David Fincher has repeatedly tried to get inside the heads of serial killers, but he always did it from someone else’s point of view. From cops trying to figure out how one chapter worked seven; from journalists who were obsessed with other Zodiac; and from the FBI agents who meet them to try to discover their psychological profile in the series mind hunter. Through them, he always carried out an X-ray of society as well.
However, I’ve never actually done it before the killer His new film, adapted from the graphic novel by Matz and Jacquemond. The killer This would be the other side of the coin of titles mentioned above. Here, for the first time, the point of view is the one who pulls the trigger, and getting into the mind is what it is, because as it happened in the comic, the narrative moves forward thanks to the voiceover in which we hear. The thoughts of this cold and impassive killer, played by Michael Fassbender, who manages to make his body the best tool of interpretation to convey this broken human condition with an impenetrable rictus.
The killer – which premieres on Netflix on November 10 – is divided into chapters, each set in a different city, and begins in Paris, where Fincher once again shows that he is one of the best directors of the moment. Its first half hour is an exercise in clockwork cinema, meticulous and fast. One that shows that pacing isn’t about how fast things happen or in a fast-paced montage, it’s about how you structure and move your story forward.
A first chapter that turns movie expectations upside down, as what we see is the alienation routine of a serial killer who waits and waits in a Paris apartment for a victim who never shows up. Start with feedback rear window where Fincher’s camera moves masterfully between the four walls of the workspace between yoga and Smiths songs as—here’s another genius detail—Morris’s band’s songs help this killer get his pulse down. Can use his telescopic sight rifle. Add to topics like This charming man, heaven knows I’m unhappy now or how long is it now Their regular soundtrack features Trenz Reznor and Atticus Ross, and what they have is one of the year’s most powerful musical compositions.
“I don’t think there is an artist’s music library that has such a sardonic nature and wit at the same time. “We don’t have a lot of access to who this guy is, and with his mixtape I thought it would be fun if that was our window into him,” Fincher himself said of The Smiths’ song selection.
For those expecting action thrillers everywhere, look elsewhere. Here is a flawless and relentless thriller, sharp and intelligent, which slows the heart rate of the audience after the first kill and leaves time for the next one to come. A film through which he shows the collapse of the world, an individualistic society where there are no such concepts as luck or justice, as said by the killer who thinks about what happens after a failed mission while preparing his revenge.
Fincher once again talks about the world that surrounds this killer, and although he doesn’t do it as explicitly as the comic on which it is based, he does think about concepts like truth, dehumanization by technology, the banality of evil. They want the audience to suspect the person behind them,” Fincher said at the press conference – and the absence of any kind of values. It’s interesting that two directors who are usually so cynical in their films, such as Yorgos Lanthimos and David Fincher, coincide with two works that, even though they show a rotten world, point to the absence of cynicism and the only salvation in union.
Fincher creates his film with constant contrast. What his character thinks and what we actually see. This killer who justifies his actions with the lack of world values as a moral alibi for his own absence. For this reason, the film plays from the setting to those contrasts. As the point of view leaves the origin of Fassbender’s character, the sound—key in this film—changes, the songs take on a different intensity, and even the photography shakes (even with the camera in hand, a resource he uses in several of his films).
Zero improvisation
It is ironic that this killer’s motto, a motto he repeats like a mantra to believe his own lies, is that you should always “follow a plan and not improvise.” Ironic, because the phrase – written by Andrew Kevin Walker, with whom he already wrote seven– Appears in a film by a director who has, to be fair, a reputation for being a control freak and obsessed with detail. Someone can redo a shot to move the coke a millimeter and redo a shot whose motto – as Steven Soderbergh once said – is that “there are hundreds of different ways to shoot something, but at the end of the day there are only two.” And one of them is wrong.
Here he once again demonstrates his ability to find the perfect frame and achieves memorable moments, such as hand-to-hand combat, where sound and editing are essential, and a meeting with Tilda Swinton, which he remembers – saves distances from Sorkin. Scenario – the opening scene Social network As for the ability to extract gold from conversation around the bar table. Probably true The killer It has no depth Social network or ZodiacBut it proves that Fincher is one of the great masters of today’s cinema with a thriller that 99% of the world’s directors would kill to have in their filmography.
Source: El Diario
