Dark Scars Film Festival Catalog

Essential Documents

www.darkscarsfestival.com

155 Filbert Street Oakland, CA 94607

Constant reminders of pain and +1 (510) 923-6204

instability push people to do horrible things in the films of David Fincher

Š 2017 Dark Scars A David Fincher Film Festival

Catalogue Designer Juliana Serejo Galeotti

Date August 28th - 31st 2018

All rights reserved by Dark Scars Film Festival. Content may not be reproduced or published in any form, except with prior permission. All images found in this catalogue are copyright of the festival and/or reproduced with permission of those here represented.

Location 16th Street Train Station 1405 Wood Street Oakland, CA 94607

4

Table of Contents

A David Fincher Film Festival

CONTENTS

1

The Director Biography.........................................................................8

2

The Festival Date & Location.........................................................18

3

The Films

Gone Girl

The Game

Filmography...................................................................9

Festival Filmography..............................................19

Interview.........................................................................10

Schedule........................................................................22

Synopsis & Cast........................................................28

Synopsis & Cast.......................................................56

Style and Directorial Techniques..................12

Ticket Information....................................................25

Making of......................................................................29

Making of......................................................................57

Review..............................................................................31

Review.............................................................................59

Interview.........................................................................33

Interview.........................................................................60

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Se7en

Synopsis & Cast........................................................36

Synopsis & Cast........................................................63

Making of......................................................................37

Making of......................................................................64

Review..............................................................................41

Review.............................................................................67

Interview.........................................................................42

Interview.........................................................................69

Special Feature: Opening Sequence.........45

Fight Club

Sources

Synopsis & Cast........................................................46

Information & References.................................74

Making of......................................................................47 Review.............................................................................50 Interview.........................................................................52

5

6

The Director

A David Fincher Film Festival

THE DIRECTOR

2015

CinEuphoria: Best Film- International Competition, Gone Girl (2014)

2014

Grammy Best Music Video- Justin Timberlake Ft. Jay-Z: Suit & Tie (2013)

2013

Primetime Emmy: Outstanding Directing for a Drama - Series House of Cards

2011

Golden Globe: Best Director - Motion Picture, The Social Network (2010)

2010

ACCA: Best Achievement in Directing - The Social Network (2010)

2010

CinEuphoria: Best Film - International Competition. The Curious Case of

2004

DGA Award: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials - For

(2013) episode: “Chapter 1”.

Benjamin Button (2008) nikegridiron.com: “Gamebreakers”, Nike: “Speed Chain” and Xelibri Phones: “Beauty for Sale”.

1995

ACCA: Best Director - Se7en (1995)

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8

The Director

A David Fincher Film Festival

“I don’t know how much movies should entertain. To me, I’m always interested in movies that scar. The thing I love about Jaws (1975) is the fact that I’ve never gone swimming in the ocean again.”

“I am a contrarian by nature, so all it does is make me want to take real risks. I am like, ‘If we are not out on the ledge juggling chain saws, then we are doing ourselves a huge disservice.”

BIOGRAPHY

­—David Fincher

David Andrew Leo Fincher was born on August 28, 1962,

seven deadly sins. The highly atmospheric, noir-styled

in Denver, Colorado. Known for his image-driven and

film netted more than $100 million at the box office,

often dark films, Fincher is one of the most innovative

giving Fincher his first major hit.

­—David Fincher

FILMOGRAPHY

Gone Girl

2014

Lords of Dogtown

2005

Cast: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil

Cast: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil

and meticulous directors working today. He developed

Patrick Harris

Patrick Harris

a love for film at an early age and started making movies

The reception for his follow-up, The Game (1997), was

Written by: Gillian Flynn

Written by: Gillian Flynn

more tepid. This action thriller starred Michael Douglas

Directed by: David Fincher

Directed by: David Fincher

after getting a Super 8 camera for his 8th birthday.

as a wealthy businessman who receives an unusual gift Growing up in Marin County, David Fincher had some

from his brother (Sean Penn)—an adventure with no

exposure to the film industry. After high school, Fincher

clear rules organized by a very mysterious company.

worked for Korty Films where he worked on the ani-

The adventure, however, quickly turns into a battle

mated film Twice Upon a Time (1983). Fincher then joined

for his own survival.

the staff of Lucas’s special effects company, Industrial Light and Magic.

At Industrial Light and Magic, he worked on the box office hits Return of the Jedi (1983) and Indiana Jones and the

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

2011

Panic Room

2002

Cast: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil

Cast: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil

Patrick Harris

Patrick Harris

Written by: Gillian Flynn

Written by: Gillian Flynn

Directed by: David Fincher

Directed by: David Fincher

Social Network

2010

Fight Club

1999

Temple of Doom (1984). He eventually moved on to mak-

Cast: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil

Cast: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil

ing commercials, earning a reputation for his edgy work.

Patrick Harris

Patrick Harris

One of his most notable projects was a public service

Written by: Gillian Flynn

Written by: Gillian Flynn

announcement for the American Cancer Society which

Directed by: David Fincher

Directed by: David Fincher

featured a fetus smoking. Working with Madonna, Don Henley, Aerosmith and many others, Fincher became

Curious Case of Benjamin Button

2009

The Game

1997

a successful director of music videos. He also helped Cast: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil

Cast: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil

Patrick Harris

Patrick Harris

On the big screen, Fincher made his directorial debut

Written by: Gillian Flynn

Written by: Gillian Flynn

with Alien³ (1992). The sci-fi action film was a personal

Directed by: David Fincher

Directed by: David Fincher

found the Propaganda Films in the mid-1980s.

and professional disappointment. Starring Sigourney Weaver, the film was the third installment of the very successful series, but the project was experiencing problems before Fincher signed on as director. Fincher told Entertainment Weekly in 1997 that he learned from the experience, “never to shoot a movie without a script, and the more money you have the more trouble you’re likely to run into.”

Zodiac

2007

Se7en

1995

Cast: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil

Cast: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil

Patrick Harris

Patrick Harris

Written by: Gillian Flynn

Written by: Gillian Flynn

Directed by: David Fincher

Directed by: David Fincher Alien 3

1992

Fincher continued directing music videos and making

Cast: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil

TV commercials. He won a Grammy Award in 1994 for

Patrick Harris

the Rolling Stones video “Love Is Strong.” The following

Written by: Gillian Flynn

year, audiences flocked to dark thriller Se7en, which

Directed by: David Fincher

starring Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kevin Spacey. Pitt and Freeman played detectives on the hunt for a serial killer whose murders reflect the

9

10

A David Fincher Film Festival

11

INTERVIEW HOLLYWOOD’S DARK STAR DAVID FINCHER Xan Brooks, The Guardian

About 10 years ago David Fincher swore he would rather

Certainly the making of Panic Room called for many

there’s a big difference,” Fincher says. “A movie is made

celebrities holding products up to their faces. But some

have colon cancer than direct another picture. During

similar decisions. Fincher initially accepted the project

for an audience and a film is made for both the audience

of them are great art. It’s not the art of the surrealistic

that time, the precocious Californian was reeling from a

because it provided any antidote to his previous film.

and the film-makers. I think The Game is a movie and

painting or the poem, but it is art.” He puts the prejudice

gruelling feature debut, having warred with 20th Century

Where Fight Club exploded across 150 separate loca-

I think Fight Club’s a film. Also I think that it’s more than

down to a simple case of snobbery. “There are certain

Fox throughout the making of Alien 3. The result was a

tions, Panic Room was almost entirely self-contained.

the sum of its parts, whereas Panic Room is the sum

easy truisms that we all adopt. Like beautiful people are

hobbled compromise - too bleak for Fox, too bright for

It allowed the director the chance to plan out every sin-

of its parts. I didn’t look at Panic Room and think: Wow,

stupid. Smart people have the big potential for evil and

Fincher, plus too little of either for the general public at

gle shot on computer and hand pick every single piece

this will gonna set the world on fire. These are footnote

should be watched. Commercials are supposed to sell

large. “A lot of people hated Alien 3,” he says. “But no

of equipment. “I wanted to make what Coppola called

movies and guilty pleasure movies. Thrillers. Like the

you something, and therefore must be bad. But the

one hated it more than I did.”

‘a composed movie’,” he explains.

Woman-trapped-in-a-house type movie. They’re not

best commercials are anti-corporate. So I never thought:

particularly important.”

Oh, Fight Club is my chance to get back at all those

Does that make them less personal? “No, because you’d

A portrait of split, compartmentalised identity, Fight Club stars Ed Norton as an office drone and Brad Pitt as

people. Because I never did anything I didn’t want to do.”

What a difference a decade makes. Today Fincher (Finch

Yet these best-laid plans were soon to unravel. Having

to his friends and colleagues) is one of Hollywood’s

signed to play Meg Altman, Nicole Kidman withdrew

most sought-after directors, the creator of the black

at the 11th hour with a knee injury. Her replacement by

kill for your young. There’s the genius child and the polite

nightmares of Seven, the glossy playfulness of The

Foster inevitably changed the story’s tone and the

child and the problem child. Your children are all differ-

his wild alter-ego. While shooting, Fincher identified

Game and, most notably, the unstable flash and fury of

tempo. “Nicole Kidman makes you make a different

ent and they all require different things from you. That

with Norton while aspiring to be Pitt. He still feels that

1999’s Fight Club. Nudging 40, he is that rare beast:

movie,” he says. “It’s like Hitchcock casting Grace

doesn’t mean you love them any less.” Except that I’m

way today. “On-screen and off-screen, Brad’s the ulti-

an auteur who’s thrived within the studio system. His

Kelly. It’s about glamour and physicality. With Foster

not convinced. First, Fincher’s outpouring of fatherly love

mate guy,” he tells me. “If I could be anyone, it would be

latest picture, Panic Room, recently bounded straight

it’s more about what happens in her eyes. It’s more

runs counter to his evident dislike for Alien 3, a problem

Brad Pitt. Even if I couldn’t look like him. Just to be him.

to the top of the US box office.

political. Jodie is someone who has spent 35 years

child he still seems eager to farm out for adoption. It’s

He has such a great ease with who he is.”

making choices that define her and women in film.

also clear that there’s reserves a special place in his

But if Fincher feels mollified, he’s not showing it. I’m

She is nobody’s fucking pet, nobody’s trophy wife.”

barely through the door when he’s reeling off the head-

heart for Fight Club, a turbulent genius child that polar-

Fincher, by contrast, presents a study in friction. Listen

ised the public and ranks as arguably one of the most

long enough and the man will cross-reference you to

daring studio films of the past ten years. The Detractors

death. He’s a dark fatalist at work in a brightly populist

aches that plagued him during Panic Room: the cast

Elsewhere Fincher’s movie was causing other problems.

&crew changes, the meticulous planning that went awry,

Initially, Panic Room was to reunite the director with Darius

labelled Fight Club as macho porn that teetered on

industry, a master of the anti-commercial, and director

test previews that once was scuppered from the start

Khondji, a cinematographer who had helped sculpt the

the verge of fascism. Fans hailed it as a savage decon-

who divides his work into two exclusive categories. His

because the punters came in anticipating a different

beguilingly stark, under-lit design of Seven, back in 1995.

struction of bogus notions of western masculinity. For

witty demeanour acknowledges a whole swarm of per-

movie to the one they actually saw. Directing, Fincher

On this occasion their marriage was less harmonious.

Fincher, the film is “an attack on all those things that

sonal unresolved insecurities.

says, is a masochistic endeavour. It was back in 1992,

A fortnight into shooting, Khondji turned into history; his

complicate and confuse our sense of maleness. It’s a

and still is to this today.

place filled by the less experienced Conrad Hall Jr.

condemnation of the lifestyle seekers and the lifestyle

There are other parallels between then and now, too.

Fincher shoulders much of the blame. He admits that

sellers and the lifestyle packagers.”

A muscular, high-concept blockbuster, Panic Room stars

his determination to micro-manage every aspect of the

You could argue that Fincher was one of these himself.

Jodie Foster as Meg Altman, a rich divorcee battling to

production forced Khondji onto the margins. “Darius is

In his 20s, he carved a profitable niche as a director of

shield her daughter as their New York brownstone comes

not a light-meter jockey. He wants to be part of the deci-

big-budget TV commercials for the likes of Nike, Levi’s,

under siege from a trio of thugs. Like the Alien franchise,

sion making process. This movie did not allow that, and

Pepsi and Coke. His CV provides ammunition for critics

it offers a kind of feminised action thriller along with a

it was incredibly frustrating for him.” Artistically, too, the

who dismiss him as an expert visual stylist, a sort of a

revamp of the Old Dark House horror film, where spooks

men were at loggerheads. At the time, Fincher explained

smooth-talking salesman who ratted on his former own

rear up around every corner. When I mention this com-

the split by commenting that “Darius makes films, and

employers. “When I started making television commer-

parison, Fincher pulls a face. “I didn’t really think of it that

Panic Room is a movie.” The more I dwell on this remark,

cials in the mid-1980s I was certainly privy to a lot of that

way. For me, it’s about divorce. It’s a movie about the

the more significant it seems. It highlights a curious phi-

lifestyle packaging,” he admits. “But I give the audience

destruction of the home and how far you’re willing to go

losophy; that there are movies and there are films, and

far more credit than most people do. There’s this old

to hold on to what you have.”

the two are somehow distinct. “Oh yea absolutely,

assumption that commercials are just close-ups of

12

A David Fincher Film Festival

13

“Hire the right people and get the hell out of the way.” ­—David Fincher

STYLE & TECHNIQUES SECRETS ON DIRECTING AND STORYTELLING Alex Ferrari, Indie Film Hustle

David Fincher is known as the most skillful director

viewer, as he has been making such exhilarating films

of procedurals and psychological thrillers of Hollywood.

since many years now, for instance, The Never Ending

to enhance the effects of the film. In The Social Network,

The perfection of his films can be seen as he is known

Story (1984) is the story of a boy who gets lost within

you can notice the work of the dialogues and then differ

to take dozens of takes before he is completely satisfied

the fantastical world of a mysterious book.

it on the basis of the visual effects displayed in the actual

in the shadows where you cannot make

scenes of the movie.

out their face (Kevin Spacey in Se7en

with it. A complete perfectionist.

script at numerous levels and communicates it visually

His movies are not only confined to the genre of thriller,

Trade Marks

_Fluid tracking camera _[Silhouettes] Frequently has characters

(1995), The Killer in Zodiac (2007), and

An Unconventional Vision

he also uses the element of dark intensity in his movies,

The scene might be an all-dialogue based, but Fincher

David Fincher actually creates such an amazing series

and in one of his TV series. The TV series, House of Cards,

always finds a way to visualize the scene in an organized

of films that can be called anything but meaningless

is also the work of the incredible Fincher, which is basi-

manner, which is not the conventional method of direct-

and boring. Once the audience starts watching the first

cally a dark satire. Nevertheless, Gone Girl still remains

ing movies. When you watch a movie directed by David

scene of the movie, they is forced into watching it till

as one of his most profitable films of all times, as he

Fincher, you have to notice the minute details that he

the end. He has the ability to indulge his viewers within

managed to make 369 million dollars worldwide. The

adds, for instance, when he focuses on the reactions, the

the illusion of the film and makes sure that it has a

actors hired for the movie are the right hand of Fincher,

background music comes in, and when should that idea

long-lasting effect on the viewer. The dark and glossy

who efficiently fulfills the need of the screenplay each

be heighten, even if it is in the script or not. What can be

Case of Benjamin Button) or scrolling

treatment of the director with the characters of his

with their intense visual performances.

seen that people basically admire the way he visualizes

downward (Se7en) rather than the tra-

movie is his ultimate experiment. Most people accuse

and interprets the scenes, keeping in mind that the qual-

him of making shallow films; however, its Fincher’s

In The Game (1997) and Panic Room (2002), Fincher has

ity of the movie should not be affected at any cost. David

style of experimenting with the odds.

a fairly thin screenplay, which he intensifies with through

Fincher significantly concentrates on the fact that what

the comprehensive performances of the actors so as

is going on the screen deserves more credit as they are translating the language of the film with their actions.

Brad Pitt in Fight Club (1999). _His films often have low-key lighting with green or blue color temperature. _Downbeat endings _Often displays end credits as slide shows (Fight Club, Zodiac, The Curious

ditional upward scroll. _Frequently collaborates with Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross for soundtrack _His films often center on people with

Making a thriller movie does not mean that he steps out

to create and maintain the tension of the single-location

of the real world to do so, as when he pulls the curtains

thriller. The Social Network (2002) is not just a thriller

back, he reveals a mechanical process at the core, which

that is chilling as it is known to be deeply unsettling. The

As they say, it is a director’s responsibility to bring the

is the art of this incredible filmmaker. He makes us real-

picture portrayed in this movie, of Mark Zuckerberg, is

script to life; we see that David Fincher never takes this

ize that we, as human beings, have indulged ourselves

obnoxious yet strangely empathetic.

line for granted for any of his movies. There is no doubt

(2010) , Lisbeth Salander in The Girl

in the fact that the script is basically the foundation of

with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), Amy

into something that we love so much, without realizing that everything in this world is temporary and can be

The Method in the Madness

the movie and the rest is up to the directions. These

taken away anytime.

David Fincher maps out unusual methods to adjust his

movies give the actors a chance to challenge their own

camera movements in a manner that it complements

abilities as an actor. The protagonists of his movies are

Gone Girl (2014) is known to be the best movie made

the main element of the scene. This is one of the reasons

mostly people who face the dangers of bizarre yet com-

by David Fincher so far, as well as The Girl with the Dragon

why he keeps reshooting copious amounts of footage

pulsive areas of life.

Tattoo (2011), and as both are extremely frightening and

even after the principal photography and videography

attractive. Another one of his movies, Fight Club, became

was wrapped up. He has a diverse style of making the

Furthermore, David Fincher pays special attention to

very famous as Brad Pitt is merely the result of Edward

films the way he wants with or without giving the final cut.

the locations so that the viewer can easily distinguish

Norton’s imagination and yet, Fincher does not restrict Pitt’s movements in the movie.

between them and get a better understanding of the Most of the critics go against him on the fact that he

backgrounds, which are highly symbolic. Its said that

receives undue fame and success for his films, since

movies contain all the essential substance, which form

On the other hand, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

he is just the director, and thus, he does not write the

the bones of the movie, whereas, the flesh and the

(2008) was a huge success for it’s storyline was incredibly

scripts himself. Nevertheless, the positive side of this

structure are the results of the directions. The tone of

different, as it is based on a man who starts to age back-

debate is that it is the style of direction, of the movie,

the script and the atmosphere is in the hands of the

ward and that too, with very inexplicable consequences.

which adds on to the main element of the film, which

director, he definitely builds the best structures for all

in turn is always the credit of the director. His abilities are

of his movies.

David Fincher never fails to grasp the attention of the

not restricted to the director’s seat as he interprets the

poor social skills and few friends: The Narrator in Fight Club (1999), Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network

Dunne in Gone Girl (2014). _Frequently starts his movies with creative title sequences that express the theme of the movie _Production design is either stark & modern, or dark & heavily decaying. _Known for his perfectionist tendencies, often shooting scenes dozens or even hundreds of times to get it exactly right.

14

A David Fincher Film Festival

“I don’t think of myself as difficult.

We’re expected to do stuff that’s awesome. That means we’re going to have to push each other.” ­—David Fincher

He maintains his image as the miraculous director of all times by using hues to evoke the emotional states of the characters as well as the viewers. He also uses deep-focus quite efficiently and effectively in order to make sure that the foreground and the background of the movie has an equal weight to stand erect next to each other. The way Fincher processes and advances towards the main plot of the movie becomes hard for one to even blink. Also, apart from the visualizations and other effects, Fincher uses sound as another striking component to enhance the dramatic effect of the scenario. He mainly concentrates on the conduct of the ambient music, the scored music, and then ultimately he uses silence just before something is about to be revealed with the greatest effect.

