Eyeshadow: Miami Vice + Palmbomen II
Sonny Crockett and Ricardo ‘Rico’ Tubbs were the two cool cops in the 1980s who used a high-speed powerboat to go after the drug lords of Miami, accompanied by Jan Hammer’s synthesizer sounds (‘Crockett’s Theme’). Michael Mann was the producer who made it all happen. Composer and musician Palmbomen II performs a special set after the screening of the pilot of legendary TV series Miami Vice (1984-1989).
The official title of the Miami Vice pilot was Miami Vice: Brother's Keeper Part I & II. The pilot won two Emmy Awards: one for Outstanding Cinematography and one for Outstanding Film Sound Editing. This first episode is already vintage Vice, with its revolutionary use of music and cinematography giving the series the look and feel of one long video clip. We see Crockett and Tubbs cruising downtown Miami at night in their Ferrari Daytona Spyder to confront a sinister and brutal drug lord, with the soundtrack of Phil Collins” In the Air Tonight providing a surrealist take. Elvis, Crockett”s pet alligator, is already in on the action.
The two-part pilot of Miami Vice first aired on 16 September 1984. The director was not Michael Mann himself but Thomas Carter, who did a lot of television work and would go on to make films like Metro starring Eddie Murphy and Coach Carter starring Samuel L. Jackson.
Prior to Miami Vice, Eye screens the video clip Carina Sayles by Palmbomen II, featuring influences from vintage Chicago house albums and European electronic music, and early episodes of the SF series The X-Files.
Palmbomen II
Palmbomen II performs live after the screening of the legendary, pioneering TV series' pilot episodes. Kai Hugo works with minimum means, often on tape, bringing his collection of old synths to take his audience on a surrealist trip to an imagined retro paradise, an otherworldly state of mind drenched in SF spheres. Kai Hugo performs with a band as Palmbomen, on his own as Palmbomen II, or as Betonkust, all of which let you wander off into a wistful, dreamy world.
Dress code: Miami yacht chic, pastels, loafer socks, flamingos optional
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Michael Mann
Film auteur Michael Mann (1943) directed his first feature film The Jericho Mile thirty years ago. High time to offer a comprehensive retrospective of the eleven films he made for the cinema and his two TV films. Plus of course, episodes of TV series directed, written or produced by Mann, including the influential Miami Vice.
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