#david fincher is interested in men

[andreablog2]

Gone girl was a satire on mens paranoia of false accusations/women being “crazy” that was always my reading on it…..honestly it’s the most interesting reflection on modern relationships ever…I think it’s like batshit hysterically funny…what Bret Easton Ellis thought he was giving…people took the movie and the boom way too seriously. David Fincher just makes things seem so matter of fact that the slapstick & social satire element flew over peoples heads.

[saintofdaggers]

movie recs for Saw fans

Saw is a really unique franchise, for better or for worse, so finding movies with a similar aesthetic, theme or storytelling style is hard unless you're willing to dig into the really cheap ripoffs. well, I've been collecting movies that kind of helped the Saw craving, and here's my totally subjective rec list you can use as a reference point if you want to

The Collector and The Collection by Marcus Dunstan: these were written and directed by the guys who wrote Saw IV and beyond, so you're in good (?) hands here. the visuals and traps are distinctly Saw, and the second movie is giving Saw 3D if that movie drank a bunch of Red Bulls. make of that sentence what you will

Hard by John Huckert: an obscure thriller where a closeted detective has a cat and mouse pursuit with a serial killer targeting young gay men. very grimy, unflinchingly bleak and nihilistic. WARNING: this movie goes to some extremely unpleasant and upsetting places, so watch at your own risk

Pig by Rozz Williams: an art house short film where a guy in a pig mask tortures a young man in a desert. and that's it. this is pretty dreamlike and surreal and doesn't have much narrative substance, but I find it interesting to contemplate and it made me flinch more than a few times

Mindhunters: a bunch of FBI profilers in training get trapped on an empty island with a serial killer. this movie is completely ridiculous, but it gets pretty fun once the hilariously elaborate cartoon deaths start happening

X-Cross: Japanese action horror that's basically Fatal Frame doing Saw. weird editing, nonlinear storytelling, cool women, very ugly color grading. also a leg-cutting murder cult. hell yeah

Se7en by David Fincher: investigation, obsession, a dark urban environment, a serial killer with a weird method. it's considered a classic for a reason

the Broken short film by Nine Inch Nails: this is a music video that feels like a snuff film. it's disgusting, brutal, made me feel gross, and I gave it 5 stars on Letterboxd

Cure by Kiyoshi Kurosawa: think Se7en, but even colder and more mysterious.

Haze by Shinya Tsukamoto: this is one of the most claustrophobic things ever put to film. has some completely unbearable sound effects, but it's Shinya Tsukamoto, so that's kind of a given

Like Minds: an unhinged weird thriller about a psychologist trying to untangle the mystery of a high school boy's murder. very homoerotic, very weirdly structured and not exactly well-written, but the unreliable narrator gives a lot of food for thought

The Vanishing (Spoorloos): a man gets obsessed with finding his girlfriend, who disappeared mysteriously on a trip. this is one of the most chilling movies I've ever seen, with a genuinely terrifying character and an ending that took me days to get over

Cube: a bunch of strangers get mysteriously stuck in a labyrinthine structure full of lethal traps. it really gives Saw II but with a nice little sci-fi twist

Hostel and Hostel Part II: as an Eastern European, I fucking loathe Hostel and think it's very ignorant and xenophobic. however, the comparisons to Saw are pretty much inevitable, so watch it if you want and form your own conclusions (I haven't seen the second one, but I've heard it's quite good if you're into this vibe)

feel free to add your own recs to this post!

[jgroffdaily]

Jonathan is interviewed by Richard Lawson at Vanity Fair, with the interview also available as a podcast.

There are additional questions asked in the podcast about the state of theatre and crowds after Covid, shows he has seen recently (including OH Mary!, Mary Jane and Illinoise), the differences between working in film, television and theatre, and the legacy of working with David Fincher.

In conversation with VF’s Richard Lawson, Groff talks Merrily as well as his childhood in rural Pennsylvania and his Tony-nominated performance as Melchior Gabor in Spring Awakening. Rather than joining Lea Michele, his Spring Awakening costar and bestie, on Ryan Murphy’s Glee, Groff opted to stay in the theater world. “I really felt like I didn’t want to sign on to be a singing teenager again for another seven years, which I had just done for two years in Spring Awakening,” he tells Lawson.

As you’ve navigated a very dynamic career, how have you found managing the art and the commerce?

I’ve been really lucky in that when I moved to New York, I just wanted to act. I was not looking for money. I mean, I waited tables and I kept cash under my bed and all of that when I first moved to New York. But as time went on, I was lucky enough to get those few jobs that allowed me to live and allowed me to listen to my artistic appetite over a monetary need. Even the jobs that have blessedly made me money in my life, I never took for that primary purpose. Every job that I’ve taken has been an artistic curiosity primarily. So I’ve been really lucky in that regard.

Are you saying that you didn’t do the off-Broadway Little Shop of Horrors for the money?

[Laughs] It’s funny that you bring up off Broadway, because there was this moment after Spring Awakening where I had left—I had left the show after doing it for two years. I was 23, and Ryan Murphy had told Lea Michele and I that he had written this show Glee for the two of us, and would we be interested in doing that? I really felt like I didn’t want to sign on to be a singing teenager again for another seven years, which I had just done for two years in Spring Awakening. I was 23, and I really wanted to act. I love singing, but doing that felt like more of the same as opposed to something that would be an opportunity for artistic growth. And that next year, I did three off-Broadway plays.

When I came out the other end of that experience, I understood the truly life-changing power of doing great material. Spring Awakening changed me from the inside out as a person. I came out of that experience feeling like, Ooh, I want to keep doing this. I want to keep stretching and growing and challenging myself as an actor. So, Hair and Glee came up as opportunities, but I went to Playwrights Horizons and the Public Theater and did plays there for the next year.

[philcollinsenjoyer]

unforch i was talking about david fincher of interested in men fame

[vviolame]

ALL ABOUT ME ! ?

hello im vv ! ill be your tour guide.

im 22, (she/her), from and in the us, strictly english speaking (hopefully will change that someday..), bisexual, and above all, eternally an anxious fangirl.