As a result, the process is acutely explained by Fincher.

He shows how the scene actually happened, how the crime was investigated, how the character transformed, and how the secondary small, flat characters have some important in the key factors of the movie. Maybe these are one of the reasons why David Fincher is always interested in making thrillers, and specifically psychological thrillers as if he is controlling the mind of the viewer.

The critics say that Fincher has the ability to leave a scar on the mind of the viewer with the surprising representation of the entirety, cynicism, despair, and the occasional burst of calculated sadism. The way David Fincher maintains the suspense of his movies is what makes him a wildly successful director.

15

16

The Festival

A David Fincher Film Festival

THE FESTIVAL

Opened on August 1, 1912 and made West Oakland the gateway to the city. Built by Southern Pacific Railway and designed by Chicago architect Jarvis Hunt, the Station was featured in Western Architect that year. It served as the terminus for the famous trans-continental railway, the last Western stop.

The Station is historically significant not only because of its age. The Baggage Wing was the West Coast organizing home for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first African American union in the country. The first contract was signed in 1937 after nearly twelve years of organizing under the leadership of field agent C.L. Dellums. A. Phillip Randolph was the national organizing leader.

The Signal Tower which is still on site, served as the train traffic controller. It was built in 1913 and was twice the size of most signal towers of its age. The base is made of concrete rather than wood, another unusual feature.

17

18

The Festival

A David Fincher Film Festival

“I don’t think any place is safe once you bring human nature into it.”

— David Fincher

DATE & LOCATION

Date

FESTIVAL FILMOGRAPHY

2018

Location

“Directing ain’t about drawing a neat little picture and showing it to the cameraman. The true fact is that you don’t know what directing is until the sun is setting and you’ve got to get five shots and you’re only going to get two.

— David Fincher

In his films, Fincher uses his strong visual sensibility

to depict unusual and often edgy subject matter. His August 28th - 31st, 2018

16th Street Train Station

intended effect, as he has described it, is to make

1405 Wood St

audiences “feel uncomfortable.”

Oakland, CA 94607

Overview

Imagine a big space filled with empty rooms, an industrial

When Fincher was 8 years old he was already making

feel mixed with Victorian architectural elements, gritty

movies with an 8mm camera he got as a birthday pres-

walls with graffiti on them, dim lighting and an imminent

ent. For this reason his film festival opens in the 8th

sense that something jumping at you.

month of the year (August), on the 28th (his birthday.)

The Oakland 16th St Train Station was chosen for these physical attributes, to make the audience feel amazed

Gone Girl

2014

but at the same time uneasy. Something Fincher himself said he likes to inflict on his spectators.

Release date: October 3, 2014 (USA) Screenplay: Gillian Flynn Nominations: Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, Director and Screenplay.

Adapted by Gillian Flynn from her bestselling novel of the same name, “Gone Girl” stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike as Nick and Amy Dunne. Former New York-based writer Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) and his glamorous wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) present a portrait of a blissful marriage to the public. However, when Amy goes missing on the couple’s fifth wedding anniverNote

Festival Starts August 28th, 2018 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM Festival Ends August 31th, 2018 11:00 AM - 10:00 PM

sary, Nick becomes the prime suspectc.

19

20

The Festival

A David Fincher Film Festival

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

2011

“As a director, film is about how you dole out the information so that the audience stays with you when they’re supposed to stay with you, behind you when they’re supposed to stay behind you, ahead of you when they’re supposed to stay ahead of you.”

“[about the personality traits that helps in being a director] Belligerence certainly helps.

And there’s a requisite paranoia. There’s fear, fear of failure, and an overwhelming urge to be liked.”

— David Fincher

— David Fincher

The Game

Release date: December 20, 2011 (USA)

Release date: September 12, 1997 (USA)

Screenplay: Steven Zaillian

Screenplay: John Brancato and Michael Ferris

Nominations: Best Performance by an Actress in a

Nominations: Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film

1997

Leading Role and Best Achievement in Sound Mixing Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas) is a successful Adapted from the Novel by Stieg Larsson. Disgraced

banker who keeps mostly to himself. When his estranged

financial reporter Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) finds

brother Conrad (Sean Penn) returns on his birthday with

a chance to redeem his honor after being hired by

an odd gift—to participate in a odd personalized, real-

wealthy Swedish industrialist Henrik Vanger (Christopher

life game —Nicholas reluctantly accepts. Initially its

Plummer) to solve the 40-year-old murder of Vanger’s

harmless, the game grows increasingly personal, and

niece, Harriet. Vanger believes that Harriet was killed by

Orton begins to fear for his life as he eludes agents

a member of his own family. Joining Blomkvist on his

from the mysterious game’s organizers. With no one left

dangerous quest for the truth is Lisbeth Salander (Rooney

to trust and his money completely gone, Orton must

Mara), an unusual but ingenious investigator whose

find answers for himself.

fragile trust is not easily won.

Fight Club

1999

Se7en

Release date: 15 October 1999 (USA)

Release date: September 22, 1995 (USA)

Screenplay: Jim Uhls

Screenplay: Andrew Kevin Walker

1995

Nominations: Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing, Best

Nominations: Best Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best

Actor in a Leading Role (Norton and Pitt) and Best

Actor (Morgan Freeman), Best Supporting Actress

Actress in a Supporting Role (Helena Bonham Carter)

(Gwyneth Paltrow), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Kevin Spacey) , Best Director and Best Music

A depressed man (Edward Norton) suffering from insomnia meets a strange soap salesman named Tyler Durden

When retiring police Detective William Somerset (Morgan

(Brad Pitt) and soon finds himself living in his squalid

Freeman) tackles a final case with the aid of newly trans-

house after his perfect apartment is destroyed. The two

ferred David Mills (Brad Pitt), they discover a number of

bored men form an underground club with strict rules

elaborate and grizzly murders. They soon realize they

and fight other men who are fed up with their mundane

are dealing with a serial killer (Kevin Spacey) who is target-

lives. Their perfect partnership falls apart when Marla

ing people he thinks represent one of the seven deadly

(Helena Bonham Carter), a fellow support group crasher,

sins. Somerset also befriends Mills’ wife, Tracy (Gwyneth

attracts Tyler’s attention.

Paltrow), who is pregnant and afraid to raise her child in the crime-riddled city.

21

22

The Festival

A David Fincher Film Festival

“I do agree you can’t just make movies three hours long for no apparent reason. For a romantic comedy to be three hours long, that’s longer than most marriages.”

SCHEDULE

2ND DAY

AUG 29th, Wednesday

10:00 am

_Venue and Registration Office Opens Ticket Purchase and Will Call

11:00 am

_Festival Begins

12:30 pm

_Film Screening - Girl With The Dragon Tattoo with Q&A session

3:30 pm

_Break Food Trucks Art Installations

5:00 pm

_Talk with Ph.D. Doctor Wind Goodfriend on the Sexism in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

6:00 pm

_Musical perfomance by TrentMøller

— David Fincher

AUG 28th - 31st 2018

Movie Screening Art Installations Conference Talks Music

www.darkscarsfestival.com

1ST DAY

AUG 28th, Tuesday

3RD DAY

AUG 30th, Thursday

10:00 am

_Venue and Registration Office Opens Ticket Purchase and Will Call

10:00 am

_Venue and Registration Office Opens Ticket Purchase and Will Call

11:00 am

_Festival Begins Welcome Ceremony

11:00 am

_Festival Begins

12:30 pm

_Film Screening - Gone Girl with Q&A session to follow

12:30 pm

_Film Screening - Fight Club with Q&A session

3:30 pm

_Break Food Trucks Art Installations

3:30 pm

_Break Food Trucks Art Installations

5:00 pm

_Talk with Dr. Grant H. Brenner on Irrelationships and Dr. Paul Puri psychiatrist specialized in personality disorders

5:00 pm

_Talk with Prof. Dr. Dirk Blothner about Dissociative Identity Disorder and The Anti-Hero’s Journey

6:00 pm

_Musical perfomance by Darkside

6:00 pm

_Musical perfomance by Black Flag and Sleaford Mods

23

24

The Festival

A David Fincher Film Festival

“People always ask why I don’t make independent movies. I do make independent movies, I just make them at Sony and Paramount.”

— David Fincher

TICKET INFO

REGULAR SCREENING

BOX OFFICE INFORMATION

4TH DAY 10:00 am

11:00 am

During the festival, our box offices at the 16th Street will AUG 31st, Friday

_Venue and Registration Office Opens Ticket Purchase and Will Call _Festival Begins

open 45 minutes prior to the first daily screening at each location. Tickets and passes are sold at all box offices.

RS

A ticket purchase does not guarantee a seat at your

_General Admission $11 _Students $6 *Regular screenings tickets are not valid for

selected screening/event. It’s advised to arrive at

special events. Opening & Closing Night

least 20 minutes before the scheduled start time.

films are special events.

ONLINE TICKET PURCHASES

Valid Student ID required

Use this feature to skip Will Call and go directly to the event. Tickets may be purchased online up to an hour 12:30 pm

_Film Screening - The Game with Q&A session

prior to the event depending on seat availability.

WILL CALL

SPECIAL EVENT TICKETS

Will Call locations to be announced. Please bring picture ID and the credit card used for the purchase.

SE

EXCHANGES/REFUNDS

_Opening Night Screening & Party $50 _Closing Night Screening & Party $50

All ticket sales are final. If a screening/event is cancelled, 3:30 pm

_Break Food Trucks Art Installations

or rescheduled, or we cannot seat you a compensation will be provided.

FILMS ARE NOT RATED

5:00 pm

6:00 pm

_Talk with Doctor Grant H. Brenner on The Consequences of Mitigating Psychological Risk and Uncertainty

Screenings/events should be attended at your own discretion.

FILM LOVER PASS

FL

_Opening Night Screening & Party _Closing Night Screening & Party _All Film Screenings

_Film Screening - Se7en with Q&A session

$250

VIP ACCESS PASS 8:00 pm

VIP

_Closing Ceremony Musical performance by Nine Inch Nails and The Field

_VIP Lounge Access _Opening Night Screening & Party _Closing Night Screening & Party _All Film Screenings $500

For additional information access www.darkscarsfestival. com or email info@16thstreetstation.com

25

26

The Films

A David Fincher Film Festival

THE FILMS

The films chosen for the Dark Scars Film Festival were selected based on the Festival’s theme: Constant reminders of pain and instability push people to do horrible things in the films of David Fincher.

This thread encapsulates the essence of Fincher’s movies, we are all capable of doing bad things and what determines these viel actions are the cirumstances and extremes were are put through. He tells us the stories of those who have lost their minds, their balance, their safety and as a result, become bad people who end up doing attrocious things. Fincher revels the workings of twisted minds and reminds us, that we too can become that person.

27

28

Gone Girl

A David Fincher Film Festival

“When I think of my wife, I always think of the back of her head. I picture cracking her lovely skull, unspooling her brain, trying to get answers. The primal questions of a marriage: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? What have we done to each other? What will we do?”

SYNOPSIS & CAST

— Nick Dunne

Gone Girl Screening: 08/28 at 12:20 pm

On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick

MAKING OF “GONE GIRL” MARKS ANOTHER MILESTONE FOR ADOBE PREMIERE PRO CC Meagan Keane, Adobe Creative Cloud

Dunne reports that his wife, Amy, has gone missing.

Under pressure from the police and a growing media frenzy, Nick’s portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble. Soon his lies, deceits and strange behavior have everyone asking the same dark question: Did Nick Dunne kill his wife?

Gone Girl

If the first film review in Variety is any indication, Director

Adobe Premiere Pro CC was faster than anything else in

David Fincher’s film adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s bestsell-

the market. That speed meant more iterations, more

ing novel Gone Girl will be well worth the price of your

time to work on a shot, and more time to perfect an edit.”

admission. Many filmgoers will see the movie because

2014

they like the actors, the genre, or because they’ve read

Having worked on previous Fincher projects, Mavromates

the book. Many others will go because they love Fincher’s

comfortably assumed the role of managing the pipeline,

vigorous storytelling, his impeccable pacing, and his

helping determine the post-production goals, and guid-

striking visual style. Whether the audience is conscious

ing the visual effects work. With a plan in place, Baxter

of it or not, it is Fincher’s careful structuring of narrative

got started on the edit, working closely with Fincher and

Ben Afflect ..................................................................................Nick Dunne

and imagery that makes his films so powerful. Gone Girl

relying on Nelson and others on the editorial team to

Rosamund Pike.......................................................................Amy Dunne

is the first Hollywood feature-length film cut entirely in

Neil Patrick Harris...............................................................Desi Collings

Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

Tyler Perry................................................................................Tanner Boldt Carrie Coon...........................................................................Margo Dunne

Fincher is a director known for pushing technology to

Kim Dickens...............................................Detective Rhonda Boney

the edge. To help realize his ambitious vision for Gone

Patrick Fugit.............................................................Officer james Gilpin

Girl, he shot the film with a RED Dragon camera in 6K

David Clennon..........................................................................Rand Elliott

and assembled a top-notch post-production team.

Lisa Banes ........................................................................Marybeth Elliott

Two-time Academy Award winner Kirk Baxter, ACE, edited

Bill Dunne.............................................................Leonard Kelly-Young

the film with help from an editorial department that

Maureen Dunne............................................................Cyd Strittmatter

included Tyler Nelson, his long-time assistant editor. Peter Mavromates worked as post-production supervisor, while Jeff Brue of Open Drives was the post-production engineer. Fincher had worked with the group before, but the decision to use an integrated Adobe workflow with Adobe Premiere Pro CC at the hub, was a first for the tech-savvy director.

After successfully cutting a Calvin Klein commercial with Premiere Pro CC, the team set out to determine what it would take to support the demands of a two-and-a-half hour feature film using the same Adobe workflow. Brue was tasked with designing the storage system that would enable Premiere Pro to work smoothly within a demanding 6K production pipeline.

“Our goal was to get as many iterations as possible of the opticals and visual effects in a given period of time to make the story as strong as we could,” explains Brue. “The ask was for nothing less than perfection, which pushed us to do better. When it came down to it,

29

30

Gone Girl

A David Fincher Film Festival

“Nick Dunne took my pride and my dignity and my hope and my money.

He took and took from me until I no longer existed.”

MOVIE REVIEW

­—Amy Dunne

Matt Zoller Seitz, Roger Ebert.com

navigate the technicalities of working on such a revolutionary cutting-edge pipeline. “Working with the Adobe

“On Gone Girl we managed to do a huge number of effects shots, probably more than 200, in house thanks

“Gone Girl” is art and entertainment, a thriller and an issue, and an eerily assured audience picture. It is also a film

Suffice to say that its explicit sex and violence and one damn thing after another, to hell with realism plotting put

engineers was probably the best development experi-

to the tight integration between Premiere Pro and

that shifts emphasis and perspective so many times that

it in the “Basic Instinct”, ”Fatal Attraction”, ”Presumed

ence I’ve ever had,” says Nelson. “Everybody was in tune

After Effects,” says Mavromates. “I don’t think the average

you may feel as though you’re watching five short mov-

Innocent” wheelhouse. It is a metafictionally minded ver-

ies strung together, each morphing into the next.

sion of a bloody domestic melodrama that actually uses

At first, “Gone Girl” seems to tell the story of a man who

cuss his bar, which is named The Bar). It ties much of its

with what was going on and we always had this amazingly

viewer will think of Gone Girl as a visual effects movie.

collaborative environment. It wasn’t just about making

However, when you look closely at David’s movies he is

our movie the best movie it could be, we wanted to make

playing little visual tricks and we are doing brass polish-

every movie cut on Premiere Pro in the future the best

ing on a significant number of shots.”

movie it could be.”

the word “meta” (in a scene where Nick and the cops dismight or might not have killed somebody, and is so closed

mystery plot to an anniversary scavenger hunt with clues

off and alienating (like Bruno Richard Hauptmann, per-

enclosed in numbered envelopes marked “clue.” Key

This talented group of self-described perfectionists,

haps) that even people who believe in his innocence can’t

scenes revolve around public statements that are in some

Fincher shot in 6K with multiple takes, giving the team

supported by a gifted and driven post-production team,

help wondering. His name is Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck).

sense performances, and that are evaluated by onlookers

plenty of material to work with. With a gift for bringing

put the Adobe video workflow through its most rigorous

He’s a college professor and a blocked writer. His dissat-

in terms of their believability. And yet it never crosses the

out the best in everyone on a project, it would be easy

use with great success. Now, with the hard work behind

isfied wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) disappears one day,

line and becomes too much a deconstruction or parody.

to assume that the film is comprised of only “perfect

them, they can sit back and watch their months of work

prompting local cops to open a missing persons case that

It’s a plot-obsessed picture that’s determined to stay one

takes.” In fact, 80% of the shots were enhanced in some

unfold for theater audiences around the world.

becomes a murder investigation after three days pass

step ahead of the audience at all times, and cheats when

way, from reframing and stabilization to split-screening

without word from her. Amy and Nick seemed like a happy

it feels it has to. It is a perfect example of the type of sub-

to remove an extra breath. The result, after a lot of metic-

couple. The snippets from Amy’s diary, read in voice-

genre that the great critic Anne Billson has labeled “the

ulous detail work, is a film where every shot just seems

over by herself and accompanied by flashbacks, hint at

preposterous thriller,” in which the “characters and their

flawless. As the Variety review says,” editor Kirk Baxter

differences between the married couple, but not the

behavior bear no relation not just to life as we know it,

cuts the picture to within an inch of its life while still

sort that seem irreconcilable (not at first, anyway). Were

but to any sort of properly structured fiction we may have

allowing individual scenes and the overall structure to

things ever really all that happy and sunny, though?

hitherto encountered.”

breathe”. “On every film we face the challenge of reduc-

If they weren’t, which spouse was the main source of ran-

ing the screen time without losing content,” says Baxter.

cor? Can we even trust what Nick tells the homicide

“If we don’t have to cut out lines, but instead remove time

detectives (Kim Dickens and Patrick Fugit, both outstand-

from a scene by making invisible edits, that’s a win. The

ing) who investigate Amy’s case? Can we trust what

way David overshoots the frame in his films allows me to

Amy tells us, via her diary? Is one of the spouses lying?

edit within the shot, then I turn it in to the guys to sew

Are they both lying? If so, to what end?

together in After Effects, make it spotless, and stabilize the shot. That way David can judge the shots by the

The film raises these questions and others, and it answers

performance and delivery, rather than making comments

nearly all of them, often in boldface, all-caps sentences

on the technical aspects.”

that end with exclamation points. It is not a subtle film, nor is it trying to be. Directed by David Fincher (“Se7en,”

Much of the visual effects work was done in-house,

“Zodiac”) and as adapted by Gillian Flynn from her best-

which allowed the team to work iteratively, in parallel

selling potboiler, “Gone Girl” suggests one of those

with the editing. For example, Baxter could edit in

overheated, fairly comic-bookish “R”-rated thrillers that

Premiere Pro while other worked on shots using After

were everywhere in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Like

Effects. The saved compositions would automatically

those sorts of pictures, “Gone Girl” is dependent upon

update in Baxter’s timeline thanks to Adobe Dynamic

reversals of expectation and point-of-view. As soon

Link. This integrated and interactive workflow kept

as you get a handle on what it is, it becomes something

shots looking cleaner and eliminated distracting back-

else, then something else again. Describing its storyline

and-forth discussions so the entire team could focus

in detail would ruin aspects that would be counted as

on the story as it took shape in the edit bay. This stream-

selling points for anyone who hasn’t read Flynn’s book.

lined modern workflow was one of the main advantages

That’s why I’m being so vague.

for “Team Fincher.”

Many classic and near-classic films can be slotted into this sub-genre. One of them is Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo,” a film in which the bad guy’s scheme makes no sense if you think about it for longer than thirty seconds

31

32

Gone Girl

A David Fincher Film Festival

“Everyone knows that ‘complicated’ is a code word for bitch”.

