Preview

"Auteur" or directorial style of David Fincher.

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1282 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
"Auteur" or directorial style of David Fincher.
Removed for Privacy

Film Criticism

02/25/2002

Auteur Theory: David Fincher

David Fincher began by directing commercials for clients like Nike, Pepsi, and Coco-cola, and soon moved into making music videos for Madonna, Sting, The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, George Michael, Iggy Pop, The Wallflowers, Billy Idol, Steve Winwood, The Motels, and most recently, A Perfect Circle. However, he is really known as an Auteur for his work in blockbuster films. His use of weather, especially rain, shadows to conceal figures and faces, fluid tracking with a camera than seems to go everywhere, single frame inserts, and a tendency to shirk traditional Hollywood endings all represent a strong and unique style evident in three of his most popular films: Se7en, Fight Club, and Panic Room.

In all three films rain is used to mark the mood, or set up a climactic event. In the case of Se7en, the general feeling of the city of is one of bleak despair, which is heightened greatly by the never-relenting rain. Rain beats down on the two protagonists, police detectives, played by Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, as they follow the twisted work of an intelligent and deranged killer. In one of the more noteworthy scenes, Brad Pitt's character is attacked by the murderer, and nearly killed in an alleyway, as water splashes up and over his body, creating swirls of mud and blood around his injured form. This marked use of rain is specialty of Fincher, which he continued to use in Fight Club.

The downpour in Fight Club is used to mark one of the films most dramatic moments. During the scene the characters played by Edward Norton and Brad Pitt are having a heated argument, when Pitt's character steers the vehicle into oncoming traffic, eventually causing a terrible accident. The car rolls off of the road, killing the two minor characters in the back, leaves the two main characters, addled and bleeding in the rain.

Fincher's latest movie Panic Room takes place almost entirely

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    From Edward Scissorhands and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, to Big Fish, director Tim Burton has been proving his amazing capability to weave extraordinary, almost dreamlike worlds. Although many directors use cinematic techniques to show or prove something, Burton clearly has a special gift. Burton’s use of cinematic techniques is very unique compared to other directors. Burton uses lighting, characterization, and music to show the mood of the scene.…

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He is best known for directing a specific trio of movies which consist of: Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim VS The World. According to www.imdb.com his “trade marks”…

    • 789 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to The Film Experience " … a film bears the creative imprint of one individual, usually the director …" and that it " … is taken to reveal the personality of its director …" such that the director is referred to as an auteur (p. 464). Certain decisions made by the director Alfred Hitchcock to employ similar idealistic themes throughout the movies Psycho, The Birds and Rear Window let him express his creative style. Voyeurism is undoubtedly the most recognizable feature in Hitchcock’s movies, similarly addressed in each movie in the form of an assault, where the audience’s dimension of voyeurism feels somewhat compromised as the characters of each movie are poetically punished for their voyeurism following an eloquent, skin crawling suspense, causing both the audience and characters to reflect and question the voyeurism we are somewhat predetermined to do.…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kutcher, wanting to conquer all aspects of his ability, branched out into producing. He is credited with producing two of his films, including being the executive producer on The Butterfly Effect. He is also credit with co-creating his most successful production venture, a little hidden camera…

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Critics have said that Fight Club ‘rages against the hypocrisy of society’ showing ‘a take on changes in masculinity’. The film uses cinematic means which produce a fantasy which explores the idea of masculinity and goes against a society where real men are defined by the materials they own.…

    • 1116 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Action and drama are the basic features any movie requires to reach success but David Fincher gives these two genres a whole new meaning in his movie ‘Fight Club’. The film, featuring big time stars like Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf, and Jared Leto, was released in 1999 and is based on a novel written by Chuck Palahniuk of the same name. The movie tells the story of how an ordinary man, the “narrator”, suffering from insomnia seeking happiness in support groups ends up in a fight club.…

    • 323 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rain reflects a change in the story, usually a bad one. This day Amir and his father learned that he has cancer, and stepping out of the office while it was raining might just have dampened the…