MY FANDOMS ;;

bnha,, taylor swift, im a HUGE cinephile, im also joe keerys #1 fan, (true), and obsessed with arctic monkeys 🙌, death note, tv girl, saw <3, and some smaller likes (ex. over the garden wall, david fincher, coldplay, ect.)

HOBBIES ! ! !

i love writing more than breathing. (it’s what keeps me breathing but let’s not get too informal) journaling, and drawing. i love to watch movies, it’s probably my biggest pleasure. and listening to music, as well:) again, im a fangirl. Interviews of my favorite hot men are my guilty pleasure.

FAVORITES .

favorite films ;

* the perks of being a wallflower (saved my life.)

* children of men (<3)

* the florida project

* everything everywhere all at once

musicians ;

* arctic monkeys

* djo

* matt maltese

* tv girl

* taylor swift

books ;

* turtles all the way down (me??)

* the bell jar

* the outsiders

my favorite song of all time.

fun facts! :3

• im a plus size girl !

• my favorite food is a turkey sandwich

• im a very very passionate feminist

(sorry im kinda lame?)

MY POSTS.

im thinking about starting to post fics? not sure… anyway, i just ramble. my asks are always open if you’re interested. i do wish I had more to offer right now!!! patience please!!!!

anddd that’s about it! welcome to my blog. i hope you’ve enjoyed the sights and sounds and continue to enjoy the page, if you choose to stay or visit again, i welcome you with open arms. vv.TM

[sarisinema]

The Killer (2023) vs Le Samourai (1967) and Adorno's The Culture Industry

26.03.24 - Blog Post 6

In a recent interview, Michael Fassbender, who plays the main character in David Fincher's latest film, The Killer (2023) talked about the costume choice for his character: He said they chose the killer's outfits from clothes that can be bought from every airport in every country. He even joked about how Fincher wanted him to look like a German tourist, so they went for a regular European tourist look. A couple minutes later, he mentioned about how Fincher was inspired by Le Samourai, Jean-Pierre Melville's legendary film, starring Alain Delon. Fassbender said, "Fincher wanted him as sharp as Jeff Castello, his moves and his tidiness should be cool as Jeff.'' This was an unfortunate thing to say, in my opinion. The Killer was a flop, it was the worst film in Fincher's career. When you watch The Killer and Le Samourai back-to-back, things get even worse for The Killer. Fassbender is not wrong tho, it is obvious that how Fincher was inspired by Melville and tried to create the same props and styles as Le Samourai's. It is easy to spot the similarities between the two films, both of them are about a cold-blooded hitman, which lives a very lonely and tidy life. The plots are also similar, the routine of these men gets interrupted because of a mistake they made- Castello was seen by a woman on the crime scene, and The Killer, let's call him K, missed the shot. The physical appearance of the actors who played the hitmen are strikingly similar, even the gaze, which is cold as ice, thanks to the big blue eyes of the actors. So, why is Le Samourai still an unforgettable masterpiece, while David Fincher's The Killer is such a pointless and bad movie?

First, let's look at why Le Samourai is not an ordinary hitman-thriller, but an emotional movie that speaks to the soul. Jeff, our protagonist, speaks so rarely in the movie that the director is always telling us something through Jeff's interactions with the people around him (mostly his lack of communication) and the decor of his house. This is one of the most important choices that makes the movie memorable - the director shows us that Jeff is unhappy with his lifestyle, but he can't do anything to change it, yet he is too accepting and mature to whine about it. The people in Jeff's world are inhuman, they are either indifferent to crime or they are the ones who commit it. Jeff has also lost his humanity in this order - he keeps a bird in his house, and the bird keeps fluttering and trying to get out of its cage. Jeff doesn't let the bird out, and he himself can't get out of his order. As a result of what happens to him (a woman sees him in the place where he committed the murder), Jeff runs away. Finally, he is able to break free from his wheel by sacrificing himself. Melville never exaggerates, the streets of Paris, which normally look like something out of a painting in a 60s movie, are shown as dirty and dangerous, and the houses are falling into disrepair. Dialog is sparse and used only where necessary. Violence is almost non-existent.

Fincher's K, on the other hand, starts talking non-stop from the very first scene of the movie; he tells us a lot of useless things about his work ethics and his routine, and the funny thing is that K's life, which is supposed to be "interesting", does not make the audience curious at all. We hear what our character, who doesn't have a very interesting personality anyway, is thinking and doing and we continue to watch the same thing on the screen. This fools the audience and gets quite boring. In addition, K's constant change of countries, luxurious locations, expensive gadgets and fancy weapons are thrown at us in every scene, and Fincher, who does not give us even a second to wonder where and on whom those weapons and gadgets will be used, reduces the element of curiosity in the movie to the finale: Will K be able to reach the people who attacked his wife? K, as an American, opens all doors, gets everything done with money and violence, and at the end of the movie he returns to his luxurious villa in a tropical climate to be with his wife, whom he left all alone during the hospitalization.

The Killer doesn't even manage to be a badly Americanised copy of Le Samourai. Sure, there are a lot of things that have been Americanised, because everything in our lives is now of the same standard. In Adorno's theory, the culture industry, there was talk about films and how they had caught up with Hollywood clichés and so on. I think Le Samourai and The Killer are the best examples of this cultural change. As the world gets smaller and smaller, so do the emotions and our reactions to them. Like K, every aspect of the film's story and the character's psyche should be very obvious to us, the stupid audience, and we need violence and fancy effects to keep our attention on the film. It is almost hard to watch how a character that has to be written to be taken seriously by the audience (because this film is not a mockery) is an American man who dresses like a tourist and eats hamburgers in Paris. I really did consider the small possibility that this film could be a mockery of the 'hitman' or 'killer' trope, but as a teacher of mine said, 'you should set the mockery to mock something' - so unfortunately Fincher saw his character as his version of Jeff Castello, who is a product of the culture industry. A man loves money, even though he lives inhumanely because of it; shows no remorse, always finds his way, and indifferent from every other successful American in today's capitalist world- Jeff Castello without conscience and dollars. Everywhere he goes, even when he changes continents, is always the same, the food, the living styles, the money- the world of American movies gets smaller and smaller each day just like our world. What a shame!

