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Fight for your freedom !

Time to conclusion. As we saw in my very first article, David Fincher’s cinema is related to three different themes : control, evil and obsession. The only movie which seems to be spared by these three thematics is Benjamin Button. But, even in this sympathetic one, there is a deep meaning about time and life. Anyway, those themes are obvious in the movies we discuss. In each one, there are all three. Panic Room is about a mom who can’t control her life who will be robbed by cruel thieves and been stuck in a room whereas she’s claustrophobic. Millennium is about a girl who’s life is controlled by a dangerous man and who will work on a case where men are obsessed with women's agony. Gone Girl is about a control freak (all of them in a simple sentence). 

We already know this. So what did I find ? 

We can say that David Fincher has a great taste in scripts and books choices. 5 out of 10 of his movies are adapted from books. Is he a master of adaptation ? 

Most importantly, I found that women in David Fincher’s movie are fighters, warriors when they are the main character. No matter what they’re fighting for, they succeed ; Meghan finds herself, Lisbeth becomes free and Amy takes back her life. They never give up. They tried until they won. They became independents, freed from men, responsible for their own choices. They bloomed !

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Women can be mean too

Gone Girl was described by many people as a misogynistic movie. This is due to the portrayal of Amy ; a fundamentally mean woman who hated men so much that she trapped them in all the possible ways that we can imagine (false accusation, a child in the back, …). It is even seen as a masculinist movie where the men would be the victim of women. Quite often, people claimed that Amy is supposed to represent women in general. 

Other critics talk about the fact that the movie has canceled too many details which made the book so intense and profound to give only Nick’s point of view to the detriment of Amy’s character. I think I can agree with it. 

“To me, that puts a very, very small window on what feminism is,” Flynn told The Guardian. “For me, it’s also the ability to have women who are bad characters … the one thing that really frustrates me is this idea that women are innately good.”

Nevertheless, and I guess you had understood it in my first article, I completely disagree with the first claim (as many people). It seems absurd to claim that Amy represents all the women in the world when she’s clearly described in the movie and in the book as a psychopath. Even if she wins at the end, her behaviour is shown as dysfunctional, abnormal and vicious. No doubt about it. Moreover, she is not a hundred percent winner. She is attacked by two of her supposed friends in a shitty motel where she had found peace, which led her to ask for help from her crazy ex boyfriend, Daisy. Then, he took back the power she gained the minute he could do it.  Her power was to live a life without artifice now that she was free from her marriage : his power was to be a man who can force her to become again the stereotype of the “cool girl”. Those events show her vulnerability when she doesn’t control everything. At the end, the only thing she controls is Nick because she knows him so well. She has the ascendant on him, but that’s all. About Nick, I think it’s important to insist on the fact that he chose to stay with her at the end. Not because she is pregnant or because she will ruin his life if he leaves, but because she reveals the best of him ; she challenges him and he loves that ! Nick is a victim of his own mediocrity and needs someone like her, otherwise he will disappear. 

In my opinion, it’s neither a misogynist, masculinist or feminist movie. Gone Girl only shows the way society destroys sanity by constantly asking for more, mainly on the women side. 

Besides those subtil critics, it gave us an antiheroine who won. A twisted and complex character willing to do everything to succeed, which we have the chance to understand without apologising for the events.

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How to be the “cool girl” ?

Let’s be clear about one thing : Gone Girl is my favorite movie. It’s this piece of work which gave me the idea of working in the cinema industry. I really love everything about it but I will try to be fair in my articles. 

Once again, sorry for the spoiler to come. 

Gone Girl is about Amy Elliott Dunne, who disappears the day of her fifth marriage’s anniversary. Her husband, Nick, calls the police immediately but in a glimpse, he becomes the perfect suspect. In the middle of the movie, a revelation appeared and we now know that Amy is guilty of her own kidnapping and that she prepared this plan for a long time ; the aim is that she wants her husband dead because he cheated on her. 

At first sight, this movie could seem a bit weird, misogynist and misandrist (we will discuss that in the other article). 

Fortunately, Gone Girl is way more deep than the plot can let imagine. 