—Margo Dunne

INTERVIEW Christina Radish, Collider

and that, in any event, would have unraveled had even

circumstances under with they’re capable of it, this film

The 30th Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF)

the smallest part of it not gone precisely as envisioned.

will confirm them. “Your chin,” Amy tells Nick in a flash-

continued its tradition of honoring the year’s standout

(How did Gavin and imposter-Maddie get out of the bell

back, “it’s quite villainous.” He covers it up with his finger,

performers by presenting one of this year’s Virtuosos

tower, anyway, without being seen by anybody, including

but now that she’s pointed it out, you can’t not stare at it.

awards to Rosamund Pike for her work in Gone Girl.

Expertly directed by David Fincher and brilliantly laid out

Scottie? Was there a second stairwell?) After “Gone Girl” .

The most intriguing thing about “Gone Girl” is how droll

by author/screenwriter Gillian Flynn, the haunting and

I overheard a couple listing all the dropped plot threads

it is. For long stretches, Fincher’s gliding widescreen

chilling thriller is about a man (Ben Affleck) whose wife

and narrative holes big enough to hide aircraft carriers in.

camerawork, immaculate compositions and sickly, desat-

(Pike) disappears, and he becomes the main focus of

This isn’t the sort of movie that can withstand that kind

urated colors fuse with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s

a media circus and making him look less than innocent.

of scrutiny. You might as well say, “That part in my dream

creepy-optimistic synthesized score to create a perverse While there, Rosamund Pike talked about how hard

where the penguin told me where to dig for the treasure

big-screen version of one of those TV comedies built

seemed unrealistic.”

around a pathetically unobservant lump of a husband and

Gone Girl was to get out of her system, why the secrets

his hypercontrolling, slightly shrewish wife. For most of

of the story were worth keeping, what was most helpful

What of “Gone Girl” as a parable of gender relations, one

its the time, “Gone Girl” is “Everybody Loves Accused

in her understanding of the character, why a character

that eventually takes an ugly misogynist turn? I’ve heard

Wife-Murderer Raymond,” sprinkled with very colorful

like Amy is a dream for an actor, the most challenges

these charges leveled, and they have merit. You’ll under-

verging on-wacky supporting players (including Tyler

scenes, and what movies of 2014 she would recommend.

stand what I mean once you’ve seen the movie. At the

Perry as a Johnnie Cochran-like defense attorney and

Here are highlights of what she had to say at the Q&A.

same time, though, as we evaluate those complaints, we

Neil Patrick Harris as a former flame of Amy’s who’s still

owe it to Flynn, Fincher and everyone involved to take

obsessed with her). Then it takes a right turn, and a left

Q: How hard was it to talk about Gone Girl, before it

into account what sort of film this is, what mode it’s oper-

turn, and flips upside down.

came out?

how it’s doing it, and why. “Gone Girl” is a nightmare of love

I’m not saying the film is genuinely clever throughout

always ask you when you got the character out of your

gone cold and a relationship gone south, coupled with

(though it is always fiendishly manipulative) or that every

system. We finished the movie, and then, it wasn’t until

an elaborate crazy revenge fantasy that both exploits

twist is defensible (a few are stupid). I’m saying that

ROSAMUND PIKE: You play a part like this and people

ating in, and how transparent it is about what it’s doing,

and reclaims sexist images and assumptions. It’s also a

“Gone Girl” is what it is, that it knows what it is, and it works.

the New York premiere that we could finally talk about it, and I was like, “I’ve basically been playing Amy for the

film about a psychopath who turns an ordinary life into

You know how well it’s working when you hear how audi-

last six months. I’ve been lying and hiding things and not

chaos. Like a lot of Hitchcock, and like certain domestic

ences laugh at it, and with it. Their loud laughter evolves

telling the truth.” Suddenly, you’re like, “Okay, she’s gone,

nightmares by such filmmakers as Brian De Palma and

as the film does. They laugh tentatively at first, then with

and now people know what it’s about.” David Fincher’s

Luis Bunuel, each scene in the movie refers, however

an enthusiasm that gives way to a full-throated, “I endorse

marketing strategy on this film was brilliant because

obliquely, to real fears, real emotions and real configura-

this madness!” during the final half-hour, when the story

people didn’t know. Obviously, the book found a huge readership, but many, many more people saw the film

tions of love or friendship. But at the same time, not a

spirals into DePalma-style expressionism and pictures

single frame is meant to be taken literally, as a documen-

becomes a maelstrom of blood, tears and other bodily

than read the book. Those people who didn’t know what

tary-like account of how people are, or should be, or

fluids. There are allusions to O.J. Simpson case with,

was coming had an extraordinary experience in the cin-

shouldn’t be. It’s working through primordial feelings in the

“Macbeth” and “Medea,” and the ending is less a actual

manner of a blues song, a pulp thriller, a film noir, or a

ending than really a punchline, and that’s all the more

horror picture.

amusing for feeling so deflated.

ema because it’s an extraordinary story. So, it was worth keeping those secrets.

Q: The character of Amy is so complex. What was most

These modes all trade in stereotypical views of the

helpful, in your understanding of her? Was it the script,

essences of masculinity and femininity. All are politically

was it the book, was it talking to Gillian Flynn, or was it

incorrect by definition. All seem to have had at least

inside you?

some bearing on “Gone Girl.” The movie is sick joke, a fable

PIKE: I always think that people who have the hardest

and a lament. It’s “He done her wrong” and “She done

time in the spotlight are the people who have unearned

him wrong.” It’s “Men are spineless pigs” and “Hell hath no

fame, like the girlfriends of people who are famous or

fury like a woman scorned.” If you make blanket assump-

people who become figures of attention, not through

tions about what men and women are capable of, and the

their own merit. And that’s what Amy has because she’s

33

34

Gone Girl

A David Fincher Film Festival

“I’ve basically been playing Amy for the last six months. I’ve been lying and hiding things and not telling the truth.”

—Rosamund Pike

the subject of these books. She’s not only the subject,

it, so anyone buying meat that day would have seen me

direction in Birdman is truly mind-boggling when you

but it’s like she’s been given a fictional twin who’s better

behind the counter, with serious intent, finding out the

think about how he accomplished that, and how he

than her, more accomplished than her, even more popu-

mechanics of doing that. That was for research purposes.

lar and more loved than her by her own parents. That’s a recipe for narcissism, right there, because you’re entitled

had that in his head and executed it with that grace.

It’s a pretty stunning thing. He’s a genius.

But then, the very start of the movie was very difficult

and you feel inadequate. Then, that makes a very insecure

because I started with the scenes where Amy is on the

adult, who simultaneously has very high expectations

run and she has to suddenly create another character,

This proved rather hard, given the explosion of interest.

“It was a big moment and also surreal,” she says. One

of themselves and others. Personally, that for me, was my

as she’s hiding inside her own skin. I had to gain all this

magazine wanted to do a day in the life of an Oscar

in into the character.

weight for that part of the movie, and I was very ill. I’d

nominee shoot, picturing her by the pool or getting

gotten a terrible virus, right before the first day. And then,

her nails done. “I was like, ‘Are you joking?’” She laughs

I was playing somebody who’s being somebody else,

a more accurate picture the would have shown her

PIKE: Yeah, but I don’t think that’s so unusual for actors

but I hadn’t played the true person, at that stage of the

carting the baby carseat around or struggling with bags

to do that. There are bits that you want to remember.

movie. I found that unbelievably difficult. Those scenes

of nappies. On the big day that she the news of the

You can go back to something and have it ignite some-

later became really fun because I was playing two people

Oscar nominations broke, she had to do phone inter-

thing in your brain. Gillian is such a fantastic writer that

within the same scene.

views while lying on her bed, trying to entertain her

Q: You really studied the book, didn’t you?

there are bits that you want to relish. There’s this wonderful bit where, towards the end of the movie, he says, “My wife is a murdering, lying sociopath, who is also really fun.” And that is when I thought, “That’s who she is!

That’s what I want to play!”

two young sons at the same time.

Q: Is it a coincidence that, after playing this murderess, you became pregnant and brought a life into this

Men don’t want to play second fiddle to a woman

world?

There were lots of offers: she was cast in a film with

PIKE: I finished playing Amy and thought, “I have to cre-

Christian Bale, but it was shelved when he hurt his

ate a human being, after that person.” I think it really did.

knee. Then she did HHhH, playing the wife of Reinhard

I really didn’t know where to go from there, professionally.

Heydrich, the senior Nazi behind many Third Reich

getting to play, as an actor?

I brought a lot of unpleasantness into the world, playing

atrocities. She played a CIA agent in High Wire Act, a

PIKE: There’s no actress who wouldn’t dream of a char-

Amy. She’s not a relaxing person to play. There’s nothing

political thriller set in 1980s Beirut, and did another

acter like that. As an actor, you think, “I’m never going to

authentic about her. I suppose there is when she’s vitri-

Christian Bale film, Hostiles. All are due to come out next year.

Q: Is Amy the kind of character that you dream about

be good enough. I can see how far I want to reach with

olic and true. In her true dealings with other people, she’s

this and the potential, but I’m never going to reach it.”

relentlessly never herself. So, I figured out that I needed

But the other side of that, is you go home and think, “I

to be relentlessly authentic and myself for a litt while, and

Her career also appeared to have a dip, but she had

can do anything I want. This is so extreme. It’s a version

bring an innocent human being into the world.

actually just had her second child with her partner,

of being a woman that isn’t contained in any way.” She’s

businessman Robie Uniacke. “It was pretty powerful

extreme. Yes, it’s a film about a murderess, but it’s very

Q: If you could play an iconic leader or performer, who

being Amy,” she says. “I think I wanted to be very

empowering, in some ways. It’s great to stretch every

would you want to play?

human for a while, very maternal probably.”

muscle and get to make good on every insane thought

PIKE: I would love to be under-estimated as a dancer,

you’ve ever had.

and then really fucking show ‘em.

Pike is a slightly unnerving person. She is flawlessly

Q: What’s the one scene that kept you up at night,

Q: What is one movie that came out in 2014 that you

speak to a spooked animal. She seems both youthfully

knowing that you’d have to do it?

loved and would recommend?

naive and about 100 years old.

PIKE: I always get worried about anything physical, like

PIKE: I would say Whiplash. I had just brought my baby

beautiful, her voice soft and low, the way you would

the action sequences. Neil Patrick Harris and I had to do

back from the hospital, and it was one of those nights.

a violent scene. If you’re going to do something like that,

I watched it, and I was just so riveted and moved. Tears

you have to do it with a certain degree of accuracy. I had

were streaming down my face, watching that film. It’s a

no idea how much force you needed to slice someone’s

reincarnation of artistic expression and the violence that

throat. I actually went to a butcher and asked them if they

goes under the surface of that expression. But then,

just to understand what it would be like. They let me do

Birdman was like that, too. [Alejandro González] Iñárritu’s

35

36

A David Fincher Film Festival

37

“You will be investigating thieves, misers, bullies. The most detestable collection of people that you will ever meet, my family.”

—Henrik Vanger

SYNOPSIS & CAST

MAKING OF THE MAKING OF ‘THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO’

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Screening: 08/29 at 12:30 pm

Disgraced financial reporter Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel

Gregg Kilday, Hollywood Reporter

Craig) finds a chance to redeem his honor after being hired by wealthy Swedish industrialist Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to solve the 40-year-old murder of Vanger’s niece, Harriet. Vanger believes that Harriet was killed by a member of his own family. Eventually joining Blomkvist on his dangerous quest for the truth is Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), an unusual but ingenious investigator whose fragile trust is not easily won.

Racing to finish “The Social Network,” David Fincher explains to THR why he cast Rooney Mara, how he and Steven Zaillian cut 350 pages out of Stieg Larsson’s novel and why Weather.com was one of the first places his team went for research.

From the very start, the clock was ticking, steadily, relentlessly, inexorably. Some movies—actually, most

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

2011

movies—take years to make their way through the big Hollywood’s labyrinthine development process, then

Daniel Craig...................................................................Mikael Blomkvist

spend many more months before cameras and in post

Rooney Mara................................................................Lisbeth Salander

production before finally hitting the screen. But David

Christopher Plummer....................................................Henrik Vanger

Fincher’s hard-edge adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s The

Stellan Skarsgård.............................................................Martin Vanger

Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was not one of those films.

Steven Berkoff.......................................................................................Frode Robin Wright............................................................................Erika Berger

From the moment, in midsummer 2009, when Sony’s top

Yorick van Wageningen............................................................Bjurman

brass Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal began pursuing

Joely Richardson.................................................................Anita Vanger

the idea of mounting a new film version of the best-selling

Geraldine James................................................................................Cecilia

mystery novel, the first volume in Larsson’s trilogy, pub-

Donald Sumpter..........................................................Detective Morell

lished in Sweden in 2005, had already served as the basis

Moa Garpendal...................................................................................Harriet

for a Swedish film that debuted that year, the project was on an ever-escalating fast track. By December 2009, producer Scott Rudin had managed to secure a deal that brought the rights to make a new-English language version to Sony, and the known Steven Zaillian, fresh from writing a Moneyball with Aaron Sorkin, was as entrusted with the screen adaptation. By the month March 2010, the studio was after Fincher, who earlier had finished principal photography on The Social Network, to direct.

Then, with Fincher on board and scouting locations in Sweden even as he was completing post-production on Network, the focus turned to casting. After an intense 2 and half month search to find the right actress to play Lisbeth Salander, the androgynous computer hacker and avenging angel who joins forces with the journalist Mikael Blomkvist to solve a string of grisly murders involving one of Sweden’s most powerful families, Rooney Mara was anointed. In mid-August, the studio put its marker on a December 2011 release date, just 16 months away. By September, preproduction had begun on the complex project, which would switch hopscotch from Sweden to

38

A David Fincher Film Festival

39

“I want you to help me catch a killer of women.”

—Mikael Blomkvist

Switzerland to studio interiors in Los Angeles and then

R-rated movie. “They didn’t give it to me saying, ‘We

The truth, the director contends, is somewhere in the

novel were waiting to see if the transformation would

on to Norway and the U.K. before returning to Sweden,

want that warm, fuzzy thing that you do,’ “ says the

middle. “Casting is not just about a person’s height and

be convincing. “David made it his mission,” she says, “to

where principal photography wrapped in June. One of

director, whose dossier includes such bloody fare as

weight. It’s not just, does the actor fit the picture, but

keep me in a very safe bubble while making the film

the final movies completed in time for year-end awards

Seven and Zodiac.

does she bring a force or presence she can build off of?

where I didn’t have to think of anything but the character.”

York Film Critics Circle, it arrived in theaters, as promised,

So even before Zaillian’s first draft was completed May

you’re creating fit with the person whom you’re asking to

on Dec. 20, just two years after the elements began to

19, Fincher and Chaffin made a trip to Sweden to begin

bring it to life?” explains Fincher. “Actors solve problems

Sweden, Fincher worked with a number of his frequent

come together.

scouting locations, using the book as their guide. (On the

for you in certain roles. I had to cast Rooney in Network

collaborators to give the film his distinctive sense

way home, the director stopped off in Henley-on-Thames,

because I needed somebody could be same feminine,

of style, but also one that grew out of the novel’s setting.

England, to shoot five days on the regatta boat sequence

incredibly verbally facile, somebody who was warm who

in Network.)

could offset how cold and the reptilian Zuckerberg was

Does the psychological makeup of the character that

consideration, Dragon first screened Nov. 28 for the New

“I feel like I’ve operated for the last 11 months on less than 100 hours sleep,” Fincher, just beginning to catch his

at the beginning of the movie. None of those things even

breath, said days after the movie’s opening. “I actually

As the rest of the production collected together in

“David wanted to pay homage to Swedish filmmaking, Bergman, Sven Nykvist’s photography,” says the cinema-

“My first phone call was to get research on Sweden,” says

applied to Salander. So I knew Rooney under other aus-

tographer Jeff Cronenweth. “And to reinforce the concept

Chaffin of her quick transition between the projects. “I’m

pices. It was hard to imagine her in this new role and to

of what a Swedish winter entails because the inclement

Although the intervening months might have gone by in

not sure which I did next: Go to Weather.com and look at

get everybody else to imagine it. The question was, can

weather is such a big part of the story. So we went for

a bit of a blur, Fincher, 49, does recall his first reaction

the historical information, or if I went to the charts about

she get to be withdrawn, antisocial? So we did it a num-

that low winter light and the warm fires. Sven style’s was

when, in March 2010, Sony urgently requested that he

when the sun rose and set. But those are probably the first

ber of times, and about a month or five weeks into it, I

all based on the actual available light that was in Sweden,

got to sleep in until 7 this morning,” he added with a laugh.

and his producing partner, Cean Chaffin, take a weekend

things I did. I knew things like the weather and daylight

realized, wow, she’s been able to do every single thing

so it was really interesting to finally get there, to see how

to read Larsson’s novel.

and darkness had to factor into the schedule in a big way.

we’ve asked of her. I so appreciated the incredibly hard

low the light levels were, how low the sun was for such a

It was surprisingly complicated.”

work that went into doing that stuff, even though it must

big part of winter.”

have been intensely discouraging to be continually asked

“I was sort of shocked by the size of it,” he says. Fincher understood why Rudin and the studio were so keen to

As casting began, the male roles fell into place relatively

to come back and try again. Finally, it became apparent

As the shoot progressed, Fincher’s multitasking skills

mount a new movie version for international audiences.

easily. Daniel Craig, then 43, was quickly chosen to play

she was not going away, not giving up. She was going to

were put to the test to meet looming deadlines. Editors

There are more than 62 million copies of the three novels

Blomkvist, though it took some time to work out his deal

do what needed, and that was very Salander-ish.”

in the so-called Millennium Trilogy series in print, and the

because the shoot had to be scheduled between his

Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, working from Los Angeles, would assemble each day’s footage as it was shot and

three Swedish films have grossed $215 million worldwide.

commitments to Cowboys & Aliens and Skyfall, the next

When Fincher did offer Mara the role, he broke the news

transmit it to him for review. Trent Reznor, recruited to

But as Fincher and Chaffin raced through the first book

James Bond movie. By June, Fincher also had met with

by asking her to read a news release on his iPad that the

compose the score after his success on Network, didn’t

that weekend, they also realized that it takes readers on

Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard, who was cast as Martin,

studio was about to send out, he warned her that the part

wait for a first cut but began writing musical sequences

a lot of side trips, from detailed explanations of surveil-

the movie’s sprawling and dangerous Vanger family.

could be life-altering, identifying the young actress with

while the movie was filming. “The highlight of my day,”

an extreme character who might be hard to escape.

says Fincher, “was putting on my iPhone headphones

lance techniques to angry attacks on corrupt Swedish

and playing the latest MP3 from Trent. I would have these

industrialists. Says Fincher of that first encounter: “The

But it was the role of Lisbeth that attracted all the atten-

ballistic, ripping-yarn thriller aspect of it is kind of a red

tion. The media breathlessly tracked the names of those

But Mara, 26, had no second thoughts. “After reading

herring in a weird way. Its the thing that throws Salander

in contention, ranging from Alice in Wonderland’s Mia

all three books, I saw her very clearly and understood

little euphoric six-minute interludes.”

One complication, though, added a further level of logis-

and Blomkvist together, but its their relationship you keep

Wasikowska to Inception’s Ellen Page to Sucker Punch’s

most things about her personality and could relate to a

coming back to. I was just wondering what 350 pages

Emily Browning. Some reports had Fincher secretly pro-

lot of things about her,” she says. “It was my job to bring

tical problems: Just as Dragon was getting under way,

Zaillian would get rid of.”

moting Roomy Mara, whom he had just directed in the

her to life.”