[theboarsbride]

Name 5 movies/book/songs/etc that inspired each of your stories!

:0

OOO!!! So sorry this took too long to get around, but thank you so, so much for sending this ask in!! 🥺💛

The Monster and the Butterfly🥀🦋

Crimson Peak - and Guillermo del Toro's whole filmography, tbh, but Crimson Peak especially. And also other ghost movies/shows, such as The Orphanage, The Others, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Mama, Paranormal Activity, The Conjuring I & II.

Panna a Netvor/Beauty and the Beast (1979), as well as Jean Cocteau's La Belle et la Bete.

Various dark fantasy movies and books from the 1980s/90s like The Dark Crystal, Legend, The Company of Wolves, etc. and Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber.

Shelley Duvall's Fairytale Theater "Beauty and the Beast" episode (literally why Susan Sarandon - who plays Beauty - is Sophie's fc)... and honestly, on that same note, Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy because the fucking music is so good, and Brad Dourif as Grima Wormtongue is the whole reason why the modern version of Edgar exists (and is his fc) lmao.

A Taste for Monsters by Matthew Kirby - and to add onto this, KIND OF?? Is that a lot of inspiration for TMATB came from the hate I feel towards some modern BATB retellings (i.e.- Sarah J Maas' A Court of Thorns and Roses series especially) that feature conventionally attractive 'Beasts' who are only beasts in the sense that they're awful, toxic, cruel people who, to me, don't deserve redemption or romance - or even friendship - as well as female protagonists who are just so, so unlikeable in their bitterness, idiocy, and Mary Sue-ness??? I wanted to write a romance that featured love interests that were unconventional in appearance, flawed but still likeable, and having a relationship that is healthy/consensual!

Cheating and adding a 6th one, but the works of Abigail J. Harding's Parliament of Rooks portfolio! GOTHIC BIRD MONSTER BELOVED!

Those Red Nights🌕🐺

Using Bob Odenkirk as a fc for a werewolf character - literally that's the whole reason why this story exists lmfao. So you bet I was watching the hell out of Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad for inspo (and simp material)!

Silence of the Lambs, the movie especially! But there is also Thomas Harris' Red Dragon novel (and the movie starring Ed Norton and Anthony Hopkins, and the movie Manhunter) that was a source of inspiration!

David Fincher's Se7en - I wanted to write a neo-Noir story for a hot minute, especially ones with psychological horror elements!

Nightmare by Tuesday Knight - this just helped me develop the idea of TRN being a psychological horror, and writing about the themes surrounding nightmares, the haunting effects of guilt, etc.

Werewolf movies like Bad Moon and Silver Bullet

Temperance & Mr. Wyrm 🐍⚕️- I don't talk about this WIP much but I still think about it regularly!

Wanting to do a retelling of the fairytale "The Lindworm Prince" and also wanting to explore writing a weird body horror romance!

The Shape of Water - again, del Toro out here inspiring goofy fucking monster romances!

David Cronenberg's The Fly - tragic body horror romance goodness, my beloved!

General 1980s media and pop culture - a lot of this was kind of inspired by reading My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix! It's a book set in the 80s and utilizes the 80s nostalgia, but it also doesn't shy away from how ugly the 80s were in terms of social stigmas for people who weren't straight white men. In TAMW especially what I'd be alluding to is the stigma surrounding AIDS, and other blood-borne illnesses.

And, lowkey, wanting to have Gwendoline Christie as a fc for a character?? Like, idk, with who Temperance is as a character within the novella, Christie seems to fit her super well! Also the tall gf x short bf is a ship dynamic I ADORE! (also the character of Jack, the titular 'Mr. Wyrm,' is another character where I use Brad Dourif as a fc for but shhhhh i know I'm cringe, don't remind me)

These are the main WIPs I still work on!! There is also The Faeries and the Lark but that's more on the backburner for now, but that story was inspired by wanting to do a genderbent retelling of Sleeping Beauty but has now turned into a Gothic/dark fantasy Sapphic romance that's a funky blend between Sleeping Beauty and East of the Sun, West of the Moon that's inspired by Scandinavian folklore and seeing images of women in armor lmao.

But if there are any WIPs you'd wanna learn about, give me a shout and I'm more than willing to scream about these goofy, silly little stories!!

[mayachroniquecinema]

2

HIzma HamidFollow19 JUNHello! I'm studying Film and Creative Writing and would love to get into writing screenplays professionally some day.I mostly write silly stories, articles and short film screenplays, but I have some ideas bubbling away for some cool feature length films too. I'm a big fan of David Fincher, Spike Lee and Guillermo Del Toro."WHATS IN THE BOX?!?!!?" -Se7en (Fincher, 1996) 100% one of my favourite scenes of all time, the perfect tragic ending.  Like Reply Bookmark Report

LCLaura CarterFollow18 JUNI’m curious to find out if I’m cut out to be a screenwriter. That’s my interest in this course. Like Reply Bookmark Report

KRKigudde RogersFollow18 JUNHello i am Rogers a writer and director i have done both in my first project so i need more work toajor in directing Like Reply Bookmark Report

ASAndy Rey Singh MatosFollow17 JUNHi I am a writer and an artist I am here for curiosity and love for learning. Most memorable line dialog in a film: My reign has just begun - Emilia Clarke Daenerys Targaryen in Game of thrones - that scene repeats itself in my head over and over again and i don't even know why Thank you(edited) Like Reply Bookmark Report