Amy is a psychopath built by society. She’s supposed to represent the perfect woman, and since she was little, her parents insisted on that by writing books about her fictional self, Amazing Amy who always succeeded where the real Amy failed. Even if she’s fighting against that idea, it is profoundly engrained on her and she can’t let failure define her anymore. Therefore, since she became an adult, she’s seeking for the right man, the one who will complete her perfectness. At the beginning, she found that in Nick and made sacrifices to grow that, even when he just let go day after day. When she discovered that Nick cheated on her, it was the last straw that broke the camel's back. He broke their pact and she couldn’t let him do it. So, she prepared the perfect plan to accuse him and leave him until he is condemned and she’s dead. Yes, because Amy doesn’t do things by half, she’s also planning to kill herself, tired of trying to be the “cool girl”. 

Stop. I will try to be concise. 

Amy Elliott Dunne represents the perfect woman. As other women, she was built to be perfect, had to respect some rules imposed by society (men) to be cool, nice in every circumstance, otherwise, she’s a failure. But, the hic is that Amy is a psychopath and took that by heart. She’s an extremist. So, this movie is about extreme deviance. 

On the other hand, she hopes that the men that she’s dating will be her equals. Unfortunately, society (men, I insist) doesn’t ask the same thing to men. And for her, it’s unacceptable. 

This movie is about the dysfunctionality of society ; the way men and women are treated, how the media are seeking for hot news rather than real information, how our brains are formatted to believe apparences. 

That is for the themes of the movie. It’s profond and was even more developed in the movie which it was adapted from. But what I like about Gone Girl even more than the themes, is that Amy Elliott Dunne is a real antogonist, she is evil. That is so rare that it is a real pleasure. YES, women can be cruel. YES, women can be strong and dedicated to their own “good”. Women can take their power back. We already saw this on Panic Room and Millennium but they were heroines. Amy is not and I like it so much. 

I could talk about Gone Girl for hours and I’m not great at summarizing things. I hope my second article about the subject will allow me to develop some ideas more precisely. To be continued …

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The world which doesn’t love women

Millenium : the girl with the dragon tattoo was achieved in 2011. Before it, Niels Arden Oplev, a danish director, directed in 2009 his own version, with Noomie Rapace as Lisbeth. In the David Fincher’s version, Rooney Mara embodied the main character, with Daniel Craig by her side to play the journalist Mikael Blomkvist. Those two pieces represent similar Lisbeth Salender and Mikael Blomkvist, who is maybe more sulfurous in the American version. 

It’s fair to say that David Fincher worked with a real good original material as we saw on the precedent article. But it will be fair to admit that the way he directed and the way he made the actors play has a lot to do with the power of the character. His version give a lot more details about the harassment and sexual assault that Lisbeth suffer. We may have thought that Fincher could have been less precise about it, but it seems to me that it is important for two reasons. 

First of all, the plot of this movie is about a girl who disappeared a long time ago. Hired by the oncle of the girl, who steel receive presents from his niece, Mikael and Lisbeth discovered an impressive amount of disappearances, which will lead them to several disgusting murder committed by rich man against women. The story of the movie is precisely about men who hate women. In french, this tome of the book and the film are named « Les hommes qui n’aimaient pas les femmes. '' So, for me, what Lisbeth goes through is a modern and persistent parallel with the way women were treated back there.

Moreover, the way Lisbeth is treated reveals the way the society views her ; a paria with no family beside being a woman. In theory, his tutor won’t fear anything because nobody cares about her. A singular case (the investigation) then becomes the norm. The world doesn’t treat women as it should : with respect and consideration. But, it’s because she is treated so badly that she is so strong, it gave her empowerment ! Lisbeth was already brilliant, brave, sexy and relevant. But by being bullied, she became a fighter (once again in David Fincher univers). And when women fight, the whole world becomes theirs.

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Lisbeth Salander : myth or reality ?

Lisbeth Salander is the heroine of the well-known novel Millenium, the girl with the dragon tattoo, written by Stieg Larrson and published in 2005. Since its publication, the book broke every record : 75 000 000 copies were sold in 25 different countries. It was declined in tv shows, comics and movies, twice. Larrson wrote three tomes before his death, even if it happened a few weeks before the first publication. Then, David Lagercrantz took over and wrote three new novels about Lisbeth, following the work of the original creator. 

You knew about some novel’s characters who transcended the object « novel » and became more ? Lisbeth Salander is one of them. She’s an icon in Sweden and everywhere in the world. She is very interesting because she exceeds genders definition by being a model of femininity who embraces what we call « man characteristics ». It is difficult to define her plainly but we could say that she is a genius hacker whose work has recognition, underneath the system. She is a modern feminist icon, a macho-breaker, a fighter. She’s a real geek and a bisexual muse. Oh, and she is described as a sociopath which means that «  a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior. » To summarize, Lisbeth Salander is a BADASS. 

With all of this, it’s not a surprise that people became fanatics, and launch « Millenium tour » in Stockholm to follow the steps of the heroine, for example. In 2016, a weird rumor appeared : it wouldn’t be the Russians who had hacked Hilarie Clinton’s emails, but a so-called « wasp » … Lisbeth’s pseudonym. Lisbeth Salander would be real ?

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Reveal yourself ; Meghan from Panic Room

Panic Room is about a family of two, mother and daughter, Meghan and Sarah. Freshly divorced, Meghan bought a big old house in West Manhattan. Right after they moved in, three men attacked the house to rob millions of dollars which are supposed to be hidden in the house’s panic room.

This movie is a huis-clos and forces the spectator to stay with the characters all the time. It is divided in three distinct parts ; the layout, the moment they’re in the Panic room and the moment Meghan takes her power back. Thanks to this, we can fully see the evolution of Meghan, the main character.

At the beginning of the movie, Meghan doesn’t seem to be a force of nature. She’s inconspicuous. She’s not certain about anything, except from the love that she has for her daughter. She doesn’t have a job and has just begun a new degree ; everything leads to the idea that her life has just restarted from the beginning. Meghan is a ghost and nobody listens to her, her voice always doubled by the voice of somebody else. Almost immediately, we notice that she’s uncomfortable in this big house, mostly because of the panic room that makes her unsafe when it should be the opposite. And maybe she’s right.

Then, the robbery began. Immediately, we saw the real forces of Meghan : she’s smart, reactive and doesn’t need anyone to act for her. At the very beginning of their adventure in the panic room with Sarah, it is true that she doesn’t seem to be capable of imposing herself, yet. She undergoes the event and Sarah is in charge. She can’t move because she’s scared for Sarah, for her and because even if she’s in the right room, she feels trapped in a place with no way to escape and no possibilities to reach the outside and go. When she tries to call for help, she only finds useless people, or rather useless men as her husband or her neighbor. She’s on her own and chooses to take the power back when Sarah is at her lowest.

She’s not scared anymore, even if two men are now with her daughter in the panic room and that her husband is bleeding, once again useless, in the living room. Meghan is a fighter ! When everything was over, she even felt pity for the only man that escaped. This experience forced Meghan to realize herself by taking back the power to the men who interfered in her house, which clearly represents her life. For me, it’s clear that the panic room is a representation of her mind. She’s trapped in her own body and can’t find a way out ; when the panic room closed for the first time in front of her, during the visit, she must face her own reflection on the mirror that covers the room. But she breaks out. And that’s beautiful.

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Relation between man and woman in David Fincher’s cinema

This blog will mainly talk about Panic Room, Millenium and Gone Girl. Nevertheless, as we briefly saw on the introduction of female characters in David Fincher’s univers, most of the girls in his cinematography are rich and well-developed. 

We will focus now on two specific pairs : Marla-Narrator-Tyler Durden (hope I didn’t spoil the story for anyone here) and Daisy-Benjamin.

As we said earlier on this blog, Marla is a complex character. She seems as free as trap on her loneliness. When she first met the narrator, he hadn't duplicated himself yet. Their first common point is that they participate in meetings that they don’t need at all, except to calm their neurosis. The balance between the two of them seemed to me very well-led : even if Marla didn’t know the truth about the double-personality of the narrator, he didn’t know himself until the end. So, without his own consent, he used her a little. But, unlike him, Marla is in total control of herself and did what she wants with her love life, sex life and life in general. She even succeeded to use both the narrator and Tyler. To me, she won. 