    • 992 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Fight Club Analysis

    • 1099 Words
    • 5 Pages

    He flies around the country to write accident reports on his company’s cars. One particular flight, he meets soap salesman, Tyler Durden. As Jack arrives back to his apartment, he finds that it has been blown up. He pulls out Tyler’s business card that he gave him earlier and calls him up. They meet at a bar and Jack ends up going home with Tyler to stay at his place. However, before they leave the bar, Tyler says he needs one favor from Jack, which is to hit him as hard as he could. After one punch, the two engage in a sloppy fight. Fighting becomes a very important piece in Jack’s life. With continued fighting, Jack attends work with bruises and blood stains. His boss is not happy. The bar at which Jack and Tyler first fought begins to be a meeting point for a group of men that Tyler and Jack have attracted through fighting. This proves that they are not alone in how they feel. The two talk to the bartender and end up using the basement of the bar for their new “Fight Club”. There is only one rule of fight club: “You shall not speak of Fight Club”.…

    • 1099 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hayao Miyazaki: Auteur

    • 1129 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The director is responsible for overseeing creative aspects of a film. They develop the vision for a film and carry the vision out, deciding how the film should look. The director may also be heavily involved in the writing and editing of the film, as well as managing the script into a sequence of shots, coordinating the actors in the film and supervising musical aspects. The Auteur Theory suggests that films contain certain characteristics or ‘signatures’ that reflect the director’s individual style and give a film its personal and unique stamp. Hayao Miyazaki is one such auteur whose entertaining plots, compelling characters and breathtaking animation in his films have earned him international renown from critics as well as public recognition within Japan.…

    • 1129 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Analysis Of 12 Angry Men

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Rainmaker (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119978/) is a modern take on the old tale of David and Goliath. In this film, Matt Damon plays a character who has just graduated from law school. Unlike his rich classmates, he is unable to be hired by an uncle or famous firm. Instead, he starts his career out with one of the lowest class, morally questionable lawyers that could ever exist. He takes this in stride and is soon thrown a case against a major insurance company. As he fights for his client's life and for justice, he must keep his wits about him and stay vigilant.…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The conflict between conformity and rebellion has always been a struggle in our society. Fight Club is a movie that depicts just that. The movie portrays the polarity between traditionalism and an anti-social revolt. It is the story of man who is subconsciously fed up with the materialism and monotony of everyday life and thereafter creates a new persona inside his mind to contrast and counteract his repetitive lifestyle.…

    • 1364 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Fight Club tells the story of an unnamed narrator who’s boring and pathetic life changes radically when he meets and befriends a man named Tyler Durden. The narrator, whose identity remains anonymous throughout the story, and Tyler create a strictly ruled fighting club that meets once a week, where men come to let out their emotions on each others’ faces and body. Fight Club attracted many people and, from this, a sort of revolutionary group, called Project Mayhem, branched out, lead by Tyler Durden. The actions of this group were questioned by the narrator shortly after one of his friends dies during an operation. The narrator begins his attempts to destroy this organization, only to discover that it his himself who is running…

    • 1224 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gridiron Gang Essay

    • 618 Words
    • 3 Pages

    This scene was tragic because of the shooting. Their many techniques used for example extreme close to show the emotions of will weathers face and how he was confused and didn’t know if he should help his team mate or his gang members.…

    • 618 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Movies are all about taking you on an adventure. They expand our minds, they bring our imagination to life, and manipulate our emotions. Directors do this in many ways, whether they are peculiar camera angles and shots, extreme lighting, or music that intensifies a scene. If a director correctly implements these within their movie, the audience’s emotions can very easily be manipulated.…

    • 1199 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gay Rights in India

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Couple of days back marked the 10th year since the release of the movie ‘Fight Club’. Even though I have watched that iconic movie couple of times back I could not abstain from awing at the novel ideas used in the film making. And there came the bathtub scene involving Brad Pitt and Edward Norton widely perceived as homo-erotic .But David Fincher says he purposely made so engaging the audiences on something keeping them from guessing the later twists in the movie. Brad Pitt comments,…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics