David Fincher: A Study of His Filmic Style - Essay Example

David Fincher’s Game: A Study of his Filmic Style Introduction: David Fincher as Auteur The filmography of David Fincher reveals a great range of versatility. From the bleak New York-like cityscape of Seven to the exclusivist campus of Harvard University in The Social Network, Fincher explores many worlds in his trademark dark, gritty and fast-paced style. This paper seeks to examine and derive thematic correlation and connections between a few of his most famous films, including Seven, Fight Club, Zodiac, The Game and The Social Network. In making such study of the style of Fincher, the paper will also attempt to describe his visual style through analysis of the various components of mise-en-scène. Quotations from the film have been cited independently in the bibliography. Fincher’s ‘Lead Men’: Fincher’s choice and portrayal of protagonists merit some attention. Frequently, his lead characters are men in a stressful or otherwise unfulfilling job, at odds with the world they inhabit, and with complex and unstable psychologies. Detective William Somerset in Seven is on the verge of retiring from a long career in the police. He repeatedly speaks about the oppressive nature of the city he lives in and how he would like to travel ‘far [a]way from here’. In Fight Club, the unnamed protagonist suffers from insomnia and has to join a slew of support groups to feel like a victim and find his emotional release. He is later revealed to be suffering from Split Personality Disorder as well. In Zodiac, the cartoonist-detective becomes obsessed with trying to solve the Zodiac’s codes and can think of nothing else, leading his second wife to leave him. The Game features millionaire Nicholas Van Orton, who, in his brother’s words, was ‘becoming such an asshole’ that he needed an extraordinarily complex and dangerous prank played on him for him to be able to feel again. The Social Network also fictionalises its real-life lead Mark Zuckerberg as someone not really ‘likeable’. Film critic James Lewis Hoberman, in his review of The Social Network, describes the character as ‘a sort of mildly autistic Sammy Glick with a grim 1,000-yard glare’. In the movie itself, the final lines are also directed at Zuckerberg’s character: ‘Youre not an asshole, Mark. Youre just trying so hard to be one’. The social and psychological alienation of his protagonists then, are a recurrent feature in Fincher’s films. Reclaiming Humanity: Another thematic concern that pervades Fincher’s oeuvre is contemporary society as a locus of apathy and emotional numbness. In Seven, Somerset repeatedly expresses his dissatisfaction with the society he inhabits and his wish to leave it. At one point, in a bar with Mills, Somerset says: ‘I just don’t think I can continue to live and work in a place that embraces and nurtures apathy as if it were a virtue.’ He confides in Mills that in self-defense training, women are taught to yell ‘Fire!’ instead of crying for help as this is more likely to elicit a response from the passers-by. As Mark Browning in his book David Fincher: Films that Scar writes about Seven: Acts of random brutality seem the norm—we hear an anecdote from Somerset of a man walking his dog who is stabbed in the eyes for no apparent reason. Against this background—reflected in the almost constant ambient industrial white noise—it is perhaps understandable that Doe’s actions do not seem to represent a meaningful series of actions. It is only by a series of supremely cruel acts that he can gain the attention of system that is emotionally numb (57). Zodiac may appear to represent a different kind of society – one that has newspapers, radio talk show hosts and even a celebrity lawyer, Melvin Belli, all concerned with catching and ‘helping’ the serial killer. However, on a closer look into the film’s world, this assumption fails. Fincher is yet again showing us a society where people are killed for no greater motive than the killer’s convenience and whims. This is a society which castigates the very people who want to hunt down such a killer – Inspector Toschi gets demoted and Graysmith loses his job at the San Francisco Chronicle for their involvement in the case. The killer is also never caught. Added to the fact that this is based on a non-fictional account of the investigation into the Zodiac killings, the film makes a chilling summation of the state of contemporary society and Fincher’s statement on it. Fight Club and The Game represent another aspect of this numbed society. There is almost a lack of suffering and emotional investment that is to blame for this numbness and which needs to be substituted by artificial means. Both protagonists have unfettered lives with no apparent history of suffering – except the hints of a psychologically traumatic childhood – and with enough material security to guarantee them some happiness. However, this comfortable situation only leads them into lives without meaning and purpose from which they need to be woken up, with a jolt. In Fight Club, ‘Jack’ describes himself as having become slave to the ‘IKEA nesting instinct’ buying one item of furniture after the other without any real need for them. He attempts to fill the void in his life by joining support groups that he does not really belong to until he finds something more effective – Fight Club. Once he joins forces with Tyler Durden, significantly enough, one of their first targets is a prime symbol of contemporary society obsessed with superficial ‘needs’– a liposuction clinic. In The Game, Nicholas Van Orton is jaded and cynical to the point of no return, or so his brother and well-wishers assume. He therefore has to be virtually tortured and made to suffer an inordinate amount of anxiety through ‘the game’ for him to be able to come to terms with himself and regain his humanity. Misogyny: Fincher’s films also reveal traces of misogyny. Where The Social Network has been accused outright of it with writer Aaron Sorkin has replied: ‘I was writing about a very angry and deeply misogynistic group of people’ (Paskin), his other films too have misogynistic tendencies that may have passed relative unnoticed. In Fight Club, Tyrel says ‘Were a generation of men raised by women. Im wondering if another woman is really the answer we need.’ Indeed Fight Club can be seen as an attempt to redeem a primarily male ethic of violence as liberating. In Seven, the character played by Gwyneth Paltrow, Mill’s wife, functions more as a structural device than a real character. She is present to reveal a deeper side to Detective Mills and also to represent the contrasting domestic peace and comfort that keeps Mill going on in the bleak and violent world outside his home. In Zodiac as well, the Zodiac showing unusual violence towards his female victims is not the only misogynistic statement in the film. Even the protagonist is seen to treat the absence of his wives and his divorces as not quite as important as solving the case. The Game which is another purely fictional work also fails to come up with a strong woman character. Christine is seen as an untrustworthy, duplicitous character for the most part with only the final scene showing her in her ‘true’ form. Even then she is unable to remember where is originally from, claiming with a laugh, that she’s ‘been doing this too long.’ Fincher’s Visual Style In both Seven and Fight Club, the opening sequences are heavily stylized: using film noir lighting, cinematographic techniques like bleach bypass and grunge, electronic music. In Seven, the background score of ‘Closer’ by Nine Inch Nails is industrial rock at its most unnerving. The cinematography is equally disorienting with Darius Khondji’s typical style of using unexposed silver to create dark, surreal textures. The Game also begins with a montage sequence of old film. The visuals are jarring, disjointed, functioning primarily as a reel of memories of Nicholas Van Orton but without a reference point, it becomes hard for the audience to understand its implications. It is only by the end of the film, when during his fall Nicholas has his life flash before him – seen pictorially as a similar montage sequence – that the audience can return to the first peek at his childhood and use that knowledge to analyze his complex persona. Apart from the dark and disjointed opening sequences, Fincher also exploits his mise-en-scène tremendously to enhance his storytelling capacities. Reputed for his perfectionist attitude to film-making, Fincher’s scenes and sequences reveal his deep investment in the technical aspects of filming as well. The chase sequence in Seven which appears nearly halfway through the film is the most riveting sequence in it. The camera follows every move of Detective Mills, including his quick movements for checking every corner before proceeding, allowing the viewer to experience the chase first-hand. This style of the camera ‘peering over people’s shoulder’ was apparently inspired by the television shop COPS (Taubin 24). In Fight Club, there are several meta-fictional references to filmmaking techniques. The narrator speaks directly into the camera on several occasions, breaking the ‘fourth wall’ that is usually used to maintain the audience’s suspension of disbelief. The film also pauses abruptly at certain junctures with the narrator’s voiceover speaking directly to the audience. Moreover, Tyrel Durden, one of whose jobs is that of film projectionist, speaks to the audience about the ‘cigarette burn’ technique. Durden also reveals how he splices movies with pornographic stills. This splicing technique is used with stills of Tyler himself before he is introduced, during the sequences that describe the narrator’s insomnia. Fight Club also has several CGI animated sequences that are used for flashback sequences, descriptive narration, and to relate things that the narrator surmises. For instance, the possible sequence of events that led to the narrator’s apartment burning down. Fincher also makes use of unusual angles and a lot of camera mobility. For instance, in Fight Club, in the scene where Marla calls the narrator after having swallowed a bottle of Xanax, she is seen in an upside-down close-range shot. In The Game, towards the end when Nicholas throws himself off the roof, the camera does not show him falling from above or below but instead follows the body for the entire length of his fall, allowing the audience to experience the length and duration of the fall themselves. The chase sequence in Seven as described above also uses unusual angles and high mobility to intensify the suspense. Additionally, John Doe is made to resemble the detectives and because of the blurry, disjointed filming it becomes difficult for the viewer to tell the killer apart from the cops. This also serves to echo Detective Somerset’s assertion and warning to Mills that the killer is after all only a man and not the devil himself. In Zodiac also, the killing scenes are heavily stylized. The first murder is shown in sudden slow motion with the background score drowning out the actual diegetic sounds. In the Lake Berryessa murder scene, the faces of the female victim and the murderer are cut off from the frame and the viewer only gets to see the killer’s sudden fanatical stabbing of the woman, making the scene even more terrifying and unreasonable. Conclusion: We see therefore that Fincher can indeed be studied through the lens of auteur theory. He has developed his signature style using both thematic and visual or technical style and language to make his films distinctive and identifiable. Although with subtle and intricate variations, Fincher’s films have largely come to be known for their noir influence, stylized visuals and fast-paced progression. Sources: Browning, Mark. David Fincher: Films that Scar. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2010. Print. Hoberman, J. ‘According to The Social Network, You Are Definitely Not the Only Asshole on Facebook.’ The Village Voice. 29 Sep. 2010. Web. 25 Nov. 2011 Paskin, Willa. ‘Aaron Sorkin Would Like to Go Door-to-Door Apologizing for The Social Network’s Woman Problem’. NY Mag. 10 Dec. 2010. Web. 25 Nov. 2011. Taubin, Amy. ‘The Allure of Decay’. Sight and Sound (Jan. 1996): 24. Print. Read More