PSPriyanshu SharmaFollow17 JUNHey Everyone,I'm an engineering student and self proclaimed film enthusiast. Screenplay seems to be a very crucial part of any movie or film and thus I am extremely curious about it's nuances.My Favorite segment from a film is from the movie called Moneyball, the last scene when Brad Pitts Character is driving on a highway listening to a CD of his daughter singing a song and calling him a loser in jest. Like Reply Bookmark Report

Maria BakerFollow16 JUNHey all!I'm a journalist and wannabe filmmaker. I'm pretty much new to screenwriting but have been writing novels and stories so hope that helps, ha!I really love the works of Jordan Peele, Wes Anderson and Edgar Wright.One of the most memorable lines is from The Dark Knight (and no I didn't try to copy Jordan haha, I just love Batman!): "Some men just want to watch the world burn.” Like Reply Bookmark Report

JRJordan RoweFollow15 JUNHi there, i am new to screenwriting I hope in the future to write a script for a high profile film/tv show that people will enjoy for years to come! My favourite film of all time is The Shawshank redemption and my favourite director is Martin Scorsese. The most memorable line in the film of the top of my head right now is from The Dark Knight by Christopher Nolan, when Joker says "do you want to know how i got these scars?"  Like1 Like 1 Reply Bookmark Report

ETEkaterina TzvetkovaFollow13 JUNHi there! I'm a recent graduate of the Contemporary Media Practice course, I don't have much experience in Screenwriting, but I'm willing to learn. My favourite directors and screenwriters are Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino. The most memorable line of a movie on the top of my head right now is "I'm simply not there" (American Psycho, 2000).  Like Reply Bookmark Report

Jay TelfordFollow13 JUNHi, I am entirely new to screenwriting, but I have always had a fascination with it.My favourite genre tends to be sci-fi and fantasy, however, I do not limit myself to box office movies. I have enjoyed many direct to TV movies, and TV series.If you were to ask me what my all-time favourite movie was, then it would have to be Planet of The Apes (1968), and it is from that same movie that my favourite line of dialogue comes: "Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" This line is significant because by using the derogatory terms "filthy paws" and "stinking ape," Taylor (played by Charlton Heston) challenges the apes' belief in their own superiority and highlights the injustice of their treatment of humans. However, when the line is taken within the context of the wider themes of the movie, it becomes evident that Taylor is not actually challenging the apes themselves, but rather the prejudices and assumptions of the audience, and their treatment of their fellow man. It is a line that I come back to repeatedly in one form or another, while creating profiles for my game characters.That line, and Heston's portrayal of Taylor has been a lifelong inspiration. Like Reply Bookmark Report

André BarreiraFollow13 JUNHey I'm André, I'm from Portugal and want to learn how to write a screenplay. My favorite movie is Pulp Fiction and my favorite directors is Quentin Tarantino. I hope I can learn to write a good screenplay^^ Like Reply Bookmark Report

Angela HolmesFollow09 JUNHey everyone, I'm Angie. I'm an actor and writer looking to gain more skills in creating screen scripts. I'm also a self-published author, so I'm not totally new to characters and story, but it's always good to learn and keep practicing! One of my favourite movies is the classic Casablanca, which I think has some of the best lines of dialogue ever, and I don't just mean the most quoted ones! Like Reply Bookmark Report

BCBrendan CairnsFollow07 JUNI'm Brendan, I love film for these reasons, creating worlds that people feel uncomfortable in. Ones that may leave you with a question or many. Attempting to understand parts of film or what a creator has intended are the conversations I enjoy having, and I tend to see these conversations open up other parts of humans minds, expanding them, changing them even.My goal is to allow for these spaces, to have people think about the multi layered ideas within scripts and uncover them together like finding treasure.I am inspired by people like Jordan Peele, Keegan Michael Key, Christopher Nolan and Boots Riley. Things in there movies dont make sense until you think further on the idea, One of my favorite endings to a movie is from Inception. "will they wont they", "was its real or".... "When is it the dream and when is it reality?"I continue to beg this question. Like Reply Bookmark Report

HSHASSAN SEPHAVANDFollow06 JUNI hope that in this course we can learn with each other's help and take responsibility for each other in learning and teaching. Thank you for your cooperation. Like Reply Bookmark Report

HSHASSAN SEPHAVANDFollow06 JUNThat is a good idea Like1 Like 1 Reply Bookmark Report

Danielle TavaresFollow06 JUNHello everyone! I'm from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. And I'm doing this course because I write short stories and books, so I believe it1ll help me better develop them. Like2 Likes 2 Reply Bookmark Report

MOMorenike OkeniyiFollow06 JUNHey, I am Mo from Nigeria. I am a Literature Teacher who wishes to improve my knowledge so I can be in tune with the latest trend in film making. Like Reply Bookmark Report

ELElvire LarFollow05 JUNHi, I'm not a writer nor a storyteller, but I'm looking forward to learning the basics of writing on dialogues, stories, feelings… Like Reply Bookmark Report

ANAbinav NarayananFollow02 JUNHello everyone, I'm Abinav, an undergraduate student at University of Wisconsin Madison majoring in communication arts (Film, Tv and Radio Track). Films have always had a profound impact on me right from my childhood till now. Damien Chizelle is one of my favorite screenwriters right now. His work teleports the viewer to a different world altogether. Some of my favorite dialogues are from Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy.  Like Reply Bookmark Report

AvAnurag vFollow03 JUNHey Abinav, Damien Chizelle and Christopher Nolan are two of my favorite directors. I am passionate about film direction and I wanted to learn screenwriting as it'd strengthen my storytelling. Let's connect if you are open to collaborating on writing screenplays. Instagram - anurag_vallamsetty Like Reply Bookmark ReportMLYour reply. 0/1200

NyNiranjana yogeshFollow03 JUNHey, I am Niranjana! I work as a social media executive at an advertising agency. Screenwriting is a hobby that I am hoping to develop in the next few years along with my full-time job. I have a few script ideas but am unable to fully develop them into a proper script. Hoping to better my skills through this course :)My favorite quote would be, 'It's difficult to accept the difference between who you are in your head and who you are in the world', from The Kid Detective (2020).