Now, about Daisy. Her link with Benjamin has begun when they were kids. Even if Benjamin is special, Daisy never seemed to see him as such. She sees him as a normal person, and she’s right about it. However, she is hard on herself even when she had never been hard on him ; when she had her accident, she refused to be seen by Benjamin because she’s not at her best. But, Benjamin loved her no matter what, just like her. Once again : a very well-balanced relationship. They both are devoted to each other, and that means sometimes let the other one go to allow him or her to come true.

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Women characters in his movies

For the moment, David Fincher cinematographic career it's distributed as such :

Movies : 

Alien 3 ; Seven ; The Game ; Fight Club ; Panic Room ; Zodiac ; The curious case of Benjamin Button ; The social Network ; Millenium : the girl with the dragon tattoo ; Gone Girl

Series : 

House of Cards ; Mindhunter  ; Love, Death & Robots 

If we are not going to talk in detail about every movie and series he did on this blog, it seems important to draw a map of the female characters in his univers. The characters are ranked by the precedent movies order. 

Ripley : Oh no. I will not discuss this character which is much bigger than just David Fincher’s cinema and will let the Alien’s pro talk about her. 

Tracy Mills : She’s the wife of the new inspector. Even if we don’t see her a lot in Seven, her part is very important. She is resilient, kind and very much in love with David. Unfortunately, it will cost her nothing less than her “pretty little head”, as John Doe said. 

Marla : What about her ? She is so complex. Marla seems to be very alone in her life but deals with it by participating in boys' meetings. My guess is that she really love man, maybe as much as she loves sex. She’s free ! but ... a little bit tormented. Marla didn’t fear the risk, she even lives for it ; the big risk of her lives seems to be love and she chooses to jump into it when she falls for Tyler Durden. She fell in love for her alter-ego, that’s important. I think that she found herself in him ; craziness, sex appeal, recklessness, free state of mind.

Meg Altman : strong, claustrophobic, completely lost. *

Mélanie : Well, in Zodiac, she is just a wife who’s put aside by her husband ...

Daisy : She’s simply an angel. Daisy is full of grace and very talented. She makes thoughtful decisions for her future and happiness. She is SO brave, loyal to her loved ones, dedicated to others. 

Erica : She may not have a big role on The Social Network but she had a big impact on Mark Zuckerberg life. I mean, he would never have been who he became if Erica didn’t break his heart. We can even say that she is the one who gave him his ambition. Thank you, Erica ? 

Lisbeth Salander : badass, smart as hell, the most brave girl on earth.*

Amy Elliott Dunne : She was built to be perfect. Isn’t she ?* (my personal favorite)

I choose then to not talk about the female characters on David Fincher’s series, even if they are full of resources and interesting. 

*Every character marked by this star will be discussed with details later on this blog.

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David Fincher’s Cinema

At the age of 8, David Fincher already knew what he was going to be : a director. An illumination came at him after he saw Butch Cassidy and the kid, by George Roy Hill.

His career is many things, but let’s start with Propaganda, his first initiative of his own. With a bunch of his friends, David created in 1983 a production company. To make it short : what.a.success ! In 1990, one third of the American clips came from this company, and may be given as an exemple Freedom! by George Michael, Madonna’s Vogue or Who is it by Michael Jackson. Again : what.a.success.

What is interesting here is that it already shows us that Fincher knows his way to get to what he wants. By creating the most remarquable clips of the 90s, he imposed his vision, which was subversive, provocative and very unique. Moreover, it allowed him to become the perfectionist he is now by learning every movement a technician has to do to work. Because as he said : “I want to know what every motherf-cker on the room does.”

Thanks to his expertise and his experience, Fincher saw himself offered by the 20th Century Fox the making of the third part of Alien. It was a NIGHT-MARE for him. Until now, it remain for him a shame and even a trauma ; on the set, the studio completely took the power over him because of his so-called “youth” and “inexperience” and imposed their team, their vision of the project, write and rewrite again the scene a day before it has to be shoot, and so on for three months.

Since this first movie experience, David Fincher is attached to the perfection of everything when he makes a film ; he chooses his team, a script that he likes, the cast. Since then, we can see his perfectionism in his movies because on screen, everything is at its place, every movement is steady, controlled. He developed what we call the “Fincher look” : a very controlled and contrasted look on screen, with dark yellow or desaturated blue.

Finally, we can find three big themes in his films : control, evil and obsession which we are going to talk about on this blog, through the female characters.