David Fincher

David Fincher is an American film director, film producer, and music video director. His work includes ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’, ‘The Game’ and ‘The Social Network’.

Fincher has directed mainly thrillers, such as ‘The Game’, ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ and ‘Zodiac’... This is due to his genius style conventions, which allow for a dramatic feel throughout the films. 

For instance, during ‘The Game’ (the story of a wealthy investment banker who is given a mysterious gift: participation in a game that integrates in strange ways with his everyday life), he uses certain effects such as dark lighting, sudden changes in dramatic background music and most importantly he is very good at taking a slow scene and speeding it up (to grab the audience’s attention). An example of this would be during one of the scenes in ‘The Game’, where the main character Nicholas goes to a hotel (because he is told he left his American Express card there, even though he has never visited), when he gets to the hotel he finds the room he supposedly paid for (only to find it full of drugs, and indecent images) the scene then goes from paced to a complete manic meltdown! During many of his thriller genre films, Fincher influences the audience to feel on their toes a lot. This is due to the fact that he likes for there to always be a bigger picture then what’s going on! He influences his audience with large mystery story lines, by continuously adding tips as to why certain events, such as those within ‘The Game’, are happening. He also likes to influence thought in to his audience’s minds, by switching up the story line and changing who’s good and bad within the films. For example in ‘The Game’, Christine/Claire starts of as an innocent bystander who is suddenly involved in the game, however as the film goes on we learn she is actually working for the enemy corporation and in fact had betrayed Nicholas (who had grown to love her), but it is revealed in the end that she works for the corporation in order to make ignorant people selfless (again making her a good guy)! 

    

Besides thriller’s David Fincher has also directed fantasy drama’s, like ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ (an unusual story of a man living his life in reverse). Similarly to ‘The Game’, during the film, Fincher uses lighting effects to affect the story line. For example, during ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’, the film starts of very dark (this represents the sadness of Daisy being on her deathbed and the trouble brought to the Button family and in particular Benjamin himself)! However, as the film progresses and Benjamin grows younger, hitting certain milestones (like being able to walk, getting a job and falling in love), the lighting eventually gets brighter! (Although still remaining dark in parts of sadness, like Daisy in the hospital or Benjamin leaving his wife (Daisy) and their daughter)... During the film, David uses very clever links to influence the audience to feel sympathetic for each of the film’s events. For instance, Fincher links both Benjamin and Monsieur Gateau’s backwards-running clock together (since they both worked in reverse and had the exact same life-span). As well as that Fincher links the hummingbird with departed spirits, for example, when Captain Mike died a hummingbird appeared to Benjamin (which is unheard of to be that far out at sea), also just before Daisy passed away she saw one outside her window (most likely representing Benjamin looking over her). David Fincher influenced the audience to feel tension and drama when watching Daisy and her daughter in the hospital, not because Daisy was dying, but due to the hurricane in the background and on the TV. I believe he placed this into the film, to add sadness, gloom and despair to the whole event for Caroline (who’s entire life is being retold to her, differently to what she had previously believed, i.e. who her father really is)! I also believe that David Fincher added the hurricane to represent Daisy’s pain and turmoil as her forgotten and sealed memories are being resurfaced through Benjamin’s diary (and the painful feeling of him leaving her all over again sets back in)! The film ends with both Benjamin and Daisy dying separately, but it’s the fact that he ended back in the house (where his journey really began), that should be a credit to Fincher (as it was a brilliant style convention to represent family ties).

One of Fincher’s most famous films would be ‘The Social Network’, a drama based on the true story of the creation of Facebook and the legal dispute between its Founders in the years to follow. The film is set in 2003 at Harvard University, where genius Mark Zuckerburg (who got a perfect score on his SAT’s) founds Facebook along with friend Eduardo (who agrees to a 30/70 split). Fincher uses different style conventions to define each of his characters (for example both Mark and Sean speak very fast, to represent their ‘don’t care attitude’, it also makes them feel smarter than the rest (as they reach answers faster)! During the film David includes serious issues like hacking, drugs and underage drinking, to influence the audience in to realising the film is based on a true story and actual political problems from the time the film was set (2003). As it progresses, we start to realise the whole film is a flashback of the events leading up to the current lawsuits being held against Mark Zuckerburg, by Eduardo and three other Harvard students who feel Mark had stolen their ideas for Facebook. To show the tense atmosphere between each of the events, Fincher uses certain effects. For example the use of lighting creates a tense atmosphere; Fincher uses dark lighting in the past scenes (where everything is dull), dark lighting with a few bright neon lights when partying (to represent the fun times) and in the lawsuits Fincher uses simple bright, white lights (this represents Mark being in the spotlight). As the film goes on the audience start to get a more extreme vibe, as Fincher influences the music to change from classical to dramatic space-like music and includes a background buzzing sound during the trials (to show things are getting more intense)! As well as a change in music, Fincher includes a dramatic change in scenes, to show the difference between characters. For example we go from an upbeat, complex scene to a peaceful English rowing race. Some scenes are also purposely out of shot, in order to show anger and real-life movement, influencing tension amongst the audience. Fincher ends the film with Mark showing regret for his actions with subtitles appearing to explain what happened after the lawsuits, this allows the audience to realise the story has not yet ended (as the characters are real people still living their life’s).    

By Maddy Fox