Network, which by then had opened, was turning into

Because Zaillian was already at work on the screenplay,

nonsense student who puts Jesse Eisenberg’s character

Five days later, she was on a plane to Stockholm, where

scheduling of it all was daunting. After a tight 25 days

Fincher didn’t want to dictate what he should cut. But the

Mark Zuckerberg in his place. In addition to the formal

she embarked on an arduous training program: learning

of prep in Sweden, Fincher found himself flying back

one of last season’s biggest awards contenders. The

Network’s opening sequence, where then she plays a

two did have a conversation. “I see this as about a guy

screen, hair and makeup tests, he did quietly shoot Mara

martial arts, skateboarding, motorcycle riding, working

across the Atlantic for the New York Film Critics Circle’s

and a girl,” says Fincher. When Zaillian agreed, the direc-

riding the Los Angeles subway to convince Sony execs

with a dialect coach to perfect a Swedish accent. with

awards ceremony, then turning right around and then

tor says, he knew they were headed in the same way

that she could handle the part. But Mara would later tell

the company of costume designer Trish Summerville,

heading back to Stockholm for the first day of filming.

direction. There was never any question, either, that the

interviewers that the director at first didn’t see her as

she also refined Lisbeth’s look, submitting to a severe

Two months later, with the production relocated to

film, which the studio was ready to greenlight at a bud-

Salander at all.

haircut, undergoing (real) piercings and sitting for (fake)

soundstages in Los Angeles, the partying after the 83rd

get of about $90 million, would be anything but an

tattoos. She didn’t have to worry that a lot of fans of the

40

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

A David Fincher Film Festival

“Hold still. I’ve never done this before, and there will be blood.”

—Lisbeth Salander

MOVIE REVIEW Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert.com

Academy Awards, at which Network earned three

The success of the her­oine Lisbeth Salander suggests a

ever been found, suspicion rests on those who were

Oscars, was barely over when the Dragon cast and crew

hunger in audiences for an action picture hero who is not

there that day, in particular other Vanger relatives whose

had to report for a 6 a.m. call.

a white 35ish male with stubble on his chin. Such charac-

houses overlook Henrik’s from their own isolation.

ters are often effective, but they sometimes seem on “We had the year-end sweepstakes stuff on top of trying

loan from other films. There are few characters anywhere

They provide a snaky group of suspects. Many seem

to prepare a movie and give them both their due,” says

like Salander, played here by Rooney Mara and by Noomi

involved in corruption. Some have pasts with Nazi con-

Fincher. “I was extremely happy with the response peo-

Rapace in the original 2009 Swedish picture. Thin, stark,

nections. Mikael arranges their photos and newspaper

ple had to Social Network and wanted to see everyone

haunted, with a look that crosses goth with S&M, she is

clippings and file cards in a collage pinned to a wall and

who was decorated get their just deserts. I didn’t want to

fearsomely intelligent and emotionally stranded. It has

connected with red lines of speculation, but his threads

be sleeping in airports for about seven to eight weeks,

been fascination with the lean, fierce Salander that

of suspicion seem to lead to...everyone.

but that’s what it ended up being.”

draws me into the “Girl” movies. We know horrible things happened to her earlier in life that explain her anger

In this film more than the original, the stories of Mikael

Somehow, in the end, all the deadlines were met. Sony

and proud isolation. Her apartment in Stockholm is like

and Lisbeth are kept separate for an extended period.

even pushed up Dragon’s release by a day so it opened

an eagle’s aerie. She has an isolated life online, distant

We learn about the girl’s state-appointed guardian (Yorick

Dec. 20. The movie has grossed nearly $77 million through

relationships with a few other technology geeks and a

van Wageningen), who abused her, stole from her and

its first three weekends of domestic release, and its

bleak loneliness. One of the undercurrents of these

terrorized her. Her attempts to avenge herself would

international rollout is just beginning. Zaillian has been

movies is the very gradual rapport that grows between

make a movie of their very own. Zaillian’s script comes

working on an adaptation of the trilogy’s second book,

Lisbeth and Mikael Blomkvist, the radical investigative

down to a series of fraught scenes between his leads

The Girl Who Played With Fire, and the studio has com-

journalist. This is never the kind of movie where they’re

and a distinctive gallery of supporting characters,

mitments from Craig and Mara for a follow-up. Fincher

going to fall in love. That she smiles is a breakthrough.

given weight by Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Wright and the iconic London actor Steven Berkoff. These people

hasn’t decided on his next film, but he’s not slacking off.

Even as Dragon hit theaters, he was scouting locations

The stories churn in my mind. I’ve read two of the Stieg

inhabit a world with not any boring people. By providing

for the Netflix series House of Cards. He’s directing the

Larsson novels, seen all three of the Swedish films and

Mikael with his own small cottage on the island, and

pilot. A new clock is ticking.

now am back for my third tour through the first story. It’s

Henrik Vanger isolates himself in a vulnerable situation,

an odd feeling to be seeing a movie that resembles its

which sinks in as he comes to realizes he’s probably

Swedish counterpart in so many ways, yet is subtly differ-

sharing the island with a murderer.

ent under the direction of Fincher and with a screenplay

by Steven Zaillian. I don’t know if it’s better or worse. It has

There’s also the problem of why Henrik continues to

a different air. Fincher is certainly a more assured director

receive watercolors of wildflowers on his birthday, a tradi-

than Niels Arden Oplev, who did the 2009 Swedish film.

tion that his niece began and inexplicably has continued

Yet his assurance isn’t always a plus. The earlier film had

after her death. If you subtract computers, geeks, goth

a certain sort earnest directness that seemed to raise

girls, nose piercings, motorcycles and dragon tattoos,

the stakes. Emotions were closer to the surface. Rooney

what we have at the bottom is a classic Agatha Christie

Mara and Rapace both create convincing Salanders, but

plot. The island works as a sealed room. I realize most

Noomi Rapace seems more uneasy in her skin, more

people will be seeing the story for the first time with this

threatened. As the male lead Mikael Blomkvist, Michael

version. Because it worked for me, I suspect it will work

Nyqvist seemed less confident, more threatened. In

better for them, because everything will be new. I’m happy

this film, Craig brings along the confidence of James Bond.

to have seen both. If I had a choice of seeing one or

How could he not? He looks too comfortable in danger.

the other for the first time, I’d choose the 2009 version.

The labyrinth of the story remains murky. The elderly mil-

It seems to be closer to the bone, with a less confident

lionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), cut off

surface. Even the Swedish dialogue adds to the effect; in

from the mainland on the family island, yearns to know

English, the characters are concealing secrets but not

how his beloved niece Harriet died about 40 years ago.

so uncannily concealing themselves.

Because apparently neither she nor her body left the island on the day she disappeared, and no trace has

41

42

A David Fincher Film Festival

43

INTERVIEW Louise Roug Bokkenheuser, Newsweek

From its opening credits–a slick but dark montage of

uncomfortable? But there is no way to take out

bodies that come together only to pull apart, dissolve, or

the things from the book that makes the audiences

explode–to its final, gloomy scene, this is a movie about

uncomfortable”. “Because then there’s no book,

intimacy and control reflecting the grim but central idea

there’s no story,” Craig interjects. “It all really grows

And she sits there. She lights a cigarette, and she

of Stieg Larsson’s novel: a meeting between two people

from there,”concludes Fincher.

fumes. And you don’t know what’s going on in her head.

is invariably a struggle over power. In this universe, most

It’s hard not to like Lisbeth Salander.

For one thing, her sense of purpose is admirable.

“Horrible things happen to her. And she wanders home.

“Too easy,” Fincher offers.

“Yeah,” she agrees.

“She does everything he can’t,” says Daniel Craig.

The next time you see her, she’s got a Taser and a

men are monsters. But even those who aren’t end up

The charisma of the Salander character is ultimately the

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, written by the now

30-pound chrome dildo, and she’s got a plan,” says David

causing hurt, out of thoughtlessness or neglect.

reason for the extraordinary success of The Girl With

deceased Swedish journalist Larsson, however, does

Fincher, who directed the much-anticipated movie

the Dragon Tattoo and its two sequels. Worldwide, the

sometimes sound like a feminist tract. Consider for example its original title in Swedish, Men Who Hate

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. “You don’t need her to

It’s a bleak depiction of human relationships, which,

novel has sold more than 65 million copies, making it

say, ‘This is not right what’s happened to me, and I

when done by Fincher, is unapologetically grown-up–

one of the most popular books of all time. (In the U.S.

have to make it right.’ You see her at the hardware store,

and utterly entertaining. Toward the beginning of the

alone, it has sold 18 million copies, and, last month,

buying tape and zip ties and black ink.”

movie, which opens Dec. 20, Henrik Vanger (Christopher

Vintage Books shipped more than 1.3 million more copies

been threatened by a man.” Larsson’s longtime partner,

Plummer), the patriarch of the dysfunctional Vanger

in anticipation of the movie.)

Eva Gabrielsson, has said he did identify as a feminist.

Women, or this statistic at the beginning of the book: “18 percent of the women in Sweden have at one time

And last year, Larsson’s close friend Kurdo Baksi wrote a

dynasty, hires investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) to solve the mysterious disappearance

But Salander is no female action hero in a tight leather

memoir suggesting that the author’s preoccupation

of Vanger’s niece from an isolated island in northern

outfit. She is an outcast who bends the world to her will—

with violence against women sprung from guilt, having

Sweden decades ago. Before long, Blomkvist shares

in the novel, Blomkvist wonders to himself whether she

watched, as a teenager, three friends gang-rape a girl.

both the investigation and his bed with Salander (Rooney

has Asperger’s. As a director, Fincher is an assured chron-

Mara), a young computer hacker with a murky past.

icler of life outside the norm. Consider, for example, one

Although that girl’s name was Lisbeth, like Larsson’s

of his first movies, Fight Club, or even his most recent, The

heroine, Fincher seems unconvinced by motives of

While visually stylish in David Fincher’s hands and with

Social Network, which both revolve around people who

atonement or revenge by literary proxy. “This whole

a screenplay written by Steven Zaillian, who specializes

live without regard for convention or social acceptance.

thing may have sprung from a rape that he saw. But

In person, he is engaging and funny, dominating the con-

all of its political and financial ramifications, said, ‘You

it may also be that he, as a guy exploring fascism in

in literary adaptations and who won even an Oscar for Schindler’s List, the movie plays out the messy plot points of the book: ranging from ritualistic murders, aging Nazis,

versation but nudging Mara to speak up when she goes

know what, people should be mad as hell, and they

sexual assault, and incest. And rather than downplay the

quiet. Having worked with her on The Social Network,

shouldn’t take it anymore.’”

book’s most infamous scene of anal rape followed by

in which she had a brief but memorable appearance as

shocking, yet gratifying, retribution, Fincher has turned it

Mark Zuckerberg’s girlfriend, it was Fincher who insisted

up a notch. The R rating is fully deserved.

on casting the little-known actress.

A committed communist as a young man, Larsson offers a biting critique of speculative capitalism, today a less outré point of view than it must have seemed, even in

For the role of Salander, Mara’s eyebrows were bleached,

Sweden, when the novel was published in 2005. Although

another thriller if there hadn’t been a commitment to

her hair was cut short and asymmetric, while her eye-

Fincher has a few surprises for devotees of the book, he

making it for an adult audience,” says Fincher, who spent

brow, ears, and nipple were pierced. Curled up in the

is largely faithful to the novel, spending considerable

months with Mara and Craig, living in Sweden as they

corner of the couch on this late afternoon in London,

time on Blomkvist’s desire for justice after his public humili-

shot the movie.

Mara seems younger than her 26 years, perhaps could

ation at the hand of the tycoon Hans-Erik Wennerström,

be because of her deference to Fincher, which she tries in

a stand-in for evil capitalists everywhere.

“I don’t think I would have been interested in making

When I meet the three of them together recently at the

vain to hide.

In other words, this is a movie about revenge as an idea,

Dorchester Hotel in London, their familial banter and propensity to finish each other’s thoughts suggest just a

She almost sputters when I ask her whether this is a fem-

it is not about one avenging woman. Still, Blomkvist isn’t

touch of, well, Stockholm syndrome.

inist book. “I think maybe the feminists see it that way,”

the person fighting the bad guys or driving the action-

she says. “I don’t know what Larsson’s intentions were.

“So many of the decisions to cleave things out of books

But I don’t think Salander does anything in the name of

which are successful have to do with levels of discom-

any group or cause or belief. She is certainly not a femi-

fort,” says Fincher. “Are we going to make the audiences

nist. That’s like, that’s just, almost . . . ”

Salander is. “She does everything he can’t,” says Craig.

“And I think that dynamic is what has made the book so successful, whether that’s Stieg Larsson writing about

44

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

A David Fincher Film Festival

OPENING SEQUENCE OILY SECRETS OF THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO’S TITLE SEQUENCE Angela Watercutter, Wired Magazine

himself; about his ideal relationship with someone he

same time, she’s emotionally stunted at 12 years old

THE OIL-DRENCHED TITLE sequence that opens David

would love to save, or whether he actually wants to be

and naive in a lot of ways. She is full of all these contra-

Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo includes mes-

headquarters completed the project in a few months.

saved himself.”

dictions. And we never wanted to make her just this

merizing details from all three of Stieg Larsson’s books

(Watch a clip of Blur’s computer renderings coming

angry and violent person.”

about hacker heroine Lisbeth Salander, not just the one

together below.) So what was it like for Miller, who

upon which the movie is based.

“She is Pippi Longstocking,” says Mara, referring to the Swedish children’s book by Astrid Lindgren, which stars

Not surprisingly, Fincher isn’t keen, either, to talk about

It was a tall order, but the crew at Blur’s Venice, California,

has known Fincher for a while and worked on other projects with him, to create something for a director

a girl who grows up alone in a big house with a horse

the other Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. “The question I

That might seem like an odd choice, but it was intentional.

infamous for his meticulousness? He admits he had

and a monkey, the envy of every child who has ever read

asked myself is, is there room? Is there another way at

Blur Studio, the creator of the vivid opening, was given a

fears the Dragon Tattoo intro would get nit-picked, or

it. Like Pippi, Salander makes her own rules. She is a

this? Are we going to be walking in someone else’s

mandate by Fincher to make the two-and-a-half-minute

ward of the state, but her demeanor is antisocial. Even

footsteps? And I think–ultimately–in terms of who I saw

sequence a new conceptual re-creation of Larsson’s

when it’s not scrawled rudely on her T-shirt, her torn-up

these people as, there was a lot of room,” Fincher says,

full Millennium trilogy, and to completely turn the idea

clothes, heavy boots, and multiple piercings carry a clear

quickly adding: “That’s not to take anything away from

of title sequences on its head.

message: stay away. “The intimacy she enjoys in her life,

what’s come before.”

she picks on her own terms,” says Fincher. “At the end, she’s

“I got a call from him, it was the middle of the night in

walking away, going, ‘You fool. Why would you allow

Ultimately, he believes we like Salander for her per-

yourself to be conventionally miserable.”

sistence. “It’s not that she has the ability to lift vast

bad,” Tim Miller, Blur’s co-founder and the creative direc-

amounts of weight. It’s that she’s indomitable; that you

tor behind the sequence, said in a phone interview with

Sweden and he was on some shoot that was going really

know that she is going to figure out a way.” Fincher,

Wired.com. “And he calls me and he says, ‘Look, you’re

ended, and it leaves Salander in a much more powerful

for his part, is a famous perfectionist on the set, some-

going to do this thing and it’s going to redefine titles for

position. It’s, ‘Right, well, fuck that, I’m moving on.’” For

one who shoots scenes over and over, and who talks

all our generation the way Se7en did and that’s all there

better or worse, Salander could become the role that

earnestly about giving it his all as a director, staying

really is to it.’”

defines Mara, who has already had to deal with the

behind after Craig leaves, to elucidate a point.

“Which is the punch,” says Craig. “The story is open-

tremendous expectations that come with the movie.

(The casting has been compared to that of Gone With

So, as happened with Se7en‘s title sequence, a song “Every single day you spend $250,000,” he says. “Every

produced by Trent Reznor (in this case a cover of Led

the Wind—something she shrugs off. “That’s silly,” she

single day, you have people that you care about, that

says.) Then there are the unavoidable comparisons to

you’re trying to make as good a movie around as you

Ross) became an eerie opening soundtrack, and Blur set

Noomi Rapace who played Salander in the Scandinavian

possibly can. And you want to get everything out of

about bringing Fincher’s primordial-ooze fever dream

them.” Outside the hotel, darkness has fallen on the city.

to life.

movie version of the book from 2009.

Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” with Karen O and Atticus

In the cheerless park across the street, a Ferris wheel “I saw that performance, but I saw it months before I auditioned for our movie,” says Mara, a tad defensively.

twinkles. Shoppers clutching the Christmas presents

To get what Fincher wanted, Blur worked with the direc-

for loved ones move quickly through empty streets.

tor to pick out general and specific moments in the trilogy

Fincher gets up to leave. “Do your best with it,” he says.

wasps, the instruments of hacking, Lisbeth Salander’s

“Once I read the books, I never looked back at that performance . . . I had my own idea in my head of who she was. And I think the performances are quite different.”

that could be demonstrated visually, a pressed flower, “Try to make us sound smart.” Mara, ahead of him, turns in

I offer that Mara’s take makes Salander appear more

the doorway. “He’ll probably be disappointed no matter

vulnerable. “That was certainly one of my goals,” she

what you do.” “Ouch,” he says, and leaves the room.

says. “She is described as an anorexic waif. At the

father being set on fire, and, of course, the image of the dragon alluded to in the title.

Blur ended up with 26 moments approved by Fincher,

same time, she has this superhuman strength. She looks

then composed them into 252 shots of 24 frames or

quite tough. But she’s quite vulnerable. She’s this

fewer. Each piece was created electronically using 3ds

brilliant hacker and wise beyond her years, and at the

Max, RealFlow (for the oily goo), Softimage and other software, as well as 3-D scans of principal actors Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig (to get their likenesses right).

“pixel-fucked” — to death. But as it turns out, the opening title sequence came together with very few snags.

“It was pretty smooth-flowing,” Miller said.

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“Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake You’re the same decaying organic matter as everything else.”

SYNOPSIS & CAST

—Tyler Durden

“Fight Club is the poster child for movies that should be picketed” —David Fincher

MAKING OF ‘FIGHT CLUB’ FIGHT GOES ON

Fight Club Screening: 08/30 at 12:30 pm

A depressed man (Edward Norton) suffering from insom-

Dennis Lim, New York Times

nia meets a strange soap salesman named Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and soon finds himself living in his squalid house after his perfect apartment is destroyed. The two bored men form an underground club with strict rules and fight other men who are fed up with their mundane lives. Their perfect partnership frays away when Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), a fellow support group crasher, attracts Tyler’s attention.

Fight Club

CULT films, the critic Danny Peary wrote in his 1981 book “Cult Movies,” “are born in controversy” and elicit “a fiery passion in moviegoers that exists long after their initial releases.” By those measures David Fincher’s “Fight

run. But the film’s potent afterlife is proof that, as Mr. Norton put it, “you can’t always rate the value of a piece of art through the short turnaround ways that we tend to assess things.”

Club,” a movie that stirred vitriolic ire when it came out 10 years ago and today inspires obsessive, often wor-

Not only has “Fight Club” performed exceptionally well

shipful scrutiny in both lowbrow and highbrow quarters,

on DVD, it has sold more than six million copies on DVD

is surely the defining cult movie of our time.

and video, and is being issued in a 10th anniversary Blu-

In his memoir Art Linson, a producer of the film, describes

cultural mother lode.