[livingwalkingbreathing]

Fight Club Semiotic Analysis

Though it is hard to depict the underlying causes of mental illnesses, they are usually all around us without us ever noticing. David Fincher's Fight Club is a prime example of a psychological film that will make you think about it for days after watching. The unnamed narrator throughout the film (Edward Norton) covers the fact that he is struggling so well that his doctors, acquaintances, and the viewers do not realize that anything is seriously wrong. Struggling with insomnia, the narrator finds an outlet through numerous support groups. His relief is soon interfered with when the love interest in the film, Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter), shows up to the same groups for the same reasons. During this time, the narrator crosses paths with Tyler during the strangest time of his life.

“If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person?”

In the film, the narrator and Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) are polar opposites. The narrator is a shy, anxious insomniac, obsessed with his 9-5 job, while Tyler enjoys living on the edge and believes that rules are meant to be broken. After the words, "I want you to hit me as hard as you can" were spoken by Tyler, the two men were inseparable and connected through their souls, much like yin and yang. After they meet for the first time, the narrator returns home to his apartment only to find it aflame and his belongings sprawled out across the sidewalk. The camera pans across his stuff, and his favorite item, a yin and yang coffee table is shown on screen. When further analyzing this scene, I realized that this table symbolizes the narrator's and Tyler's relationship. Exactly like the yin and yang, they are opposites that belong with one another. Even further, this coffee table can be depicted as foreshadowing the ending, revealing that they are the same person, or one. After the realization that the narrator has lost everything, he turns to Tyler to help him forget about it. He calls Tyler, but he does not pick up. Tyler calls back, although there is a small sign on the payphone stating it does not take receiving calls, further symbolizing that the two are the same person, and that the narrator is only talking to himself.

“What would Tyler Durden do?”

When Tyler is talking about his job and what he does everyday, he mentions that he likes to make his life fun. He works at a movie theater, switching the film rolls throughout each movie. During this, he likes to make it his own by inserting explicit clips at the end of each roll. Tyler says that when they show for a split second, the viewers will rarely ever notice it, or the image will not process in their head until they think about what they just saw. Much like this, David Fincher, the director, shows millisecond clips of Tyler in the scenes prior to them meeting. This is a major symbol of the two, showing that the narrator's alter-ego, Tyler, is forming in his head without him realizing. David Fincher wanted the viewers to go through the same experience as the narrator, subconsciously putting images of Tyler in their heads.

“How much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight?”

The entire plot of the movie is meant to show the capitalistic effects on masculinity and its corrupt system. This is shown through Tyler's soap-making business, where he makes and sells soap from stolen ingredients. In real life, soap is meant to clean things, much like how in the movie, soap is a metaphor for the fight club that Tyler and the narrator formed - which later becomes known as Project Mayhem - to cleanse and tear down financial and capitalistic companies in order to cause panic. Tyler is against capitalism, and that is strongly known throughout the film. He constantly tried to convince the narrator that they need to do something about it, but he is skeptical because he is comfortable with his routine life. Tyler gets in his head and causes mayhem with the rest of the fight club without the narrator knowing. Things begin to get out of hand when Tyler leaves and the narrator is left confused, finally coming to his senses and realizing that he is the person behind everything and that he is about to ruin his life forever.

The final scene is right before the club's biggest act, and the narrator is on the verge of ending it all, with a gun in his mouth sitting in an empty warehouse. With seconds to the end of the countdown where all major financial buildings will be destroyed, the narrator accepts his fate. He shoots himself, permanently erasing Tyler, but only partially harming himself. Marla Singer shows up the warehouse to talk sense into him. He assures her that they are too late, and the scene closes with the quote from the narrator to Marla, "you met me in a very strange time in my life" as all the buildings collapse in front of them.

Sources:

[cwatches]

The Problem With "Lucy (2014)"

Let's cut the bullshit. "Lucy" could have been better if it was a body horror science fiction movie edited like a Y2K cyberpunk, "Big Beat" wet dream. Why was Luc Besson directing this? Was this another chance for him to cast another sexy Aryan-faced lead to pew-pew some people? Was he chomping at the bit to make a sanitized film about transcendence? Technology? Evolution? We cannot forget having female characters being chaperoned by athletic, morally defunct men who really want to fuck her but she is UNATTAINABLE! But I digress, Luc Besson is only as good as the company he keeps. Thierry Arbogast has been pushing it with Mr. Besson for the longest time. He should've given someone else the chance to be on his team. Even with the poor acting, anything could be a masterpiece with the right people and a fresh eye. We were almost to the goalpost but completely missed it.

I wholeheartedly believe that if Besson handed this script off into someone else, it would have succeeded. Video artists like Chris Cunningham have done their fair share of producing fascinating media. His work for music videos, commercials, and short films proves that he is fairly capable of understanding what "Lucy" was trying to accomplish. David Fincher could have taken this script and made it into something spectacularly similar to "Fight Club". Jonas Akerlund's work for the music video "Smack My Bitch Up" would have been an interesting way to direct this movie. We never see the character Lucy (except in reflections) but we experience what she is experiencing. Having a POV of her getting the leaking drug-filled bag from her intestines would have flipped people out. It would've been a superb movie experience to have a first-person view of the transformations this character experiences. Other considerations... Mark Romanek's color seeped, grunge work? Rob Hardy's work? Who knows, there could've been others working on this project. We could have said goodbye to another generic Besson flick.

[denimbex1986]

'My expectations were moderate when I pressed play on the Netflix series 'Ripley' .

Admittedly, Andrew Scott is about the hottest actor out there right now, but after reading Patricia Highsmith's original novel about the conman and murderer Tom Ripley and loving Anthony Minghella's 1999 film adaptation starring Matt Damon , I thought there were limits to where very new Steve Zaillan's series had to add. The thought of eight hours in self-celebrating black and white didn't help my binge appetite.

