depicts the effects of a life centred on crime, its toll on relationships and the mental and physical strain involved all wrapped up in a sophisticated and beautifully stylised police procedural and crime action concept aped by many in future decades (Heat’s stylisation is almost wholesale ripped off by Christopher Nolan in The Dark Knight).

A towering opera of a modern crime drama it exploits taught editing, and virtuoso performances to create a piece of brooding modernist cinematic conviction combining both a grand depth and artifice that has had an arguably greater impact on film and TV and even video games (Grand Theft Auto we are looking at you) than other creations of the era that featured the then more fashionable post-modern brash surface approach such as Pulp Fiction. This definitive remaster edition (overseen by Mann himself) with its astonishingly elegant cinematography and deeply affecting soundtrack is a must see on the big screen.

DOORS: 6.50pm*

START TIME: 7.20pm*

RUN TIME: 170 mins

CERT: 15

LOCATION: Wagner Hall (Regency Road, Brighton)