1999

ray edition on Nov. 17, but it has also become a kind of

Edward Norton......................................................................The Narrator

the aftermath of the first screening at the 20th Century

Brad Pitt.....................................................................................Tyler Durden

Fox: ashen-faced executives imagining their higher-ups

Helena Bonham Carter....................................................Marla Singer

(including Rupert Murdoch) “flopping around like acid-

Jared Leto...................................................................................Angel Face

crazed carp wondering how such a thing could even have

Meat Loaf...............................................................Robert ‘Bob’ Paulsen

happened.” The nervousness over screen violence was

Zach Grenier....................................................................Richard Chesler

a renewed high in the wake of the shootings at Columbine High School, and this must have seemed like the worst possible time to release a film in which an army of alienated men, led by Brad Pitt’s charismatic Tyler Durden, an übermensch in a red leather jacket, engage in bareknuckle brawls, anti-social vandalism and outright revolutionary terrorism. When “Fight Club” opened in October 1999 after much defensive maneuvering from the studio (which delayed the release and struggled to find a marketing hook), the pundits eagerly took aim.

“The critical reaction was polarized,” said Edward Norton, who plays the film’s nameless narrator, “but the negative half of that was as vituperative as anything I’ve ever been a part of.” In one of the more apoplectic slams, Rex Reed, writing in The New York Observer, called it “a film without any single redeeming quality, which may have to find its audience in hell.” More than one critic condemned the movie as an incitement to violence; several likened it to fascist propaganda. (“It resurrects the Führer principle,” one British critic declared.) On her talk show an appalled Rosie O’Donnell implored viewers not to see the movie and, for good measure, gave away its big twist.

As many had hoped and predicted “Fight Club,” which had a budget of more than $60 million, bombed at the box office, earning $37 million during its North American

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“In part Fight Club turns on the Baby Boomer generation and says,“Screw you for the world you made.”

“And then, something happened.

I let go. Lost in oblivion. Dark and silent and complete. I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom.”

—Edward Norton

—The Narrator (Edward Norton)

Besides elevating the profile of the now famous novelist

readers and viewers, he added, “could identify with the

Mr. Fincher said, “Every once in a while someone will

Chuck Palahniuk, who wrote the original 1996 book, Mr.

implied marriage of sex and death; and once that fear

send me their thesis and ask, Is this close to the mark?”

Fincher’s film has spawned a video game (featuring the

was acknowledged those people could move forward

He sometimes shares the papers with Mr. Palahniuk and

Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst as a character) and a

and risk finding romantic love.”

the actors but said it’s ultimately not for him to decide.

razor blades). The swaggering gospel of Tyler Durden,

Mr. Fincher, Mr. Norton and Mr. Pitt, who were all in their

Mr. Norton agrees. “Joseph Campbell has that great

much of it taken verbatim from Mr. Palahniuk’s book, has

30s when they made the film (as was Mr. Palahniuk when

idea about mythologies, that a myth functions best when

provided the cultural lexicon with one seemingly death-

he wrote the book), have each talked about being person-

it’s transparent, when people see through the story to

less catchphrase (“The first rule of Fight Club is you do

ally struck by the angry-young-man disaffection of “Fight

themselves,” he said. “When something gets to the point where it becomes the vehicle for people sorting out

Donatella Versace fashion line (men’s wear adorned with

not talk about Fight Club”) and a big numerous pop-

Club.” When Mr. Fincher read the novel, he said, “I thought,

sociological sound bites (“We’re a generation of men

Who is this Chuck Palahniuk and how has he been inter-

their own themes, I think you’ve achieved a kind of holy

raised by women”; “You are not your khakis”).

cepting all my inner monologues?”

grail. Maybe the best you can say is that you’ve managed

Reports and urban legends about real-life fight clubs and

The movie’s arrival in the season of pre-millennial anxiety

same time you realize that it has nothing to do with you.”

copycat crimes still pop up occasionally. In the academic

gave it the aura of what Mr. Norton called “an end of the

sphere, as an Internet search of scholarly journals reveals,

century protest.” A highly personal work made within a

to do something true to your own sensations. But at the

“Fight Club” has inspired a host of miriad of interpreta-

studio system, it also seemed like part of a larger cine-

tions, Nietzschean, Buddhist, Marxist, in papers that take

matic groundswell. “There was a feeling that our crowd

on topics including the “rhetoric of masculinity,” the

was starting to express itself,” Mr. Norton said, referring

“poetics of the body” and the “economics of patriarchy.”

to a bountiful year for young American filmmakers that also saw revelatory works like Paul Thomas Anderson’s

Mr. Fincher, who crammed the collector’s edition DVD,

“Magnolia,” David O. Russell’s “Three Kings” and the Spike

released in 2000, with a trove of deleted scenes and

Jonze’s “Being John Malkovich.”

behind-the-scenes supplements (all are available on the new Blu-ray version), said the movie needed time to

But as with all generational touchstones there is the mat-

be freed from initial preconceptions. “It was sold as,

ter of a cultural divide. “People get scared, not just of

hey come see people beat each other up,” he then said

violence and mortality, but viewers are terrified of how

recently by phone from Boston, where he was shooting

they can no longer relate to the evolving culture,” Mr.

a film about the founding of Facebook called “The Social

Palahniuk said. Some older audiences prefer darker

Network.” To his irritation Fox ran ads during wrestling

material in conventional forms; they “really truly want

matches, and many critics described it as a head-bang-

nothing more than to watch Hilary Swank strive and suffer

ing testosterone fest. But David Fincher has observed

and eventually die, beaten to a pulp, riddled with cancer,

that “women maybe get the humor faster,” he said, add-

or smashed in a plane crash.”

ing that young female audiences seemed to appreciate the film’s satirical spin on macho posturing. Reached by e-mail, Mr. Palahniuk went further and called the film “the best date flick ever.” “The ‘Fight Club’ generation is the first generation to whom sex and death seem synony-

The secret to the enduring allure of “Fight Club” may be that it is, as Mr. Norton put it, quoting Mr. Fincher, “a serious film made by deeply unserious people.” In other words, a film as willing to take on profound questions as it is to

mous,” he said, pointing out that the “meet-cute” between

laugh at and contradict itself: what is “Fight Club” if not

the characters played by Mr. Norton and Helena Bonham

the biggest most fashionable commercial imaginable for

Carter occurs in the support group for the terminally ill.

anti-materialism? A movie of big ideas and abundant

Having grown up with an awareness of AIDS, younger

ambiguities, it can be read and reread in many ways.

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“Fight Club’ is about the most dangerous thing in the world: ideas.”

“People are hungry for films like this; films that make them think.”

—Brad Pitt

—David Fincher

MOVIE REVIEW Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert.com

“Fight Club” is the most frankly and cheerfully fascist big-

that if you hit someone with an ungloved hand hard

and Norton pounding on each other; a lot more people

star movie since “Death Wish,” a celebration of violence

enough, you’re going to end up with broken bones,

will leave this movie and get in fights than will leave it discussing Tyler Durden’s moral philosophy. The images

in which the heroes write themselves a license to drink,

the guys in “Fight Club” have fists of steel, and hammer

smoke, screw and beat one another up. Sometimes, for

one another while the sound effects guys beat the hell

in movies like this argue for themselves, and it takes a

variety, they beat up themselves. It’s macho porn, the sex

out of Naugahyde sofas with Ping-Pong paddles. Later,

lot of narration (or Narration) to argue against them. Lord

movie Hollywood has been moving toward for years, in

the movie takes still another turn. A lot of recent films

knows the actors work hard enough. Norton and Pitt go

which eroticism between the sexes is replaced by all-guy

seem unsatisfied unless they can add final scenes that

through almost as much physical suffering in this movie

locker-room fights. Women, who have had a lifetime of

redefine the reality of everything that has gone before;

as like Demi Moore endured in “G.I. Jane,” and Helena

practice at dealing with little-boy posturing, will instinc-

call it the Keyser Soze syndrome.

Bonham Carter creates a feisty chain-smoking hellcat who

tively see through it; men may get off on the testosterone

is probably so angry because none of the guys thinks

rush. The fact that it is very well made and has a great first

What is all this about? According to Durden, it is about

having sex with her is as much fun as a broken nose. When

act certainly clouds the issue.

freeing yourself from the shackles of modern life, which

you see good actors in a project like this, you wonder if

imprisons and emasculates men. By being willing to

they signed up as an alternative to canyoneering. The

Edward Norton stars as a depressed urban loner filled

give and receive pain and risk death, Fight Club members

movie was directed by David Fincher and written by Jim Uhls, who adapted the novel by Chuck Palahniuk. In

up to here with angst. He describes his world in dialogue

find freedom. Movies like “Crash” (1997), must play like

of sardonic social satire. His life and job are driving him

cartoons for Durden. He’s a shadowy, charismatic figure,

many ways, it’s like Fincher’s movie “The Game” (1997),

crazy. As a means of dealing with his pain, he seeks out

able to inspire a legion of men in big cities to descend

with the violence cranked up for typical teenage boys

12-step meetings, where he can hug those less fortunate

into the cellars of a Fight Club and beat one another up.

of all ages. That film was also about a testing process

than himself and find catharsis in their suffering. It is not

Only gradually are the final outlines of his master plan

in which a man drowning in capitalism (Michael Douglas)

without irony that thevery first few meeting he attends is

revealed. Is Tyler Durden in fact a leader of men with a

has the rug of his life pulled out from under him and has

for post-surgical victims of testicular cancer, since the

useful philosophy? “It’s only after we’ve lost everything

to learn to fight for survival. I admired “The Game” much

entire movie is about guys afraid of losing their cojones.

that we’re free to do anything,” he says, sounding like a

more than “Fight Club” because it was really about its

These early scenes have a nice sly tone; they’re narrated

man who tripped over the Nietzsche display on his way

main theme, while the real message in “Fight Club” is like

by the Norton character in the kind of voice Nathanael

to the coffee bar in Borders. In my opinion, he has no use-

bleeding scraps of Socially Redeeming Content thrown

West used in Miss Lonelyhearts. He’s known only as the

ful truths. He’s a bully, think Werner Erhard plus S & M, a

to the howling mob.

Narrator, for reasons later made clear. The meetings are

leather club operator without the decor. None of the Fight

working as a sedative, and his life is marginally manage-

Club members grows stronger or freer because of their

Fincher is a good director (his work includes “Alien 3,” one

able when tragedy strikes: He begins to notice Marla

membership; they’re reduced to pathetic cultists. Issue

of the best-looking bad movies I have ever seen, and

(Helena Bonham Carter) at meetings. She’s a “tourist” like

them black shirts and also sign them up as skinheads.

himself, someone not addicted to anything but meetings.

Whether Durden represents hidden aspects of the male

he seems to be setting himself some kind of a test, how

She spoils it for him. He knows he’s a faker, but wants to

psyche is a question the movie uses as a loophole, but

far over the top can he go? The movie is visceral and hard-

is not able to escape through, because “Fight Club” is not

edged, with levels of irony and commentary above and

believe everyone else’s pain is real.

about its ending but about its action.

On an airplane, he has another key encounter, with Tyler

“Seven,” the grisly and intelligent thriller). With “Fight Club”

below the action. If it had all continued in the vein explored in the first act, it might have become a great film. But the

Durden (Brad Pitt), a man whose manner cuts through

Of course, “Fight Club” itself does not advocate Durden’s

second act is pandering and the third is trickery, and what-

the fog. He seems able to see right into the Narrator’s

philosophy. It is a warning against it, I guess; one critic I

ever Fincher thinks the message is, that’s not what most

soul, and shortly after, when the Narrator’s high-rise

like says it makes “a telling point about the bestial nature

audience members will end getting. “Fight Club” is a thrill

apartment turns into a fireball, he turns to Tyler for shel-

of man and what can happen when the numbing effects

ride masquerading as philosophy, the kind of ride where

ter. He gets more than that. He gets in on the ground

of day-to-day drudgery cause people to go a little crazy.”

some people puke and others can’t wait to get on again.

floor of Fight Club, a secret society of men who meet in

I think it’s the numbing effects of movies like this that

order to find freedom and also self-realization through

cause people go to a little crazy. Although sophisticates

beating one another into pulp. It’s at about this point that

will be able to rationalize this movie as a probable argu-

the movie stops being smart and savage and witty, and

ment against the behavior that it shows, my guess is that

turns to some of the most brutal, unremitting, nonstop

audience will like the behavior but not the argument.

violence ever filmed. Although sensible people know

Certainly they’ll buy tickets because they can see Pitt

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INTERVIEW CHUCK PALAHNIUK AND THE INSPIRATIONS FOR HIS DARK NOVELS Sean O’Hagan, The Guardian

On my first morning in Portland with Chuck Palahniuk, we

matter and in their telling. Chuck is big on the neuroses

they could find a fight club in their area. ‘I always felt bad

visit his favourite shop, Lippman’s gift store, where he

of modern America: addiction, support groups, cults,

telling them that they didn’t actually exist, that I made

buys 50 dark-brown plastic turds and several pink life-

plastic surgery, paranoia, New Age therapies, terrorism,

them up, but the fact they were looking for them some-

sized severed feet. As he is perusing the ‘Fake Wounds’

eating disorders, terrifying terminal illnesses. He tackles

how attested to the power of the fiction.’ On one of

section, deciding whether to opt for the stick-on ‘Slashed

these subjects head-on, without too much unnecessary

his last reading tour, Chuck regularly caused people to

Wrists’ or the stick-on ‘Sliced Throats’, the manager

scene setting or mood building.

pass out while reading ‘Guts’, a story about people

‘I like to cut to the chase,’ he says. ‘I try to tell a story

seen and bloody consequences when one protagonist

masturbating underwater, which culminates in unfore-

arrives with good news and bad news. ‘We just received a new batch of vomit,’ she says, ‘but we still don’t have the severed fingers.’ Chuck looks perturbed. ‘You know

the way someone would tell you a story in a bar, with the

gets his insides entangled with the filter of a swimming

what?’ he says. ‘I’m gonna pass on the vomit. I think I

same kind of timing and pacing.’ To this end, he listens

pool. Nick Hornby, this ain’t. ‘Now, when I do readings,’

might have overdone it with the vomit.’

a lot. While other writers might go to the library, Chuck

he says, ‘the stragglers come up to me and say, “I need

goes to Starbucks. ‘You hear the best stories from ordi-

to tell you a story I have never told anyone.” And they

After Chuck has racked up a couple of hundred dollars

nary people. That sense of immediacy is more real to me

nearly always tell me a horrific childhood sexual story.

on his credit card on novelty items, we drive a few blocks

than a lot of writerly, literary-type crafted stories. I want

By starting to read ‘Guts’, I’ve shown them that you can

to WalMart, where he buys 20 small cuddly creatures,

that immediacy when I read a novel,’ he says, sounding

use these awful things that happened to you rather than

kittens and puppies mainly, and a few rabbits and rodents.

evangelical. ‘I don’t want all that other extraneous stuff,

be used by them. Just telling the awful story is like a

all those abstract, chicken-shit descriptions.’

jumping-off point.’

thoughts suddenly hijacked by foul imaginings about

To this end, a Chuck Palahniuk novel reads like a film

Over lunch at the Multnomah Falls, a spectacular Oregon

the various heinous uses a character in a Chuck Palahniuk

transcribed on to the page. In Survivor, a cult member

landmark, Chuck tells me about his new book, Haunted,

story might find for a pink fluffy gerbil.

devoted to mass suicide speaks his life story into the

a selection of interconnecting short stories, including ‘Guts’

black box of the airliner he has hijacked; in Lullaby, a

and odd, neurotic-sounding poems. In its formal experi-

This is not research, though, this is Chuck’s way of saying

children’s story spreads like a virus through America,

mentation, Haunted breaks new ground, and, one suspects,

thanks to his fan base. One of each will end up in an indi-

causing those who hear it to die; in Fight Club, his best-

may test the patience of the Chuck fans who don’t like

vidually packaged gift box, alongside a big individually

known work, a man addicted to addiction self-help

reading any books but his. It does concern a group of

penned letter from Chuck to basically each and every

groups is mesmerised by a charismatic stranger who

would-be writers who come together to tell their stories,

one of the faithful who have written to him. ‘I’ve lost count

introduces him to an underground network of illegal

and, more pertinently, to avoid telling the bigger, darker

of the times people have come up to me after an event

bare-knuckle boxing, the first stage of his plan to wage

collective story of the group. The bigger story emerges

and said, “Thanks for the fluffy toy, Chuck, my daughter

war on capitalist America. Chuck Palahniuk is one of

nonetheless and it is by turns nauseating, darkly funny

loves it so much.” People treasure the fluffy toys.’

the most popular novelists in the world. Put simply, his

and brutally graphic.

Back in the pick-up, he tells me that each gift box is

and neuroses and pitch-black humour, go unrecorded by

‘The initial premise for the book was Edgar Allen Poe’s

worth about $25. I do the math: a thousand boxes adds

most writers of fiction.

short stories,’ says Chuck, acknowledging an influence

a lot of money. ‘It is,’ he says, still smiling. ‘But you know

‘There are people out there who will not read books, but

stories that exploited the unspoken horrors of his day.

what? I have a lot of money.’

somehow they’ll read my books. They serve them in a

He was obsessed with premature burial, for instance. I kept

‘I try to avoid the white ones,’ he says, discarding an albino gopher. ‘They get dirty real quick.’ I nod, distractedly, my

fiction hits a nerve with people whose lives, and desires

that few have picked up on. ‘Poe was so good at writing

up to twenty five grand, not counting postage. That’s

way most fiction doesn’t. I give them a less filtered form

thinking, “If Poe were alive today, what would be the

If I were to hazard a guess as to why Chuck Palahniuk

of entertainment. I acknowledge that some unacknowl-

everyday horrors he would write about?”’ He pauses to fork

has so much money, and such a devoted global fan base,

edged parts of our lives, which, as a culture, we don’t tend

some seared salmon into his mouth. ‘Plus, I had to write

I would say that it is mainly because he writes novels

to talk about.’ Chuck tells me that quiet after Fight Club

a food book. Every author has to eventually write a food

for the kind of people who don’t normally read well, nov-

became a bestseller, his readings always attracted one

book.’ Chuck’s food book, needless to say, is not like

els. His stories tend to be extreme, both in their subject

or two serious young men who would ask him where

anyone else’s food book. It is more, in almost every way

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55

“Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken.”

—Tyler Durden

imaginable, pretty unappetising. ‘It’s about the horrible

by working in a hospice for the terminally ill. ‘By going to

Writing, then, has become not just a way for Chuck to

burned body. The coroner pulled the sheet of paper

things we do with food other than eating it,’ he elabo-

hospices, you get to see how people die. You see death

confront his fears, but a means to escape into a world of

across really slowly. It drove me crazy. I took his hand

rates, ‘just like the sex in my book Choke was about

unpacked into schedules and details and doctors’ visits,

play. In his books, he remakes the world as a darker,

and moved it, and it was him. Unmistakably.’

death rather than life. Every story contains food in some

and you suddenly think, “Hey, I could do this! This is easy!”’

funnier, weirder and scarier place than it already is. Which,

I ask him if writing, too, is a way of confronting his primal

parents took him aside and told him the truth about his

the man who murdered his father, receive the death pen-

fears. ‘I don’t think so,’ he says, without a second thought.

grandparents. This is how Chuck tells it in an essay

alty. Does he have any qualms about that decision? ‘Well,

in his case, is no mean feat. When he was 18, Chuck’s

way, but is told by people trying to deny their hunger.

That’s the concept.’

Since then, Chuck has requested that Dale Shackelford,

He seems like such a nice, well-balanced chap, I tell

‘I mean, I enjoy it way too much.’ His stories, though, how-

called ‘Consolation Prizes’, from his collection, Nonfiction.

I’m not sure it’s a decision I would make now.’ Does that

him, to have such peculiarly graphic fantasies, not at all

ever much they take on America’s collective fears and

‘My father was four in 1943 when he hid under the bed

mean yes, he has? ‘Boy, let’s see,’ he says, sighing. ‘No.

the gleeful anarchist-come-nihilist described in book

neuroses, are, on some type of level, about his very own

as his parents fought and his 12 brothers and sisters ran

I would still say, “Yeah, fry the man.” The thing is, I’d be a

reviews. ‘Well, Charlotte Brontë was probably called a

fears and neuroses. ‘Oh, definitely. If they are satires, it is

into the woods. Then suddently his mother was dead,

lot more nervous about the fact that this man was still

nihilist and an anarchist,’ he replies, sounding slightly

usually me satirising myself, the traps I fell into, the self-

and his father stomped around the house looking for him,

in the world. This is a guy whose ex-wife, the woman he

pissed off that I have used the two words often thrown at

help groups I attended. It’s all me. I’m the guy who had the

calling for him, still carrying the shotgun.’

him by reviewers who find his books adolescent and

Ikea catalogue in my drawer at work.’

killed and burned, was a lawyer that he had met while in prison. She who taught him the legal skills needed to write

How did he feel at that moment? ‘I just thought, “Why

appeals, which he’ll be writing for the rest of his life. So,

always about somebody who is taken from aloneness

When he decided he wanted to be a writer, Chuck

didn’t you tell me before?” All this time I thought they had

it’s kind of a non-issue.’

and isolation, often elevated loneliness, to community.

started attending a writer’s workshop hosted by Tom

died of rubella.’ Did he never suspect that there was this

It may be a denigrated community that is filthy and

Spanbauer, a local author, and one of the guiding

dark family secret? ‘Never. We always went back every

Last June, though, Shackelford had his first appeal turned

poor, but they are not alone, they are with people. Typically,

lights of minimalist fiction, whom he now acknowledges

summer to that old family house in Idaho where it had

down. ‘This is a guy,’ says Chuck, ‘who said he’d buried

misanthropic. ‘That is just lazy journalism. My books are

too, my characters make that Kierkegaardian leap of

as his mentor. On my second morning in Portland

happened, so we spent every summer of our childhood

anthrax bombs in Spokane and Seattle, and unless they

faith to commit themselves to one person. I write nothing,’

with Chuck Palahniuk I go with him to one of Tom’s work-

sleeping in the murder room. How twisted is that?’ he

released him, he would allow them to degrade until

he says without a trace of irony, ‘but contemporary

shops. One person reads a fragment of their work in

asks, proudly. ‘My mother said, “I used to hate turning off

they exploded, killing thousands of people.’ Phew, I say.

romances.’ Before he became a romantic novelist, Chuck

progress while the others listen intently, then Tom pours

the light and leaving you in there.”’ Chuck says he had

‘It just goes on and on,’ says Chuck, sighing some more.

Palahniuk worked at Freightliner for 13 years, fitting

encouragement on the reader, and makes some sugges-

‘a regular tense type of American childhood’. He was raised

front axles to big trucks, then writing manuals telling peo-

tions. Its all mutually affirming in that peculiarly American

Catholic, but insists he and his siblings only went to

Driving back into Portland, Chuck tells me that, back

ple how to do the same. For a while, too, he tried his

way that, like Oprah or the 12 Steps, suggests a world

church so ‘my parents could have sex in other rooms apart

when he was a little boy, he chose St Lawrence as his

hand at journalism. Both ‘closed him down’. A casual visit

devoid of embarrassment. I’m not sure if this is a good or

from the bedroom’. Does he still believe in God? ‘Well,

Confirmation saint. ‘The first investigative journalist.

to a ‘group awareness’ seminar conducted by the known

a bad thing.

I believe there’s a divine something, but I believe we’re

He investigated papal prefects in the Vatican who were

not supposed to know it. There are too many things

stealing money. He got killed for that,’ Chuck says,

Landmark Forum, an organisation that uses ideas based on controversial ‘estrogene therapy, was, he says, his

The best bits by far are when Chuck chips in, offering

‘big epiphany moment’.

suggestions which are always outrageous, as if he wants

unexplained in the world for me to be a non-believer.’

beaming. ‘Barbecued alive on a big grill. Kind of scary, eh? It’s like, we attach to these roles really young in

every one to go as far out in their fictions as he has in

In the summer of 1999, when Fight Club was turned into

life. You could say I’m always trying to get the story so

his. I remember something he said earlier. ‘I set out to

a critically acclaimed film starring Brad Pitt, Chuck learnt

I can tell it to other people. I really believe it’s those

out to burn me at every turn. If it wasn’t for that seminar,

shock myself because if I can’t shock myself, I’m not

that his father had been murdered. The woman his father

moments we can’t talk about that become the rest of

I wouldn’t be a writer. They taught me to see how closed

going to shock anyone else. Unless I feel I’ve gone a little

had just begun dating was being stalked by her husband,

our lives. It’s the moments we cannot process by

down I was, to face my fears.’ Armed with ‘est’ awareness,

too far, I’m not going to feel I went far enough.’ Sadly,

who threatened to kill her and any man she befriended.

telling a story that destroy us in the end.’

Chuck quit his job in journalism and set about confronting

though, everyone here wants to be Raymond Carver, and

‘My dad got killed at the end of May and the film came out

his fears big time. He was so worried about becoming

no one wants, or dares, to be Chuck. As minimalists go,

in October,’ Chuck says quietly. ‘It was the best and

poor and homeless, he went to work as a volunteer in a

he is a one-off. For a start, he finds writing fun. Driving back

worst you could perceive of. I remember being in the cor-

‘I was 26 when I did the seminar, convinced the world was

homeless shelter. ‘You get to see how the homeless live,

across town, he says, ‘Tom’s books are beautiful and

oner’s office alone, because none of my siblings would

and you think, “Hey, it’s not so bad. I could be a homeless

sensitive. But each one has to be an existential struggle

come, which was irritating, and I had to look at these pho-

person if I had to.”’ Then he confronted his fear of dying

and torture. I just refuse to write in that paradigm.’

tos with a sheet of paper over the top. My father’s dead,

56

The Game

A David Fincher Film Festival

“I don’t care about the money. I’m pulling back the curtain. I want to meet the wizard.”

—Nicholas Van Orton

SYNOPSIS & CAST

MAKING OF 29 INSIGHTS INTO THE GAME

The Game Screening: 08/31 at 12:30 pm

Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas) is a successful

Rob Hunter, Film School Rejects

banker who keeps mostly to himself. When his estranged brother Conrad (Sean Penn) returns on his birthday with an odd gift, participation in a new personalized, real-life game, Nicholas reluctantly accepts. Initially harmless, the game grows increasingly personal, and Orton begins to fear for his life as he eludes agents from the mysterious game’s organizers. With no one left to trust and his money gone, Orton must find answers for himself.

1. Fincher loved the initial teaser featuring marionette

8. Douglas understands and appreciates that all profes-

puppet being tortured, but the marketing department ,

sionals, both actors and crew, need the time to do their

always his favorite studio people , came up with the “crumbling face puzzle piece thing.” He added puzzle pieces to the opening credits so that second teaser would bear a connection to the film similar to the puppet that appears later in the movie.

The Game

1997

job right. “One of he worst frustrations for an actor is to be called to the set after waiting for lighting” or some other tech issue only to find your time being wasted.

“I used to be more forgiving about it, but now I’m now. I resent it.”

2. Douglas wishes he had been shown the home movies

9. Nicholas’ home is in Stanford, but the shots of his front

before production began “because it would have helped

gates were filmed in San Francisco’s Presidio. This is a

Michael Douglas...................................................Nicholas Van Orton

a lot.” He thinks they set the tone for how “destructive”

good time to suggest you watch The Presidio as it features

Sean Penn.............................................................................................Conrad

Nicholas Van Orton (Douglas) would become.

one hell of a foot chase.

3. The baby in young Nicholas’ arms wouldn’t stop crying,

10. Nicholas was originally seen as someone in the 20s

and Fincher quickly decided “that just seems really real

or 30s, but they liked the idea of a character facing his

and certainly has a place in our story.”

own mortality.

Deborah Kara Unger..................................................................Christine James Rebhorn....................................................................Jim Feingold

4. Douglas was going through a divorce while the film

11. Fincher thinks it might have been a mistake showing

was in production, “and it was a time for me to use a lot

“CRS” on the key Nicholas finds in the clown’s mouth.

of myself in the picture.” It must have been one hell of

“I just liked how much CRS got their logo around.”

a brawl as it wasn’t finalized until 2000.

12. Daniel Schorr’s cameo was originally meant for CNN’s 5. The character of Conrad (Sean Penn) was originally

Bernard Shaw, but CNN wouldn’t allow it as they didn’t

a best friend from Nicholas’ prep school days. They had

want their anchors sullying themselves with film cameos.

always viewed Nicholas as an only child, but the script

“Since then I think Bernard Shaw has been in more fuck-

came together once Fincher suggested that wasn’t nec-

ing movies. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a

essary. “The brother helped give a much more visceral

Bernard Shaw movie. He’s in more movies than Spacey.”

emotional core to the story.”

13. Ferris & Brancato’s script for The Game was unpro6. They describe the CRS office design as Nicholas’ “skull

duced for some time, but it did get the attention of a

floating through the environment” thanks to the soft,

producer who asked them to write something like it for

low ceiling. The horizontal lines running along the walls,

him. The result was The Net.

desks and windows are meant to suggest the maze he’s about to go down as well.

14. Schorr also cameo’d in The Net where he had a bad experience, so Fincher promised him this would be smooth

7. Fincher says the contrast between CRS’ office , high

sailing. It wasn’t. Schorr didn’t get the notes that he would

tech, accomplished, busy, intelligent , and the represen-

be basically interacting with Douglas’ character, and worse,

tative who preps Nicholas for it needed to be visible.

the day he arrived in Los Angeles for the shoot was the

“If he came across like as James Mason from North By

day the New York Times ran an article about the problem

Northwest you’d be ‘whoa I don’t wanna get involved in this.’” His lack of slickness sells it to Nicholas’ need to feel superior.

with news personalities doing cameos in movies. The

57

58

The Game

A David Fincher Film Festival

“I’m being toyed with by a bunch of depraved children”.

—Nicholas Van Orton

MOVIE REVIEW Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert.com

“I know what I like, and one thing I definitely like is not knowing where a movie is going. These days, though, it’s hard to get audiences to give themselves over completely.

They want to see the whole movie in a 90-second trailer.”

—David Fincher

article featured a shot of Schorr from The Net. It sent

22. Nicholas originally wakes up in a Mexican garbage

The opening scenes of “The Game’’ show Michael Douglas

him into a spiral of doubt as to whether he should even

heap instead of the cemetery, bu Fincher felt it was

as a rich man in obsessive control of his life. The movie

trust (including a waitress played by Deborah Kara Unger,

seems to be about how he is reduced to humility and

or is she a waitress?) may be double agents. There is

be doing this. “He was just freaked.”

“a little too ugly.”

totally wrong. Even those few people he thinks he can

humanity, or maybe that’s just a trick on him. The movie

even the possibility that the Game is a front for a well-

15. Savides cameos as the man in the bathroom stall

23. Douglas isn’t proud of the fact that he doesn’t see a

is like a control freak’s worst nightmare. The Douglas char-

planned conspiracy to steal his own millions. Michael

reaching under for toilet paper.

lot of movies, but he’s admitting it anyway.

acter, named Nicholas Van Orton, is surrounded by

Douglas, who is superb at playing men of power (remem-

16. Douglas felt the film needed comedic relief, and it contrasted “David’s fear of comedic relief.”

24. There was a scene with Nicholas visiting Conrad in the hospital and finding his brother to be insane and pleading for him to stay, “but it just made the third act

17. Nicholas’ first encounter with Christine (Deborah

too long and it threw off the detective beat.”

employees who are almost paralyzed by his rigid demands

ber his Oscar-winning turn as Gordon Gekko in “Wall

on them. “I have an Elizabeth on line three,’’ says one

Street”) is reduced to a stumbling, desperate man on

secretary, and then a second later adds, “Your wife, sir.’’

the run (remember his engineer in “Falling Down”).

“I know,’’ he says coldly. We have the feeling that if the second secretary had not spoken, he would have replied, “Elizabeth who?’’ His underlings are in no-win situations.

Kara Unger) originally featured a follow-up with the pair

It is, in fact, his ex-wife; at age 48, Van Orton lives alone

The Game,’’ written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris, is David Fincher’s first film since “Seven,” and projects the same sense of events being controlled by invisible

boarding a horse-drawn carriage outside the restaurant.

25. Douglas says his co-stars give good performances

It was meant as a tease of a love interest, but “I just said

against him in part because he “give[s] them trust, rather

in the vast mansion where his father committed suicide

manipulation. This time, though, there’s an additional

horseshit to that. This guy’s $600 million, he’s not getting

than competing as a lot of actors do.”

at the same age. His birthday evening consists of eating

element: Van Orton is being broken down and reassem-

cheeseburger served on a silver tray and watching CNN.

in a fucking carriage with anybody. He’s incapable of stopping to smell the roses.”

bled like the victim of some cosmic EST program. And it is unclear, to him and to us, whether the Game is on the

26. The rooftop scene as scripted featured a moment where the the person Nicholas shot , Conrad in the film,

Van Orton’s younger brother Conrad (Sean Penn) visits

Christine in the script , sits up just as he walks off the

him and announces a birthday present: “The Game,’’

sibly know what Nicholas would do in every possible

ledge to say he’s making a mistake. “We fought, well we

which is “sort of an experiential Book of the Month Club.’’

The movie’s thriller elements are given an additional

situation , how he’d react, which direction he’d turn , but

fought as hard as we could fight being writers and all,

Operated by a strange shadowy outfit named Consumer

gloss by the skill of the technical credits, and the wicked

in their minds the company had numerous backup plans

to preserve that moment.” They liked that it left Nicholas

Recreation Services, the Game never quite declares its

for each event. The only way they could have shown that

regretting the jump and wishing he would live so that

rules or objectives, but soon Van Orton finds himself in

to the audience though is by going behind the scenes

when he hits the mattress it’s a final gift from CRS.

18. They were criticized for the idea that CRS could pos-

its grasp, and his orderly life has become unmanageable.

“It will make your life fun again,’’ he is promised, but

at CRS, and they decided early on that the film would stick

level of a fraud, or perhaps spinning out of control.

wit of the dialogue. When Van Orton’s brother asks, “Don’t you think of me anymore?’’ he shoots back, “Not since family week at rehab.’’ And when his ex-wife asks if he had a nice birthday, he answers, “Does Rose Kennedy

27. Again, as scripted, Nicholas’ jump is carefully crafted

that’s not quite how he sees it, as a functionary (James

have a black dress?’’ The film’s dark look, its preference

to remove any appearance to viewers of real risk. “Clearly

Rebhorn) leads him through the signup process. But

for shadows, recalls “Seven’’ and also Fincher’s “Alien 3.”

19. Brief discussion was had regarding the possibility of

the version that was shot, although it looks spectacular,

soon everything starts to fall apart. His own pen leaks.

The big screen reveals secrets and details in dark cor-

turning the film into a CD-Rom game.

is utterly implausible.”

His briefcase won’t open. Wine is spilled on him in a

with the player.

restaurant. He is trapped in an elevator. The level of chaos

ners; on video, they may disappear into the murk. Like “Seven,’’ the plotting is ingenious and intelligent, and

20. The scene in the script that locked in Fincher’s inter-

28. They had walkouts during test screenings right at

rises. He finds himself blackmailed, his bank accounts

est is the moment Nicholas realizes Christine’s entire

the point where Nicholas walks off the ledge. “People

are emptied, he does wanders like a homeless man, he

reduced to greater humility and understanding of him-

home has “basically been set-decorated. That’s when

just got up and said fuck this movie.”

is trapped inside a cab sinking in a bay, he is left for

self), it doesn’t progress in a docile, predictable way; for

dead in Mexico.

one thing, there is the real possibility that the Game is

I said ‘I gotta see this, I gotta make this movie.’”

not an ego-reduction program, but a death plot.

29. Douglas wanted the film to end with the applause, 21. Fincher sent Douglas a video clip of Unger for his

“but he’s the director so.” The writers seem to agree.

although we think we know the arc of the film (egotist is

Of course many of the physical details of what happens

input as to whether or not she should get the role, “and

to him are implausible or even impossible, but so what?

the tape was from the movie Crash, and it comprised

The events are believable in the sense that events can

he can play cold, and he can play angry. Indeed, one of

about three minutes of her fornicating in about nineteen

be believed in a nightmare: You can hardly worry about

the refreshing things about the film is that it stays true to

Douglas is the right actor for the role. He can play smart,

positions. I thought is this a joke? Is this what her agent’s

how a horror has been engineered when you’re trapped

its paranoid vision right up until what seems like the very

sending out?” He met her in person though and was sold

inside it. The mounting campaign of conspiratorial

end, and then beyond it, so that by the time the real end-

by her energy, humor, and look.

persecution is greeted by Van Orton with his usual style

ing arrives, it’s not the payoff and release as much as a

of cold contempt and detachment: He knows all the

final macabre twist of the knife.

angles, he thinks, and has foreseen all the pitfalls, and can predict all the permutations. But he finds he is

59

60

The Game

A David Fincher Film Festival

INTERVIEW ON THE SET WITH FINCHER AS HE DIRECTS MICHAEL DOUGLAS AND SEAN PENN Fred Schruers, Rolling Stones

“I really like the pounding on the floor,” says David Fincher.

Venting has given way to pain. “It beats the shit out of

together while there’s total fucking chaos, maximizing

with characters who may or may not be real. They

“This time, maybe check around, then pound the living

your hand,” says Douglas evenly, “but I’ll be happy to

the amount of hours that you have in order to get stuff,

include a contrary but attractive waitress, played

shit out of it.” Michael Douglas stands face to face with

keep doing it.” Fincher nods slowly, his practiced reserve

pulling shit out of your ass to fix things, being able to

by Deborah Kara Unger (Crash), and a spookily blasé

Fincher, panting slightly. Douglas cradles a briefcase

shading into an almost undetectable trace of amuse-

work on your toes. It’s not all about going [framing a shot

executive, played by James Rebhorn.

with his hands], ‘We’ll do this, and then we’ll do that.’

that’s taken quite a beating during previous takes. It’s

ment. “This time,” he instructs, returning to the video

scuffed, scarred, a bit bent, but definitely still locked

monitor, “get it open.” Douglas, nostrils and eyes flared,

People go, ‘How easy, you just do that.’ Well, now do it

shut, just as the props department designed it to be.

takes a couple of beats to absorb this. But when called to

with a fucking Teamsters strike, with 150 people who

about a rich, bored, emotionally removed man, a modern

action, he does full justice to what the crew (in homage

are exhausted, who think that everything that you’re doing

day Scrooge.” Fincher, less elegantly, sees the Scrooge

“I was concerned,” says Douglas, “whether we’d give a shit

The location is a vacant office building in downtown

to the ape-and-bone business in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001:

is, you know, gilding a lily, ‘You don’t need that shot.’

theme, too: “It’s about a guy who’s a fucking asshole who

Los Angeles, on the set of The Game, in which Douglas

A Space Odyssey) is now dubbing the Dawn of Man

I love when people say that.”

gets his shit reoriented. If we can make enough of the flashbacks and they work well, the audience will see why

plays Nicholas Van Orton, a businessman who falls

scene. The case finally cracks open behind one clasp.

victim to a bizarre plan too devious to give away here.

Douglas, now panting like a boar, struts back to the

This mind-bender (due in the fall) is the first movie

camera, hands the case to the prop master, turns on his

the hope that something new or different might happen.

“He will push,” says Douglas. “He’ll keep on shooting in

he’s been so cut off.”