But I quickly had other thoughts.

'Ripley', in which Andrew Scott presents a slightly older and cooler version of Ripley, is a masterful performance of suspense. An unusually captivating psychological thriller that is serious, even loud when it needs to be, but certainly not cleansed of an understated dark humor either.

But above all, it is beautiful. I'd actually go as far as to say it's the best looking TV series I've ever seen.

SURPASSES FINCHER, SCORSESE AND TRIER

Image aesthetics were not necessarily the primary quality when the serial medium entered its golden age in the 00s. There are certainly visual qualities in 'The Sopranos', 'The Wire' and especially 'Six Feet Under', but the series were the writers' medium and the major series were directed by a variety of episode directors.

They of course followed the style laid out by the so-called conceptual director who was responsible for the first episodes, but all else being equal, the feeling of a unified aesthetic work was not at the forefront in the same way as in the film medium.

That changed to some extent through the 1990s, when the great directors began to take an interest in making series - and in some cases directed the entire cast.

Cary Fukunaga created fantastic atmosphere and blistering sequences in 'True Detective', David Fincher set the bar high with the first episodes of 'House of Cards' and then 'Mindhunter', Jane Campion created striking images in 'Top of the Lake', Barry Jenkins created the perfect Southern aesthetic in 'The Underground Railroad', Martin Scorsese directed the pilot episodes of 'Boardwalk Empire' and 'Vinyl', and Steven Soderbergh was behind the entirety of 'The Knick'.

We have seen high visual quality in such diverse series as 'Breaking Bad', 'Westworld', 'Game of Thrones', 'Fargo', 'Hannibal', 'Mr. Robot', 'Utopia', 'Severance', 'The Crown', 'Maniac', 'The Leftovers' and 'Euphoria'. Danish auteurs Nicolas Winding Refn and Lars von Trier have created scenes of sumptuous visual quality in 'Copenhagen Cowboy' and 'Riget Exodus'.

But I haven't seen a series with a picture page that consistently made me lose my temper like 'Ripley' did.

THE NOSFERATU SHOT

As I said, the series is in black and white from end to end. It's now a cliché to say that you could hang every picture on the wall, but never has that been more true on TV than here.

The narrative even cultivates the beauty of classical paintings (and in the case of the talentless Dickie: the lack thereof), but its settings are photographic works of art in their own right.

Steve Zaillian has both written and directed the entire series - and all episodes are photographed by Robert Elswit . Elswit is known as Paul Thomas Anderson's court photographer from 'Boogie Nights' to 'There Will Be Blood' and has since impressed with films such as (the black and white!) 'Good Night and Good Luck' and 'Nightcrawler'. The two have previously collaborated on the HBO series 'The Night Of' .

Elswit and Zaillian's compositions are exquisite studies in work with light, shadow and perspective. Both in the total shots of Tom in majestic church rooms or bulls around the labyrinthine staircase systems in the small Italian beach spot of Atrani, where a large part of the story unfolds, and in the many close-ups, where Elswit's camera constantly finds interesting perspectives in Andrew Scott's face, that reveals his feelings of inferiority and fascination.

The director and the photographer bring three main sources of inspiration to life.

The style imitates film noir, the classic hard-boiled detective films from the 40s and 50s about hidden conspiracies and cryptic unraveling with masterpieces such as 'The Big Sleep', 'Double Indemnity' and 'The Third Man'. Author Patricia Highsmith's Ripley books are even associated with film noir – she published 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' in 1955 – and the current series highlights those elements of the publisher much more faithfully than the sun-kissed Matt Damon version.

From the opening sequence, where Ripley drags a corpse down the stairs and he draws a long shadow up the wall, movie-savvy viewers will also instantly recall one of the main works of German Expressionism from the 20s, namely Murnau's 'Nosferatu'.

Even though Zaillan himself has told Vanity Fair that the reference was not intended at all.

“This is what I call our Nosferatu shot. It wasn't planned. The shadow was a surprise to me when I saw it.'

German Expressionism was in itself a clear source of inspiration for Hollywood's original noir films, so in that way things are connected, but 'Ripley' occasionally seems especially animated by the almost theatrical expression of madness, which is also found in Expressionist masterpieces as 'Dr. Caligari's Cabinet'.

SHOULDN'T LOOK LIKE A POSTCARD

The third reference wears 'Ripley' even more outside the clothes.

Namely the Italian painter Caravaggio, who captivates the main character when he is introduced to his paintings shortly after his arrival in Italy - and which then directly mirrors Ripley's story, as in one episode we are surprisingly taken back to the 17th century, where Caravaggio is on the run after committing a murder.

"The light, always the light", says a priest to Ripley when he studies a Caravaggio painting - exactly as a museum guard said to Steve Zaillian when he viewed a painting by one of Caravaggio's students during one of his first visits to Italy during research .

Caravaggio's exquisite chiaroscuro, where the light from below creates a striking contrast between the face and the background, is a recurring motif in 'Ripley', of course with particularly humorous meta-effect in the scene where Ripley, with the painter's role model, stages herself as, well, herself above for Italian detective Ravini with a fake full beard.

Robert Elswit – who originally became a photographer because of the black-and-white films from the 30s and 40s that looped on the television when he was growing up – is a master at working with light, and it shows. To increase the contrast in the images, they often poured water on the small streets, which gives just the right noir expression.

Steve Zaillian had that particular style in mind even before he wrote the script.

"I knew from the start that I wanted this high-contrast film noir style. We didn't want something that was too familiar – I didn't want to make a nice travel programme,' he told Vanity Fair. Zaillian has said outright that he hates blue skies on film, and has explained that it is very difficult to film in Italy in color without it looking like a postcard.

Which you have to give him credit for. Just think 'The White Lotus' season 2 – or that Italy in Minghella's 'The Talented Mr. Ripley', who despite the cruel events looks incredibly delicious.

ONE WEEK DISPOSAL OF CORPSES

The new series version is no less beautiful, but in a more interesting way.

