Michael Mann on His Inspirations for ‘Thief,’ ‘Heat’ and ‘The Insider’ and Commitment to Authenticity: ‘I Find Things That You Cannot Make Up’

It’s fitting that Michael Mann should be honored at the Lumière Festival in Lyon, since the director of “Ali,” “Heat” and “The Insider” began his filmmaking career in France. After graduating from the London Film School in 1967, Mann — who grew up in Chicago and switched course from a literature degree to filmmaking after seeing Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove” — was dead-set on directing dramatic features.

In the meantime, he found his way to Paris, documenting the student uprisings of 1968 as they happened. Mann adopted the protestors’ slogan, “Prenez une caméra et descendez dans la rue” (or “pick up a camera and take to the streets”), achieving what the American networks could not: He talked student leaders Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Alain Geismar and Alain Krivine into granting him interviews, edited into a segment called “Insurrection” and broadcast on NBC. Mann subsequently reshaped that footage into an abstract 8-minute short film (“Jaunpuri…