After the catastrophic production of Alien 3, David Fincher was done with Hollywood. Studios had hijacked his vision and released a film that bore his name but not his authorship. He swore off feature filmmaking altogether, retreating to his comfort zone of music videos and commercials.
Then a script called Se7en started circulating, with a shocking ending that would pull him back into the game in a major way.
In this video, we break down the debut of Fincher’s true artistic voice: how Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt’s performances anchor one of cinema’s most oppressive worlds, how cinematographer Darius Khondji built Fincher’s signature aesthetic from scratch, and why the film’s ending remains one of the most audacious creative decisions in mainstream Hollywood history.
This clip is drawn from our full-length Director Series essay on David Fincher — available in its entirety on our Patreon, along with 40+ longform essays on the greatest filmmakers working today.
Leave a Reply