Director Analysis: David Fincher

A Look Inside the Films of David Fincher

Over the last 29 years, David Fincher has directed a total of 11 movies from inside the mind of the creator of Facebook to the mind of the Zodiac Killer and has spent most of his career as a top filmmaker. He had been in the film industry long before he started directing but it wasn’t until 1992 that Fincher got his chance to direct and release a feature-length film which was Alien 3. Fincher makes films that are not only consistently brilliant but brilliantly consistent. When searching for images for this post it’s interesting- unlike most auteurs you’re not looking for a highlight shot or image from their work—you’re looking for the typical Fincher look/lighting/mise-en-scène. And that’s an unbelievable compliment.

A film directed by David Fincher can always be identified as his work. His integration of dark colors combined with the use of a fluid camera and common themes that appear in all of his work supplies Fincher with a specific signature. Although Fincher chooses to direct a broad range of films, these elements are consistently present and allow Fincher to leave his unique stamp on every work he directs so let’s dive into his stylistic innovations and traits first.

Stylistic Innovations & Traits

Lighting, lighting, lighting- Fincher is a master of mise-en-scène and a creative mind of German expressionism. Yes, there have been great auteurs before Fincher and there will be great auteurs after but nobody’s films look like his. He is the current master of darkness (unofficial title I took from DP Gordon Willis) and his films are both gorgeous and easily identifiable- there is absolutely no mistaking a Fincher film. Try watching a film of his with the lights on in your house- it’s impossible with the glare (seriously, try it or even just during a sunny afternoon). His narratives are almost all a mirror image of that darkness- like a dystopian gloom whether he’s ruminating on masculinity (Fight Club, Gone Girl) or malevolent incarnate (Seven, Zodiac). I know Fincher doesn’t write his own work (many of the great auteurs didn’t- Scorsese & Hitchcock) but Fincher has reigned over some of the best narratives in the last decade so he either has had some input or has a remarkable ear for good narrative.

In my opinion, Fincher is great at his attention to detail when it comes to visual styles and performances. I believe he has a desire for perfection when making his films and he guides his intention with the camera, frequently opting for a detached and observational point-of-view for the audience which adds so much for the viewer. It is also important to note that this detached and impersonal camera behavior paired a sinister and shocking script gives his films even more darkness (which I also consider a common theme). Outside of his camera work there is so much depth and (again) darkness to his characters, which I think deserves its own blog post in the near future. A lot of his characters share some general common themes and/or struggles so let’s look at some of those next.

David Fincher Common Themes

Throughout his career and within a number of his films there are so many stylistic traits that can be seen but more importantly there are almost always a set of common themes that can be traced from character to character is a handful of his films. Most of Fincher’s films explore the dark impulses of humanity; things such as jealousy, lust, perversion, and compulsion. These themes can be seen in his most unrefined films as well as his most polished, reflecting a consistently troubled and cynical vision of human nature. Some of David Fincher’s common themes are:

Obsession
Jealousy
Relationship between safety and technology
Darkness of humanity
Confronting personal traumas
Corruption (generally in seemingly perfect, affluent environments)
Social Alienation
Loneliness
Feminism (women whose strength is forged through self-preservation)
Self-destructive men
Cat-and-mouse detective stories
Strained marriages

Even when looking at some of the series Fincher has directed they tend to explore ideas of miscommunication, deceit and socipathy alongside the manipulation of news media and gender politics inside & outside of marriage in addition to his core primal human concepts such as greed, success, fame and jealously can destroy relationships and ultimately human connections.

Ranking All David Fincher Films

This time last year I had made a post ranking his feature films, some of which I hadn’t seen in a while so I spent the last year rewatching a few of them here and there and outlined my updated ranking below and it includes his most recent film Mank (2020). I will say that my personal ranking is probably pretty controversial…