Line #1 Creator/DavidMamet


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/david_mamet_photo.jpeg]]
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3	David Alan Mamet (born November 30, 1947) is a renowned American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and film director. He was born in UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} and educated at Goddard College in Vermont. Mamet is currently married to actress Creator/RebeccaPidgeon, who has appeared in many of his plays and films.
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5	Mamet is most famous for his plays, and the film versions thereof, which are [[SelfAdaptation frequently adapted by Mamet himself]]. These works are known best for [[MametSpeak clever, vulgar, and rapid-fire worldplay]]. His plays also tend to be written for smaller casts: ''Theatre/AmericanBuffalo'', ''Theatre/SpeedThePlow'', and ''Boston Marriage'', three of his best-known plays, have only three characters each. He has published more than thirty plays over his forty-year career.
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7	Beyond adapting (and often directing) the film versions of his own plays, Mamet has also written and directed original works for the screen, including ''Film/Ronin1998'' (writer), ''Film/{{Spartan}}'' (director), and ''Film/{{Redbelt}}'' (writer and director). He also wrote the adapted screenplay to Creator/BrianDePalma's ''Film/TheUntouchables1987''.
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9	In addition to all of this, he has also written a number of books about the film and theatre industries, which are famous in their own right, some the most famous being ''Bambi Vs. Godzilla'', ''Three Uses of the Knife'', and ''On Directing Film''. He even wrote a book on politics, ''The Secret Knowledge''. Mamet has also published four novels, most recently ''Chicago'' in 2018.
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11	In 1984, Mamet received the Pulitzer Prize for his most well-known play ''Theatre/GlengarryGlenRoss''. He received Tony Award nominations for ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' and ''Speed-the-Plow'', and Oscar nominations for his screenplays to ''Film/TheVerdict'' and ''Film/WagTheDog''.
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13	His play ''Race'', opened on Broadway December 2009, currently stars Creator/DennisHaysbert and Creator/EddieIzzard, and directed by Mamet himself.
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15	The TropeMaker, naturally, of MametSpeak.
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17	----
18	!!Mamet's works include:
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20	[[folder:Plays]]
21	* ''Theatre/AmericanBuffalo''
22	* ''The Anarchist''
23	* ''Bobby Gould in Hell''
24	* ''Theatre/BostonMarriage''
25	* ''China Doll''
26	* ''The Cryptogram''
27	* ''The Duck Variations''
28	* ''Theatre/{{Edmond}}''
29	* ''The Frog Prince''
30	* ''Theatre/GlengarryGlenRoss''
31	* ''Lakeboat''
32	* ''A Life in the Theatre''
33	* ''Theatre/{{November}}''
34	* ''The Old Neighborhood''
35	* ''Oleanna''
36	* ''The Poet and the Rent''
37	* ''Romance''
38	* ''Reunion''
39	* ''Sexual Perversity in Chicago''
40	* ''The Shawl''
41	* ''Theatre/SpeedThePlow''
42	* ''The Squirrels''
43	* ''Theatre/TheVoyseyInheritance'' (adaptation)
44	* ''The Water Engine''
45	* ''The Woods''
46	[[/folder]]
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48	[[folder:Film]]
49	* ''Film/TheEdge'' (writer)
50	* ''Film/{{Edmond\|2005}}'' (writer)
51	* ''Film/GlengarryGlenRoss'' (screenplay)
52	* ''Film/{{Hannibal}}'' (co-writer)
53	* ''Film/Heist2001'' (writer/director)
54	* ''Film/{{Homicide\|1991}}'' (writer/director)
55	* ''Film/HouseOfGames'' (directorial debut/co-writer with Jonathan Katz)
56	* ''Film/{{The Postman Always Rings Twice\|1981}}'' (1981) (screenplay)
57	* ''Film/ThingsChange'' (director/co-writer with Creator/ShelSilverstein)
58	* ''Film/{{Redbelt}}'' (writer/director)
59	* ''Film/Ronin1998'' (script doctor)
60	* ''Film/TheSpanishPrisoner'' (director)
61	* ''Film/{{Spartan}}'' (director)
62	* ''Film/StateAndMain'' (writer/director)
63	* ''Film/TheUntouchables1987'' (writer)
64	* ''Film/TheVerdict'' (screenplay)
65	* ''Film/WagTheDog'' (screenplay)
66	* ''Film/WereNoAngels'' (1989) (screenplay)
67	* ''Film/TheWinslowBoy'' (adapted screenplay/director)
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Television]]
71	* ''Series/TheShield'' (directed one episode)
72	* ''Series/TheUnit'' (co-created with Shawn Ryan)
73	* ''Phil Spector'' (made-for-HBO movie starring Creator/AlPacino as the [[Music/PhilSpector notorious record producer]], and focusing on his murder trial)
74	[[/folder]]
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76	----
77	!!Works by David Mamet that don't have their own pages include examples of:
78	* TheCon:
79	** ''Film/{{House of Games}}'' features a psychiatrist getting involved in a world of con men who sometimes perform cons that include many participants. It turns out that her entire experience with the con men has been a giant con on her.
80	** ''Film/StateAndMain'': The end reveals that the first trial was actually a fake put on to allow the main character to perjure himself and regret it, allowing him to tell the truth when the real trial starts]].
81	* {{Exposition}}: Mamet is well-known for giving his works characters with complex motivations and inter-personal dynamics. This tendency is summed up in his famous quote about plotting.
82	-->"Every scene should be able to answer three questions. Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now?"
83	** ''Film/TheSpanishPrisoner'': Everything that's gone on has been a giant con to steal a multimillion-dollar process and pin the theft on the protagonist.
84	* RapidFireInterrupting: ''Oleanna'', where Carol barely gets to finish a sentence in Act I.
85	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: More cynical, particularly in ''Theatre/GlengarryGlenRoss''
86	* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: ''Heist'' is basically this trope extruded out for 90 minutes. Thankfully, all the double-crosses and surprises make sense at the very end.
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Context Creator / DavidMamet