Are you high on that high-def look?

A coming-attractions trailer can give away so much. Yet even when the previews spill every narrative bean in sight, your eyes may well be deceived. Take "Public Enemies," now in theaters. For months we've been seeing trailers for director Michael Mann's Dillinger film, and they are swank. The packaged images -- , beautiful clothes, accurate period settings -- look like a dream of a gangster film. What's missing from these trailers? For better or worse, a sense of how the movie actually looks, and moves. Mann and his longtime cinematographer, Dante Spinotti, shot the vast majority of the picture on high-definition digital video, favoring hand-held cameras (sometimes operated by Mann himself) and zoom lenses. Mann has long been ahead of the digital curve in Hollywood. Even when his high-def aesthetic yields... [read full story]                    

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