It is clear that Zaillian and Elswit have had good cards in their hands with Atrani and the old European beauty in general, which is not found in the same way anywhere but in Italy with the worn architectural gems that are both subjects of grandeur and decay.

But the brilliant locations are not the result of chance either. Zaillian, Elswit and the production designer scouted extensively before finding just the right locations in Naples, the rest of the Amalfi Coast, Rome, Venice and Palermo, where the series is also set.

Some scenes were shot in studio, including everything in Dickie's apartment in Rome, which the team built with meticulous inspiration from some of the buildings and furniture Zaillian had come across in his research.

Zaillian approached the project as an eight-hour film, which directors almost always say when they make series, but here it makes perfect sense. Every costume and object is carefully thought out because it is an essential part of Tom's personality that he fetishizes Dickie's things – like his ring, clothes and fountain pen – as symbols of the wealth and class he desperately craves.

The filming lasted 160 days – which is a lot ! – and the unforgettable scene where Tom has to dispose of the body on the boat took a week to shoot alone.

The scenes in the Italian cities were enriched by the fact that the series was filmed in 2021, when the corona crisis was raging and there were therefore no tourists in the streets.

"It felt all the more like we had traveled back in time", Steve Zaillian told The Daily Beast .

A BLACK AND WHITE RENAISSANCE

The production designer on the series created more than 200 sets and locations, and researchers worked in both New York, London and Italy to create just the right mirror of the time period in the 1960s. The costumes tell stories in themselves.

"From the feeling in 'La Dolce Vita' (Fellini's classic from 1960, ed.) to a more working-class wardrobe in Palermo or Atrani, it's always exactly right," Steve Zaillian told Netflix's Tudum .

Editing has taken almost two years, and the long process emphasizes that there has been no assembly line over the work on the series, which started as a project for Showtime, which was then sold to Netflix . Zaillian then also got full freedom to create the series as he wanted it.

The series creator started as a screenwriter and is known for his screenplays for films such as 'Schindler's List', 'Gangs of New York', 'Moneyball' and 'The Irishman'. He has also directed several films, most recently 'All the King's Men' from 2006, and then he himself directed the whole of 'The Night Of' - about an innocent man who is convicted of murder - which was also a feast for the eyes.

But as Paul Schrader wrote on Facebook the other day , nothing in Zaillian's resume could prepare one for how completely constructed 'Ripley' is. It is serial art at the very highest level.

Some filmmakers will doubtless object that black and white is an easy way to create great photographic images. With recent films like 'Poor Things', 'Maestro' and 'El Conde', (partially) black-and-white has had a bit of a renaissance in recent years, and sometimes it can certainly become unnecessary cinematic masturbation.

But in 'Ripley', the visual motifs sublimely reflect Tom Ripley's gloomy mind and the atmosphere of enigmatic, slightly surreal paranoia.

'WandaVision', 'Black Mirror', 'Better Call Saul', 'Fargo' and 'Twin Peaks: The Return' have had stunning black-and-white episodes, but I don't recall seeing an entire series in complete black-and-white since this side of the color television breakthrough.

We have now got that with 'Ripley'. And for fear of scaring someone away with all the talk about Italian Baroque painters and German Expressionism, I cannot stress enough that the series is an insanely well-told and engrossing affair, also independent of the aesthetics.

But it is its images that will remain as a new bar for what can be done in the serial format.

Then get those posters into production, Netflix.'

[themovieblogonline]

From android to supervillain, Michael Fassbender returns as an assassin in The Killer!

David Fincher has casually created one of the best directing portfolios in cinematic history. All of his outings are vastly different, showing that he doesn't just need to stick to one formula to be successful. From The Social Network to Zodiac, to Seven & of course Fight Club, it's been a monumental and diverse run. That path continues right now with The Killer! https://youtu.be/vs1epO_zLG8?si=0tndI9Mh_PTbztT0 Working with writer Andrew Kevin Walker (Seven/Fight Club) once more on a screenplay that has been adapted from a French Graphic Novel of the same name by Alexis Nolent, The Killer has been 16 years in the making, and it steers right into the darker tendencies of the David Fincher catalog. For David, this is something that he has wanted to do for a very long time. Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class/Steve Jobs/Prometheus) takes on the lead character, a globe-traveling assassin who has his life turned upside down when a hit goes wrong. Tilda Swinton, Sophie Charlotte, Arliss Howard, and Charles Parnell, will also feature to cement the story of The Killer. It'll be at the Venice Film Festival on September 3rd, followed by a limited cinematic release around October 27th, and then finally, it'll hit Netflix on November 10th, giving movie fanatics something to watch as the year begins to come to a close. The short trailer shows a crescendo of chaotic action, with an as-expected detailed plot, that puts personality under a microscope. We are also excited to be able to share the latest poster for the movie right here, which has been released to promote its initial release at the Venice Film Festival! Looking like an assassin who is well and truly undercover, almost like he is on vacation in an episode of Mad Men, the poster painting emits an interesting sense of uncertainty with its lead character, but hey, that’s just my opinion. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are doing composition work for The Killer, and after their previous work on many other David Fincher projects, we know that it's going to be a haunting, yet captivating listen. In the TV realm, David Fincher recently gave us Mindhunter, so with The Killer maybe we could be in for another dark plot, full of plenty of Fincher-like twists and turns.  The careers of Michael Fassbender, and David Fincher both speak for themselves, and I can’t wait to see what this epic collaboration will bring to the big, and small screen! What do you think, and what's your favourite David Fincher movie? Read the full article

[gentleoverdrive]

(241/?) Those constant moves!

