David Fincher is an American film director. Referred to by many as the modern master of thrillers, his films deal with the labyrinthine nature of memory, the subconscious, desire, and man’s penchant for violence. However, he has also directed biographical dramas. His films have received 40 nominations at the Academy Awards, including three Best Director nominations.
Fight Club ~
It is a story about the demon that resides within us, a reflection of our true selves. Technically, one who is not alien to the world of psychoanalysis might refer to Tyler Durden (Bradd Pitt) as the shadow hiding behind the persona of the unnamed narrator played by Edward Norton according to the theory of Carl Jung. One might also call the unnamed narrator a symbol of Superego desperately trying to conceal his Id (Tyler Durden) according to the theory of Freud. Fight club is a domain of liberation, a heterotopia of subversive practices. The narrator who is frustrated with his white collar job is introduced to Fight Club by Tyler Durden who is a salesman. He is taught about that part of the world that deceived him all this while and the other part that could give him eternal glee. It is an adaptation of Chuck Palanhuik’s novel of the same name. The movie is blessed with impeccable performances from Helena Bonham Carter, Edward Norton and Bradd Pitt. The Cinematography is inch perfect and is well supported adroit direction by David Fincher. Fight club demolishes the very idea of binaries and exposes it’s viewers to a world of chaos that is desired, of freedom that devours everything forever.
SEVEN ~
Seven is yet another another landmark in the stellar career in the filmography of the master of modern thriller, David Fincher. The movie traces the trajectory of a couple of investigators in pursuit of an apparently religious killer who is killing people following the order of the seven deadly sins , that of greed, gluttony, sloth, lust, pride, envy and wrath. A number of bizzare occurences lead the audience towards an agonising climax – one that shocks, baffles and shatters one’s heart in equal proportions. Despite the heavy presences of Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, the performance of Kevin Spacey leaves a mark on the psyche of the audience for a long time. Yet again a well timed thriller dissecting the various labyrinthine contours in the psyche of a psychopath.
Zodiac ~
Zodiac is perhaps David Fincher’s most complicated, profound and gut wrenching movie. The strangest thing about this being that the incidents depicted have occured in reality. The events depicted in the movie traces the search for the Zodiac killer who could kill people in the San Francisco Bay area and then play mind games with the police department by sending them cryptic letters, messages, bloodstained clothing and ciphers in the late 1960s and the early 1970s. The screenplay of the movie is immaculately constructed maintaining the level of suspense from the first scene to the last. The zodiac killer was neither found in the movie nor in reality. The scene where the character played by Jake Gyllenhaal approaches the house of a man with a poster he believes to have been designed by the Zodiac killer would send a chill down anyone’s spine. Such is the level of suspense in the film.
Gone Girl ~
Gone Girl is an adaptation of a novel by Gillian Flynn that has the same name. It attempts to take us to a journey inside the head of Amy a beautiful girl with a sinister intrigue. She is someone who is blessed and cursed by a perverse sense of possessiveness. A person who can literally kill for love. Amy is craftily depicted by the very talented and gorgeous Rosamund Pike. Gone Girl is a dark tale of obsession warning us about the harrowing sense of awakening that made Amy the way she is, could do the same to us.
The Social Network ~
The Social Network is the biopic of Mark Zuckerberg (the founder of Facebook) told most dexterously by David Fincher. It traces his journey from his sophomore days where he made erroneous decisions as a result of his overtly toxicating sense of enthusiasm to the days where he became a powerful yet controversial billionaire. Jesse Eisenberg does a fantastic job in putting across the ever-present curious glances, his vulnerabilities and his ingenious decisions on the screen.
