I saw Miami Vice (2006) in the theater and I was just blown away, just completely blown away. I think what Michael Mann was doing with digital in that film was unlike anything anyone had ever done before. And certainly, I looked at that film quite a bit when we were making Moonlight.
Films like Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï and Army of Shadows or the works of Gillo Pontecorvo, particularly The Battle of Algiers, have always been touchstones for me in terms of creating that level of immersive realism, especially when approaching something like Miami Vice.
Films like Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï [1967] and Army of Shadows [1969] or the works of Gillo Pontecorvo, particularly The Battle of Algiers [1966], have always been touchstones for me in terms of creating that level of immersive realism, especially when approaching something like Miami Vice.