Film noir par excellence, in spite of Dante Spinotti’s unprecedented blue hues.
Heat is a 90s cult. Possibly, THE Los Angeles movie. A film on which Michael Mann continued to work for a long time after it had been distributed, seeking the right balance between all the components of his masterpiece. All sorts of things have been written on this existentialist noir stretched between Melville and Kirk Wong, which doesn’t resemble anything but itself. The fact remains that it is a masterpiece. A milestone in film history. One of those films that when you watch it again, you find new aspects, layers, and secrets. For the Locarno Film Festival, it is an extraordinary honor to light up Piazza Grande with the images that Dante Spinotti created and composed for Michael Mann. The version of Heat that we present is the ultimate director’s cut, in its whole length, restored in 4K under the direct supervision of Dante Spinotti himself. Those who are familiar with the quality of the Locarno screenings know that this will be an unmissable event. The way Heat will be presented in Piazza Grande has probably never been seen before. Even those who believe they know everything about the film, even its minutest details, may still find new secrets. A both sumptuous and minimal story of men incapable of escaping their destinies, and of their women who are unable to save them, Heat ranks at the top of American and global cinema. A merciless, sensuous noir with ambient oscillations. A hymn to the City of Angels and its people. A movie with an intoxicating beauty. A beauty with a name and surname: Dante Spinotti. Sublime master of light and darkness, dawn and twilight. And of the boundless solitude of the souls.
Giona A. Nazzaro