Thanks to the goofy business going around in this hellsite (affectionate) wrt Martin Scorcese's non-existent yet somehow more relevant-than-ever companion piece to Mean Streets that shall go unnamed, I decided to watch 3 movies yesterday, which was my extra day off work. And, like, can we stop pretending Aaron Sorkin is a good TV/Movie writer and not just a has-been that has stagnated for the better part of his career? ---- The first two movies were fun as can be: - Mean Streets, a legit fun and fairly re-watchable flick if you ever get in the mood for old crime dramas that aren't marred down by pointless (and let's be honest, sometimes harmful) nostalgia. - The Princess Bride, which remains a phenomenal, (mostly) lighthearted romp for the ages. ---- Again, both movies accomplish what they're out to do and are hella entertaining, even after all these years. For the third movie, my brother-in-law picked The Social Network and let me come forward for a moment: I used to like the way Aaron Sorkin wrote when I was younger, but damn does his writing age out terribly. Like worse than milk going spoiled. He's like Charles Bukowski, but without the transgressive charm that's at least occasionally fun on a re-read. ____ (From here on I'll basically ranting against Aaron Sorkin's writing style. if mildly irate, unnecessarily foul-mouthed tirades are not your thing, I absolutely understand and deeply apologize. I'll post something far more agreeable tomorrow. Feel free to skip this one.)

---- Like sure, I know that making an interesting movie about Mark Zuckerberg + the creation of facebook was a tall order as it were already, and in that aspect, Sorkin absolutely delivered because some things about the film are actually attention-grabbing, but goddamn, his dialogue is still as stilted and house-of-cards-esque as ever. ---- And like, it's fine, you don't need to write dialogue like everyone else, dialogue that feels natural or what-have-you, it'd be boring if everyone sounded the same. But holy shit, it feels like I'm watching Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake, Andrew Garfield et al and they're taking turns RP'ing as different aspects of Aaron Sorkin's psyche. ---- How has he remained a staple of television and cinema for 30 fucking years and the dude hasn't learned to write fun dialogue for either medium? It legit baffles more than a little bit. Like yes, I get that he started as a playwright, and it absolutely shows on his early films like A Few Good Men, Malice and the American President; the beat of a theater play is there. It's janky, but for those films, it absolutely works. The same mostly goes for his first TV series, Sports Night. ---- But holy fuck, I remember when I had to watch the West Wing with a couple of bosses to kill the time back in the 00's. Like the "walk and talk" schtick does a good job of concealing it, and the actors sell you on the dialogue well enough sometimes with their delivery (Allison Janney was, bar none, the best actor in the show), but holy shit was the West Wing consistently fucking terrible. ---- Anyway, my recommendation? Skip the Social Network and just buy the soundtrack, because not even with all the incredible talent on set and behind cameras (David Fincher directing, Jeff Cronenweth as cinematographer and Trent Reznor + Atticus Ross doing the soundtrack) does this thing elevate beyond mediocre, and it only further proves that Holywood will just never stop huffing its own farts until it's too late to correct course. Have yourselves a good night and read you later, alligator!

[chris080803]

Blog Post #4 : Review of David Fincher's "Se7en" Continued

Morgan Freeman appears to be in distraught as well as the civilians on the side of the street. I feel like the small talk and suspense building scenes in this movie did a great job in contributing to achieving the ultimate end goal and narrative attempted to be created for this film as well. A scene that I felt represented this well was the dinner scene where actors Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, and Gwyneth Paltrow laugh about the subway vibrating their house. (35:20 - 37:25). Scenes like these just offer an alternative vibe to the film. More so, they add a little bit of a breather from everything going on, yet still are progressive in advancing the narrative. I also felt like this film did a great job introducing the two main characters quickly and well. With some back and forth ego antics between Somerset and Mills, mainly Mills. It's clear Somerset is more experienced, calm and collected, and has a better understanding of what goes into the thought process of the human mind. He also displays a much better ability to stay focused. Overall, the film tells a story of the two main detectives and characters along with their co-workers, searching for this serial killer who throughout the film is referred to as John Doe. The name fits rightfully so. I correlate this back to the scene where Somerset and Mills have the serial killer, or John Doe, in captivity and in the back of their car. When they ask Doe to tell them a little about himself, he replies “who I am means absolutely nothing”. That scene right there to me hinted at the stigma between choosing the name John Doe for the serial killer, as the film isn't focused on giving this man an identity. More so an overall reason for why he does the things he does. One that shows relation to what people may feel as members of a dark and hopeless society. Doe represents to me, the sins that are in all people deep down. The ending goes to show that people act on impulse and sins are sins, regardless of the reasoning and justification. For example, we see Mills kill Doe in the end as a reaction to Doe killing Mills’s pregnant wife named Tracy, even knowing that being killed is what Doe ultimately wanted. Somerset warned Mills of this prior as well. But Mills does it anyway. Murder is still a sin, it isn't justifiable. So when Mills caves in, it ultimately to me revealed what the film was trying to get at with the theme of sinning. It can be interpreted many ways, but that seemed to be my big overall takeaway from this film. 

Overall I liked this film a lot. Again, the suspense and graphic nature to it is goosebump inducing. The intense and mysterious plot and narrative keep you on your toes just waiting for answers the whole time. Compared to other David Fincher films such as Alien 3, this film showed what he was capable of as a filmmaker and how deep his mind could stem. The characters also made it great. I loved the difference in personality we see within the team of detective Somerset and detective David Mills. It added another interesting element to the film as we see two men work together to come to a common goal, while constantly showing different ways or strategies in behavior almost, to get the job done regardless. Somerset in the end of the movie appears to not end up retiring as a result of what he had to endure. He knows that there's too much evil out there for him to even be able to live in peace. Which was a main point trying to be established that I picked up on. The way they built up the reveal, showing such graphic and horrid detailed murders in an apparent order of sins. Only to have the killer turn himself in, and be such a mundane, regular person. That just blows my mind. Yet the narrative continues and we learn more about the message being portrayed and the intentions behind not only the characters but people as well as the film unwinds. Overall for me, I rate this film a 8.8/10. Solid cinematography, storytelling, and acting all around

[philcollinsenjoyer]

one thing about david fincher he's interested in men

[dustinchris]

“fight club”? more like “fuck (other men) club” amiright