Fincher has directed since his 1995 thriller, Seven, which

heel to leave and stops. Jaw set, eyes hooded, but with

I’ll start kvetching a little bit, give him a dead eye, and

A key script change, says Fincher, was making Nicholas

starred Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman and became a

a formal dignity that is answered in kind, he shakes hands

he just blows me off. I appreciate and admire that. He’s

and Conrad brothers, not just longtime buddies. “As

blockbuster, winning him the right to do things his way.

with David Fincher.

not intimidated by anybody or anything.” Some 70 days

brothers, they naturally carry all this stuff into every scene:

into a 92-day shoot on The Game, Fincher seems in com-

respect or disrespect. Then you ask, ‘Does Conrad

By most accounts, Fincher, now 34, has played his own rebel game since his early days as a top stud of commercial work (beginning with a public-service

“We shake hands,” says Douglas moments later while guiltily lighting up a smoke, then rearranging an ice pack

mand of something more like a pirate ship than the kind

fuck him over to save him?’ If so, it’s a curious salvation,

of behemoth vessels Hollywood is built to support. After

not the kind that studio chiefs design. Fincher’s own

announcement for the American Cancer Society that

for his hand. “It’s like a mutual respect thing. If there’s

the grimly stylish Alien3 and the startling Seven, the film

success with Seven and the lessons of a year when the

featured a fetus smoking a cigarette) and then videos

any possible question of either one of us getting testy, we

community already starts to talk about something called

offbeat indies often outran studio movies have given

“a Fincher movie.” As with Martin Scorsese and Kubrick

him a sense of liberation. “It’s an incredibly interesting time,”

(Madonna’s “Vogue,” Aerosmith’s “Janie’s Got a Gun”).

just like to acknowledge that there’s nothing personal

For three years, he turned down feature-directing

going on here.”

movies, the phrase is a kind of code that warns film-goers

says Fincher. “You’re going to have the opportunity to

to bring their full attention and a stiff upper lip, and to

make more Trainspottings because of Trainspotting. You

studio, in his view, butchered Alien3 late in the produc-

Fincher makes no apologies for taking his time to get the

expect commensurate rewards.

have the opportunity to make more Pulp Fictions alikes

tion cycle, Fincher vowed to never again cede control.

shot right. “A director’s job is to feel like everything that

offers before jumping in on Alien3, in 1990. When the Fox

“David has a very strong hand running the set,” Doulgas pointed out. “Everybody’s always a little wary. Still, I like to tease him, give him a little zetz here and there. He

because of Pulp Fiction. The vernacular changes.”

they’re doing is worth the amount of money, worth the

The Game should not be a disappointment. Via an opening

cost of human life and blood, sweat and tears,” he says.

sequence that unspools as grainy home-movie footage,

It’s a little after sunrise in the Mexican border town

“I had a meeting once with a famous commercial director

the audience meets 7-year-old Nicholas clutching infant

of Mexicali, and the exhaust from The Game’s heavy

has that talent where you feel like you’ll do anything for

who was running off to direct a movie, and he wanted

brother Conrad (played as an adult by Sean Penn) and

trucks fights it out with the smells from whatever’s

him. He really is the captain of the ship, the admiral.”

me to join his company. He said, ‘I’m going off to do this

standing before his strangely remote father. In a series of

recently been dumped near today’s sandpit of a location.

The New River, a sump of mercury and chicken parts,

movie.’ I said, ‘Well, what is it?’ ‘Oh, it’s this cop thing.’ I

flashbacks, we see the father’s plunge off the roof of the

Right now, the admiral, dressed in his standard outfit

thought to myself, ‘Oh, my God, I don’t ever want to be

same San Francisco old mansion that Nicholas presently

borders the land where a cemetery has been installed.

of khakis and sweatshirt with a baseball cap pulled low

in a situation where I’m going off to do some ‘cop thing.’ “

inhabits as a lonely divorcé shut off from life and his own

Out of one large, smashed crypt emerges a dazed

over his unblinking, curiously vulnerable eyes, is talking to Douglas about that briefcase that won’t open. Douglas’

Fincher, who can speak in articulate floods, pauses. He

emotions, generally aloof but ruthless in business. (“So,

looking Douglas, hair matted, white linen suit begrimed.

you’re all alone in the House of Pain?” his brother asks

In character as Nicholas, he staggers toward a toothless

last take included nearly a dozen kung-fu-ish whacks

has stated his dislike for the cult of talkative, or, more

him, to which Nicholas replies, “I redecorated.”) On his

Mexican woman, asking where he is but getting only an

of the case against a stone bench, followed by a full-on

precisely, self-promoting, directors. But during a long

48th birthday, his father had killed himself when he

uncomprehending, pitiless stare. On the third take, she

kick to the case. “I quit smoking 24 hours ago,” Douglas

wait while a stuck elevator is fixed, he muses, impatiently

himself was 48, Conrad gives him a gift certificate for a

casually spits, which makes Fincher smile. “She’s 96,” he

says, prompting a crew member to mutter, “That’s why

eyeing the engineers. “That’s the job,” he says. “That’s

game designed by the mysterious company Consumer

says. “We found her here in town.”

he needs this.”

what it is. Doing cool stuff like designing shots is 1 percent

Recreation Services. The game becomes a descent into

of your life. The other 99 percent is holding everything

what is really Nicholas’ own customized hell, replete

61

62

Se7en

A David Fincher Film Festival

63

“Wanting people to listen, you can’t just tap them on the shoulder anymore. You have to hit them with a sledgehammer, and then you’ll notice you’ve got their strict attention.”

—John Doe (Kevin Spacey)

SYNOPSIS & CAST

Se7en Screening: 08/31 at 6:00 pm

A growling wind machine sends dust past Douglas, who,

picks, I would be able to go, ‘This is what I had in my mind.’

When retiring police Detective William Somerset (Morgan

like the crew that came in via a predawn charter flight,

I used to draw a lot when I was a kid, I could literally sit

Freeman) tackles a final case with the aid of newly trans-

seems as disoriented as his character. “What thus far in

down at 4 or 5 years old and draw for eight hours. I wanted

ferred David Mills (Brad Pitt), they discover a number of

this movie,” Fincher asks rhetorically, “has set us up for

to learn how. I got to be about 9 or 10 years old, and I

elaborate and grizzly murders. They soon realize they

Mexicali? Nothing.” He watches Douglas turn away from

stopped because I just couldn’t get what I had in my head

are dealing with a serial killer (Kevin Spacey) who is tar-

the black-clad crone and stumble off. “I’m just trying to

out onto paper so that people could see what I had in

geting people he thinks represent one of the 7 deadly

stay out of the way of it, just let the action, not the direc-

my head. It wasn’t satisfying enough. Of course, I gave it

sins. Somerset also befriends Mills’ wife, Tracy (Gwyneth

tor, tell the story.”

up for something infinitely more difficult: making movies.”

Paltrow), who is pregnant and afraid to raise her child in the crime-riddled city.

Fincher peers into the long hood that wraps around his video monitor, watching the dust-blown Nicholas: “He’s learning that the way he’s used to dealing with the world

Se7en

1995

is no longer appropriate. He has to learn to be a little bit more obsequious.” For an ascending auteur, Fincher’s got a fair amount of humility to go with his resolve: “Martin Scorsese said something really important to me. He said, ‘Remember the mistakes that you make are as important a part of your style as the things that you do best.’ At a certain point you’ve just got to commit to something.”

Fincher has always aimed toward movies. He even lives in a storybook Hollywood compound near the historic mansion once owned by Charlie Chaplin and later by C.B. DeMille. Behind these walls, he can play with his 2-yearold daughter (from a former marriage, to photographer Donya Fiorentino). But, says Douglas, “David lives and breathes movies. He doesn’t have any hobbies. He is consumed by film.” Raised in California’s Marin County, the son of Life magazine reporter Jack Fincher and a mom who worked at a methadone maintenance clinic, Fincher skipped college to work at George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic. He learned everything, from pulling apart cameras to shooting background mattes to computer savvy.

“My attitude is: Take the camera out of the box and work as hard as you can to tell your story as simply as possible,” says Fincher. “You know, the best analogy for moviemaking is you’re doing a watercolor from three blocks away through a telescope, with 40 people holding the brush, and you have a walkie-talkie.”

Though the crew is setting up wind machines, the Mexicali dust is blowing around on its own, bringing a sulfurous smell that is perhaps what makes Fincher wrinkle his nose as he continues: “I’d love some day to be able to make a movie that, whether it gets cheered or cut into mandolin

Morgan Freeman......................................................................Somersett Brad Pitt........................................................................................................Mills Kevin Spacey.................................................................................John Doe Gwyneth Paltrow..................................................................................Tracy Daniel Zacapa...............................................................Detective Taylor

64

A David Fincher Film Festival

65

“Nothing wrong with a man taking pleasure in his work. I won’t deny my own personal desire to turn each sin against the sinner.”

MAKING OF

—John Doe (Kevin Spacey)

DAVID FINCHER: SE7EN (1995) Cameron Beyl, The Directors Series

In the mid-90’s, a script by newcomer Andrew Kevin

scenes that taunt and challenge his pursuers. With the

Speaking of John Doe, Kevin Spacey absolutely murders

in watching some of the film’s supplemental features

Walker called SE7EN (a stylization of “seven”) was mak-

days passing and the bodies piling up, Somerset and

it as SE7EN’s creepy, calculating killer (puns!). Spacey

(and with no other evidence to go on), I’m convinced that

ing the rounds and generating excitement all over town.

Mills must race against time to deduce the killer’s iden-

imbues this psychopath with a degree of intelligence

Fincher and Khondji didn’t actually shoot anamorphic.

Readers and creative executives alike hailed its bold, origi-

tity and stop him before his grand plan reaches its

and brilliance that one doesn’t necessarily expect in

It appears the 2.35:1 aspect ratio was achieved via a matte

nal storyline and that ending. That audacious, ending

shocking and grisly conclusion.

their garden-variety serial killer. For Doe, his life’s work IS

in post-production, which plays into Fincher’s reputation

his life, he has no job or relationships to speak of, only

as a visual perfectionist who uses digital technology to

that nobody saw coming. That ending that could possibly never be put into the finished film and thus had to be

Morgan Freeman is pitch perfect as the insightful, bookish

a single-minded focus to complete his grand plan and

exert control over the image down to the smallest detail.

rewritten and castrated into oblivion for fear that its inclu-

Detective Somerset, a man haunted by the mistakes of

etch himself permanently into the criminal history books.

This control extends to the camera movement, which uses

sion could break the cinema itself. Indulgent hyperbole

his past and the city that threatens to consume him. His

As evidenced by Netflix’s House Of Cards series, Spacey

cranes and dollies for measured effect, echoing John

aside, it was the ending that cajoled a young David Fincher

presence lends a great deal of gravitas and authority

is at his best under Fincher’s direction, and their first col-

Doe’s precise, predetermined nature. In fact, the only time

back into the director’s seat that he had publicly sworn

to the film, grounding the outlandish story developments

laboration together in SE7EN results in the actor’s most

that Fincher goes handheld is during the foot-chase

off after a catastrophic experience with his debut, ALIEN

in reason and logic and making them all the more scarier

mesmerizing performance in a career stuffed with them.

sequence in Doe’s apartment complex and the finale in

3 (1992). While Fincher didn’t have enough clout on his

because of their realism. Brad Pitt’s performance as the

own to drop mandates that the original ending would

hotheaded, impatient Detective Mills is interesting in that

While the potency of SE7EN’s story hinges on this trifecta

film that the balance of control is tipped out of any one

remain as written, his stars (Hollywood heavyweights)

the performance itself tends to be wooden at times but

of brilliant performers, Fincher doesn’t skimp in the sup-

person’s favor, leaving only chaos to determine what

Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman did, and they used that

we as the audience are still pulled into his swirling emo-

porting department either. He enlists Gwyneth Paltrow

happens next.

clout to back up this untested auteur. As such, Fincher

tional whirlpool. Perhaps it’s only because Pitt has become

(who coincidentally was dating Pitt at the time) to play

was in an enviable position to infuse this hauntingly origi-

such a sublimely subtle actor in the twenty years since

Pitt’s supportive, sweet wife, Tracy. Paltrow has something

nal story, free from the baggage of franchise, with his

that his forcefulness in SE7EN reads now as a younger man

of a bland reputation of an actress, but collaborating with

Fincher intended for it to stand in for an unnamed East

unflinching style and uncompromising vision.

struggling with inherent talent but an unpolished craft.

auteurs like Fincher, James Gray, or Paul Thomas Anderson

Coast city, which he successfully achieved via a mix

Mills’ impatience and stubbornness is well set up through-

bring out the very best in her and remind us why she’s

of careful location selection and production designer

SE7EN takes place in an unnamed, crumbling metropolis

out the film, when assigned a handful of old, dusty, heavy

an excellent actress. Paltrow takes what could easily be

Arthur Max’s vision of oppressive decay. A never ending,

of perpetual precipitation and endless blight, an oppres-

philosophical books by Somerset, he opts instead to read

the standard non-confrontational and supporting house

torrential downpour of rain amplifies Fincher’s signature

sive environment where hope goes to die. Detective Somerset

the Cliff Notes versions. Because he takes shortcuts and

wife stock character and infuses it with a creeping pathos

grunge aesthetic, although its presence was initially

(Morgan Freeman), a longtime member of the city’s

is quick to action without necessarily thinking his actions

and dread, grappling with moral conflict over bringing

less about thematics and more about creating continuity

police force, is in his last week of retirement, with a young,

through, he’s in a prime position to be manipulated by

a child into the dark, overbearing world that Fincher has

with Pitt’s scenes (who had to film all of his part first

headstrong detective named Mills (Brad Pitt) arriving in

Spacey’s Doe and play into his twisted, murderous scheme.

created on-screen.

the desert, both of which are the only moments in the

town to take his place. On their first day together, they are

While SE7EN was filmed in downtown Los Angeles,

before leaving to work on Terry Gilliam’s 12 MONKEYS).

Howard Shore crafts an ominous score that utilizes a

called to a murder scene where an obese man has been

In another nod to director Stanly Kubrick’s profound influ-

particular brassy sound evocative of and old-school noir

forced to literally eat himself to death. Initially assuming

ence on Fincher, FULL METAL JACKET’s (1987) fire and

cinema, but its’ in Fincher’s source selection that SE7EN’s

it to be another of the city’s routine murders, business as

brimstone drill sergeant R. Lee Ermey shows up here as

usual, a similar scene at a lawyer’s office the very next day

Somerset’s weary precinct captain. Additionally, John C

music really stands out. He uses a cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer” for the opening credits, foreshadowing Fincher’s

(where the victim was forced to carve up his own body

McGinley shows up against as a big militaristically macho

later collaborations with NIN frontman Trent Reznor on the

and the word “greed” is painted on the floor in his blood)

SWAT commander, as does Mark Boone Junior as a

scores for THE SOCIAL NETWORK (2010) and THE GIRL

prompts a second look at the fat man’s murder scene

shady, scruffy informant to Somerset.

WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (2011). Other standout cues

To accomplish his stark, pitch-black vision, Fincher enlists

ment, and, in another nod to Kubrick’s influence, classical

(where Somerset finds “gluttony” written in grease behind the fridge).

include a Marvin Gaye track playing in the Mills apartthe eye of cinematographer Darius Khondji, who is able

arrangements that waft through the cavernous library

This discovery prompts the detectives to realize that

to translate Fincher’s signature aesthetic (high contrast

Somerset conducts his research in. It’s also worth high-

they are in the midst of a killing spree perpetrated by a

lighting, cold color palette, silhouettes and deep wells

lighting SE7EN as Fincher’s first collaboration with Ren

psychopath who carries out his murders in accordance

of shadow) onto the 35mm film image. This film is pre-

Klyce, who would go on create the visceral, evocative

with the seven deadly sins and leaves behind him grisly

sented in the size 2.35:1 anamorphic aspect ratio, but

soundscapes of Fincher’s subsequent films.

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Se7en

A David Fincher Film Festival

“If we catch John Doe and he turns out to be the devil, I mean if he’s Satan himself, that might live up to our expectations, but he’s not the devil. He’s just a man.”

MOVIE REVIEW

—Somerset (Morgan Freeman)

Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert.com

Overall, SE7EN is a supreme technical achievement on

the ceiling (implying that the walls are closing in around

It is almost always raining in the city. Somerset, the veteran

lonely man who confronts life with resigned detachment.

all fronts, a fact realized by the studio (New Line Cinema),

our characters). Fincher’s fascination with technology is

detective, wears a hat and raincoat. Mills, the kid who has

When he realizes he’s dealing with the Seven Deadly

who then mounted an aggressive awards campaign on

also reflected in a mix of cutting-edge forensic tools and

just been transferred into the district, walks bare-headed

Sins, he does what few people would do, and goes to

the film’s behalf. Only Richard Francis-Bruce’s crisp edit-

outdated computer systems that are used by the protag-

in the rain as if he’ll be young forever. On their first day

the library. There he looks into Dante’s Inferno, Milton’s

ing was nominated at the Academy Awards, with neither

onists to find their man. Lastly, an air of nihilism marks

together, they investigate the death of a fat man they find

Paradise Lost and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. It’s not

Fincher nor his stellar cast getting a nod. Despite the cast

Fincher’s filmography, with the incorporation of its philos-

face down in a dish of pasta. On a return visit to the crime

that he reads them so much as that he references

turning in great, truly original performances, it’s apparent

ophy giving SE7EN its pitch-black resonance. Several

scene, the beams of their flashlights point here and there

them for viewers; it is often effective in a horror film to

that Fincher’s emphasis on the visuals and the technical

story elements, like the moral ambiguity of Detective Mills,

in the filthy apartment, picking out a shelf lined with

introduce disturbing elements from literature as atmo-

aspects of the production came at the expense of devot-

the rapid decay of the city aided and abetted by uncar-

dozens of cans of Campbell’s Tomato Sauce. Not even

sphere, and Fincher provides glimpses of Gustav Dore’s

ing as much energy and attention to the performances

ing bureaucrats, and the darkly attractive nature of Doe’s

a fat man buys that much tomato sauce.

as he probably should’ve. The result is visually ground-

crimes cause severe existential crisis for our protagonists.

breaking film with slightly wooden performances, despite

illustrations for Dante, including the famous depiction of a woman with spider legs. Somerset sounds erudite as

This grim death sets the tone for David Fincher’s “Seven,”

he names all the deadly sins to Mills, who seems to be

SE7EN was a huge hit upon its release, and put Fincher

one of the darkest and most merciless films ever made

hearing of them for the first time.

on the map in a way that ALIEN 3 never did (or could have

in the Hollywood mainstream. It will rain day after day.

An oft-mentioned aspect of SE7EN is its haunting opening

done), precisely because it was an original property in

They will investigate death after death. There are words

credits sequence, designed by Kyle Cooper. The sequence

which Fincher could assert himself, free from the exces-

scrawled at the crime scenes; the fat man’s word is on

acts as a preview of Doe’s meticulous psychosis, with jit-

sive studio needling that plagued top-dollar franchises

the wall behind his refrigerator: Gluttony. After two of

tery text trying to literally crawl away from the disturbing

back then (and still today). This freedom resulted in one

these killings Mills realizes they are dealing with a serial

images that we’re shown in quick, rapid succession. Shot

of the most shocking thrillers in recent memory, jolting

killer, who intends every murder to punish one of the

separately from the main shoot after the original scripted

audiences from apathy and re-energizing a fear response

Seven Deadly Sins. This is as formulaic as an Agatha

the cast’s best efforts and a first-rate narrative.

opening credits sequence was trashed, the piece both

that had been dulled by the onslaught of uninspired

Christie whodunit. But “Seven” takes place not in the

pulls us into this sick, twisted world and prepares us for

slasher films during the 80’s. SE7EN, along with Fincher’s

genteel world of country house murders, but in the lives

what comes next. The sequence was shot by late, great

other zeitgeisty film FIGHT CLUB (1999), is frequently

of two cops, one who thinks he has seen it all and the

cinematographer Harris Savides, who would go on to lens

cited as one of the best pictures of the 1990’s, perfectly

other who has no idea what he is about to see. Nor is it

Fincher’s THE GAME (1997) & ZODIAC (2007) and edited

capturing the existential, grungy essence of the decade.

about detection; the killer turns himself in when the film

by Angus Wall, who has since become one of Fincher’s key

Above all, SE7EN is a gift, for Fincher, another chance to

still has half an hour to go. It’s more of a character study,

editors. Fincher, more so than a great deal of his contem-

prove himself after the failure of ALIEN 3, and for us, a

in which the older man becomes a scholar of depravity

poraries, uses the opening credits of his features to set

groundbreaking new voice in the cinematic conversation.

and the younger experiences it in an pitiable and personal

the mood and the tone of his story in a highly creative

That, my friends, is what was in the box.

way. A hopeful quote by Hemingway was added as a

and stimulating style. His incorporation of the technique

voice-over after preview audiences found the original

began in earnest with SE7EN, but the practice hails back

ending too horrifying. But the original ending is still

to the work of Alfred Hitchchock, who pioneered the idea

there, and the quote plays more like a bleak joke. The film

of opening credits as part of the storytelling and not just

should end with Freeman’s “see you around.” After the

an arbitrary device to let the audience know who did what.

devastating conclusion, the Hemingway line is a small as a consolation.

SE7EN is one of the earliest instances in Fincher’s feature filmography in which his aesthetic coalesces into

The enigma of Somerset’s character is at the heart of the

something immediately identifiable, no small feat for a

film, and this is one of Morgan Freeman’s best perfor-

man at bat for only the second time. The film places

mances. He embodies authority naturally; I can’t recall

a subtle, yet strong emphasis on architecture, specifically,

him ever playing a weak man. Here he knows all the

an early twentieth-century kind of civic architecture

lessons a cop might internalize during years spent in what

seen in noir films and old New York buildings (a mix of clas-

we learn is one of the worst districts of the city. He lives

sical & art deco). There’s a distinct claustrophobic feeling

alone, in what looks like a rented apartment, bookshelves

to the city Fincher is portraying, which is reinforced by his

on the walls. He puts himself to sleep with a metronome.

framing of several shots from a low angle looking up at

He never married, although he came close once. He is a

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A David Fincher Film Festival

69

“C’mon, he’s insane. Look. Right now he’s probably dancing around in his grandma’s panties, rubbing himself in peanut butter.”

—Detective Mills

INTERVIEW SCREENWRITER ANDREW KEVIN WALKER LOOKS BACK AT WHAT’S INSIDE THE BOX Ashley Burns and Chloe Schildhause, UPRoxx

What’s being used here is the same sort of approach

laconic speech. Brad Pitt seems more one-dimensional,

Brad Pitt has had a hell of a film career, no one can argue

William Friedkin employed in “The Exorcist” and Jonathan

or perhaps guarded; he’s a hothead, quick to dismiss

that. After making women swoon as a shirtless thief in

Demme in “The Silence of the Lambs.” What should’ve

Freeman’s caution and experience. It is his wife Tracy

the making of Thelma & Louise, he offered a glimpse of

become a routine cop movie is elevated by the evocation

(Gwyneth Paltrow) who brings a note of humanity into

his scary side in Kalifornia and then became the world’s

of dread mythology and symbolism. “Seven” is not really

the picture; we never find out very much about her, but

a very deep or profound film, but it provides the convinc-

we know she loves her husband and worries about

ing illusion of one. Almost all mainstream thrillers seek

him, and she has good instincts when she invites never

first to provide entertainment; this one intends to fasci-

married Somerset over for dinner. Best to make an ally

nate and appall. By giving the impression of scholarship,

of the man who her husband needs and can learn from.

Detective Somerset lends a depth and significance to what

Watching the film, we assume the Tracy character is

the killer apparently considers moral statements. To be

simply a place-holder, labeled Protagonist’s Wife and

sure, Somerset lucks out in finding that the killer has a

denied much dimension. But she is saving her impact

library card, although with this killer, thinking back, you

until later. Thinking back through the film, our apprecia-

figure he didn’t get his ideas in the library, and checked

tion for its construction grows.

out those books to lure the police.

The killer, as I said, turns himself in with 30 minutes to go, The five murders investigated by the partners provide variety. The killer has obviously gone to elaborate pains

and dominates the film from that point forward. When “Seven” was released in 1995 the ads, posters and open-

in planning and carrying them out, in one case, at least

ing credits didn’t mention the name of the actor, and

a year in advance. His agenda in the film’s climactic scene,

although you may well know it, I don’t think I will either.

however, must have been improvised recently. “Seven”

This actor has a big assignment. He embodies Evil. Like

draws us relentlessly into its horrors, some of which are

Hannibal Lecter, his character must be played by a strong

all the more effective for being glimpsed in brief shots.

actor who projects not merely villainy but twisted psy-

We can only be sure of the killing methods after the cops

chological complexities. Observe his face. Smug and

discuss them, although a shot of the contents of a plastic

self-satisfied. Listen to his voice. Intelligent. Analytical.

bag after an autopsy hardly requires more explanation.

Mark his composure and apparent fearlessness. The film

Fincher shows us enough to disgust us, and cuts away.

essentially depends on him, and would go astray if the

The killer obviously intends his elaborate murders as moral

actor faltered. He doesn’t. “Seven” (1995) was Fincher’s

statement. He suggests as much after we meet him.

second feature, after “Alien 3” (1992), filmed when he

When he’s told his crimes will soon be forgotten in the

was only 29. Still to come were such as “Zodiac” (2007)

daily rush of cruelty, he insists they will be remembered

and “The Social Network” (2010). In his work he likes a

forever. They are his masterpiece. What goes unexplained

saturated palate and gravitates toward sombre colors

is how, exactly, he is making a statement. His victims,

and underlighted interiors. None of his films is darker

presumably guilty of their sins, have been convicted and

than this one. Like Spielberg, he infuses the air in his inte-

executed by his actions. What’s the lesson? Let that be

riors with a fine unseen powder that makes the beams

a warning to us?

of flashlights visible, emphasizing the surrounding darkness. I don’t know why the interior lights in “Seven” so

Somerset and Mills represent established fiction formu-

often seem weak or absent, but I’m not complaining.

las. Mills is the fish out of water, they’re an old Odd Couple,

I remember a shot in Murnau’s “Faust” (1926) in which

and together they’re the hand and the greenhorn. The

Satan wore a black cloak that enveloped a tiny village

actors and the dialogue by Andrew Kevin Walker enrich

below. That is the sensation Fincher creates here.

the formulas with specific details and Freeman’s precise,

hottest vampire when Robert Pattinson was still learning his multiplication tables. Yet it wasn’t until 1995’s serial-killer thriller Seven (or Se7en, as the cool kids write it) that Pitt established himself as one of the greatest actors of his generation as Detective David Mills, an optimistic hero who unravels in astonishing fashion in an impossible to forget final scene. What’s more, it’s this role that won him the coveted title of Most Desirable Male at the 1996 MTV Movie Awards, so take that, Val Kilmer in his character as Batman in Batman Forever.

Twenty years later, the final scene in Seven remains just as chilling, from Morgan Freeman’s quivering lip to Pitt screaming, “What’s in the box?!?!” and “Tell me she’s all right!” to Spacey calmly telling him, “Become wrath.”

Part of the genius of Seven was that we never got, or had, to see what was in the box. Viewers never had to know more than what Freeman’s Somerset was willing to tell us: “There’s blood.”

However, if the studios and producers had their ways, Somerset would have never stood there helpless as Mills unloaded his clip into John Doe. When he wrote Seven, Andrew Kevin Walker worked at a Tower Records in New York for three years, and served as a PA on films like Blood Rush, “which was about murders in fraternity house.”

He vowed to write his way out of that record store, and when Seven finally sold, he had enough money to move to Los Angeles. And while Walker never thought that his movie would be made, his script eventually made its way to director David Fincher. Fortunately for all of us, Fincher had accidentally received Walker’s original script instead of the copy with a rewritten ending, and from there, Gwyneth Paltrow’s eventual decapitation had its strongest supporter.

70

Se7en

A David Fincher Film Festival

“I don’t think I ever really had the seven deadly sins preached to me, just an awareness of what they were. I don’t know when I thought about it I could have sat there and named them for you even. I mean I was stupid, I thought, seven deadly sins, you could look them up in the Bible. But they weren’t in the Bible.”

“In order to make a character like Somerset, who is kind of hyper intelligent on the intelligent scale you just have to have the tip of the iceberg intelligence to imply that the iceberg that lies underneath is Somerset.”

—Andrew Kevin Walker

—Andrew Kevin Walker

The ending probably had some people arguing about

Where did the idea for Seven come from?

Fincher was originally sent the first draft that I had writ-

rewrite this, this changes it too much”? But the thing to

I had moved from a very small suburban upbringing

ten, and he reacted very favorably to it when he spoke

remember is if I didn’t stick around then I likely wouldn’t

it when they left the theater, or having a conversation

in Pennsylvania, so New York City, for me, was a real cul-

to Arnold Kopelson. And they said, “Oh no no no no no

have been around when it came back around to Fincher.

about it when they were at the coffee shop afterward.

ture shock. I was in New York from ’86 to ’91, so it was

David, we sent you the wrong draft.” So they sent him the

I’ll just say that it involved, as I remember it, an abandoned

I do thank God that the ending was maintained thanks

the height of a lot of New York City-specific stuff, like the

Jeremiah Checknick draft I had rewritten, and Fincher

church and the seven deadly sins were depicted in a kind

to these people.

crack cocaine epidemic on the rise. It was very different

was like, “No, I don’t want to do this, I want to go back to

of tableau of paintings, and I don’t believe there was any

from the way it is now. For example, you would never go

that first draft.” That was the seed that was planted that

head in the box or anything, there was just a confronta-

Do you think it would be possible to keep Kevin

to Times Square without being very careful.

ended up saving the movie, in my opinion. Fincher valued

tion in an abandoned church. It sounds Batman.

Spacey’s role a secret today?

The head in the box really scared a lot of people creatively

going to be a relatively small group who might go out,

I think you can still probably do it, it’s just, there’s always

my opinion throughout the process of rewriting it.

It was also, even more than now, a time where a concise one or two sentence description of something was

Fincher does this incredible thing that you don’t always

along the way, people who were deciding whether to

find the script, and read it. Within that group certain things

a really helpful path for explaining movies, especially

get in the process of rewriting for someone, he listens

make this movie, deciding whether to put money into this

might be revealed if the source material or the movie

because at the time there was a gigantic spec market.

and he just made the entire process an incredibly great

movie. Mike De Luca at New Line championed it, but

that’s being made is something that is particularly kind of

So the idea, “seven deadly sin murders”, was a reaction

and positive experience. He, along with Mike De Luca

there were other voices in the process saying, “What if

famous or infamous. Then word of the content might

to living in New York and putting myself in a John Doe

and Brad Pitt and Morgan and Kevin Spacey, fought to

the guy drives out in the end and there’s a box and you

spread. Once upon a time it was a small group of super

head space where you could walk down the street and

save that ending, and they are the reason that that

open the box and there’s a TV monitor that shows that

film nerds. It’s probably gotten much larger because of

see every “deadly sin” on every street corner. What if

ending was maintained and is the ending that’s in the

Gwyneth Paltrow’s character is in jeopardy, but then

the internet, but it’s just that movies hit such a mass mar-

someone was so highly, over-sensitively attuned to these

movie. Without them, no one was going to listen to

we can save her,” that kind of thing. So, like I say, thank

ket. There’s always going to be certain people who are

injustices? That’s where the idea of seven deadly sins

me, the lowly screenwriter, that’s just the way it goes.

God for Fincher, thank God for Brad and for Morgan,

going to be kept in the dark, which is a great thing.

at Tower Records my true last week at Tower Records.

What did you think of the casting, and what Brad Pitt,

for all the people who dug their heels in and said, “Look,

My whole thing right now: For a movie that I know I’m

I worked at Tower for three years and every week I thought,

Morgan and Kevin Spacey brought to it?

this is the ending that’s appropriate.”

going to go see, I try to avoid seeing the trailer because

state the obvious, is one of the greatest actors absolutely

There’s nothing wrong with up endings, it’s just that the

aged to do it with Mad Max: Fury Road where every time

ever. As soon as they mentioned him, you couldn’t even

dark ending of Seven was what it was about. To change

the trailer came on I’d change the channel, I’d close

believe that he would consider it. Brad was phenomenal

the ending to something else was to remove the very

my eyes, I’d plug up my ears. When I walked into Mad

thank God for De Luca, thank God for Spacey, thank God

came from. It was my way of trying to make my last week

“I’m going to write my way out of here this week.” But it obviously took some time.

Were you surprised when New Line acquired it? And

it’s just such a different, wonderful experience. I man-

I thought they were absolutely incredible. Morgan, to

were you nervous about potentially not being part of

and it was just an amazing time for him, because we

heart of the story. It’s about “optimist Mills,” Brad Pitt’s

Max: Fury Road I had not seen one single frame of it.

the creative process of making it?

were making it and I believe Interview with the Vampire

character, going up against this pessimistic kind of

I just knew that I loved George Miller and I knew I wanted

First, a company called Penta optioned it in concert with

came out, or it may have been that Seven was getting

world-weary detective in Somerset, Morgan Freeman’s

to see it, and I loved it. I feel like it was so much more

Phyllis Carlyle, who was a manager, and then optioned

made soon after Legends of the Fall had come out, so

character. Those dramatically-opposed points of view

a unique experience from avoiding the trailers at all costs.

Nowadays, I think you can keep certain secrets but you

it for Jeremiah Chechik, who was the director of Christmas

that was very exciting. Kevin Spacey was, and is, abso-

are pushing and pulling each other throughout the story.

Vacation. The first part of the process was me doing a

lutely phenomenal and it’s incredible that he agreed to

And then once pessimism is confirmed, even to the

have to work so much harder to do it. And I know of a cou-

massive re-write, just obediently rewriting it and vastly

have his credit be at the end of the movie so that you

optimist who’s been arguing that the fight is always worth

ple of them in certain scripts that I’ve worked on, that

changing the script for Jeremiah, and he really did make

wouldn’t be sitting there as an audience member and

fighting, will the pessimist in the light of confirmation of

we’ve managed to keep the big scripts out of everyone’s

it very different and the ending was completely different.

see Kevin Spacey’s name go by and go, “Oh, where’s

all his worst predictions, will he stay or will he walk away?

hands. It’s just harder to do.

There was no head in the box. I do thank God that that

Kevin Spacey?” Knowing from the very first moment that

version of it never got made because it would have been

he must be the hidden killer would have so knocked

The other thing is Seven opened and it did all right mon-

What was it like for you to play a dead person in your

a very different path for me in my life. But after that

the whole thing off balance.

eywise. But the thing that was really surprising was that

own film?

the next weekend it went through that week and it had

I enjoyed it to a certain extent. I’m the very first corpse,

No one could imagine it with any other ending because

very little drop-off. And it sustained for three or four weeks

a person in my underpants lying in a pool of blood. I’m

Kopelson’s office and sat down with this director, David

that ending is so gripping. What did they have you

very close to where it had started. I really do think that

the very first body in the scene that Morgan walks in on

Fincher, who I had only known as the director of Alien 3.

change it to?

a lot of that had to do with the fact that the ending had

and I love doing that kind of thing, but I’m very nervous

And Fincher, in every possible way, completely changed

[Laughs.] I don’t want to go into it too much because

provided an experience that I think is incredibly valuable,

about it. I get really worked up about screwing up the

my life, including allowing me to participate in the cre-

looking back on it I just go, “Why did I rewrite this for

but these days giving the audience an appropriate end-

crew’s day or not getting the thing that Fincher, or

ative process.

them?” Why didn’t I just storm off and say, “Look, I won’t

ing that is surprising is really a pretty rare thing.

whomever, wants.

option period went by and New Line acquired it, I remember very specifically the first time I went directly to Anne

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“Become vengeance, David.

Become wrath.”

—John Doe

“Everything “Become seems vengeance, really simple David. on paper until Become you take wrath.” a camera out of the box. Then ninety people are offering up —John solutions Doe to the problems those pages can create. You’re in theretrying to make something very clear in this maelstrom of activity, with all this anxiety about how much money is being spent. I don’t think you can ever make it the way you have it in your head.”

—David Fincher

The funny thing about playing the corpse in Seven,

once described it, be like the audience walked into a buzz

which wasn’t very funny at the time, was I had kind of

saw? Those things work hand in glove.

quit smoking around that time, so I was vibrating on a certain unusual frequency for myself and when I laid

What would your reaction be if a studio decided to

down, they had rebuilt some of the set to reshoot this

remake Seven?

insert of the body, me, laying there. I knew they had gone

Half-jokingly my reaction would be, why don’t we leave

through the expensWn and poured all this cold blood

Seven alone and I think it’s time to go re-make 8MM,

around me, and the minute I laid down and they put

which I would love to do. But if they want to make Seven

the blood on, I knew that I couldn’t move. So I had a mas-

into a TV show, if they want to make Seven into a cartoon,

sive panic attack that I managed to breath myself out

there was a comic book exploring John Doe’s character,

of and calm myself, but it was just one of those situations

which I think is not an interesting exploration, you don’t

where I was like, “If I stand up I’m going to ruin this for

have any control over it. You just have to go with the flow.

everyone. I can’t stand up. Oh, I absolutely have to stand

But it’s been nice that it’s been this movie that has not be

up.” Luckily, they did it pretty quickly and I managed to

remade or sequelized or prequelized. That’s been terrific.

maintain laying still. If you see those few frames of me laying there in a pool of blood in that first crime scene Morgan’s investigating, just know that I was having a horrible panic attack.

How do you feel knowing that the film is still held in such high regard and considered such a great thriller?

I think that’s a nice, humbling counterbalance. I know a lot of people hate Seven and think it’s just garbage, so it’s good to be humbled in that way. I’m really proud of it, but I feel like the success of that movie, in my opinion, the credit for that belongs squarely on David Fincher’s shoulders. Looking back at the time that’s passed, I feel extremely lucky they never managed to make a sequel to it, which there’ve been people who’ve tried for a while.

I’ve been lucky that they’ve not managed to make a prequel to it, which, in my opinion, sucks all of the kind of meaning and energy out of who and what John Doe represents. I love that it’s still a standalone piece.

The ending of Seven would not be nearly what it was if not for what I consider the end of the second act, where John Doe turns himself in. The fact that John Doe turns himself in steals a lot of the satisfaction away from not just the characters in the movie but the audience, and it put them in a very uncomfortable, off-kilter position as they, along with the other characters in the movie, proceed into the third act. It was just like, what can we do that still works for the story but that’s going to pull the rug out from under the audience, and as the audience is kind of getting back to their feet, let the ending, as Fincher

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Sources

A David Fincher Film Festival

SOURCES

www.directorsseries.tumblr.com/post/80190638130/david-fincher-se7en-1995 www.screenwritingfromiowa.wordpress.com/tag/andrew-kevin-walker/ www.filmschoolrejects.com/commentary-the-game-david-fincher-564ca11632de www.indiewire.com www.rollingstone.com/movies/features/david-finchers-bizarro-game-19970403 www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/movies/homevideo/08lim.html www.rogerebert.com/reviews/fight-club-1999 www.theguardian.com/books/2005/may/08/fiction.chuckpalahniuk www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-rooney-mara-281904 www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-2011 Spring 2017 www.wired.com/2012/01/dragon-tattoo-opening-titles/ www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/03/amy-gone-girl-psychiatrist_n_5922842.html www.psychologytoday.com/blog/irrelationship/201410/ gone-girl-goes-the-darkest-reaches-irrelationship www.blothner.de/filmwirkungsanalyse/filmanalysen/fight-club-in-analysis/

Type Glegoo Raleway Adelle Condensed

www.crcpress.com/authors/news/ i2486-the-boy-the-game-of-mitigating-psychological-risk-and-uncertainty

Images Google images

www.imdb.com/title/tt1568346/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_6

Flicker Juliana Serejo Galeotti

www. google.com www.biography.com/people/david-fincher-411094 www.imdb.com/name/nm0000399/bio

Design Juliana Serejo Galeotti Course GR, 612 Integrated Communication Instructor Hunter Wimmer

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