David Fincher makes some seriously memorable films. That’s like saying water is wet, but his movies are impeccably crafted without seeming ostentatious or painfully clinical. Arguably, the best part about his films is the talking. You won’t find a film of his where character dynamics aren’t laid bare in the form of a lengthy conversation. Literally putting words on screen has been a landmark of his since the beginning of his film career.
Notably, many of Fincher’s movies crescendo to significant arguments and interrogations, and it is never just run-of-the-mill grilling. He has the ability to make talking – for want of a better term – interesting. Part of what makes his interrogations so enveloping and immersive is the insistent, intimate focus on the subjects at hand. Characters are thrust into settings but also command them in cinematically satisfying ways:
Fincher gives us just enough of any given setting, and the details are always overshadowed by the manner in which the characters move and interact within them. (Jones, 44)
Fincher has a new Netflix series coming out in a couple of months; one which will undoubtedly feature some of his signature wordy conversations. While awaiting the release of Mindhunter, we examine what it takes for him to put together the perfect interrogation scene.
The very talented and charming Carrie Coon (don’t miss her superb performances on “The Leftovers” and the 3rd season of “Fargo) offers some insights into her experience working for the first time in a film. A David Fincher film.
For Gone Girl’s memorable sex scene — its climax ending in a pool of blood — Neil Patrick Harris and Rosamund Pike spent a whole afternoon working through the scene with the “exacting” director David Fincher and, at one point, with Ben Affleck looking on. “[Fincher] was asking us to have unbridled sex — and my character is really into her so is very overwhelmed with — with great precision,” Harris said. He broke down the scene in a conversation at Vulture Festival, moment to moment: “We were just rehearsing porn for hours.”
Neil Patrick Harris Bares All About His Sex Scenes
CONAN Highlight: “Gone Girl” isn’t the first time that Neil’s had to act in the buff, but this time he didn’t have to do “the helicopter” to get ready.
Gone Girl: The Hardest Scene Neil Patrick Harris Ever Had To Film
We caught up with British actress Rosamund Pike ahead of the release of one of the most the eagerly awaited films of the year, Gone Girl. Interview by Andrea Lily. Edited by Sophie Foster.
My next one is the boxcutter kill in Gone Girl. It was just an honour to work with David Fincher. I was a huge fan of David Fincher anyway, and although there’s only really one kill in the movie, because the movie is so slow burn, no one expects that kill to happen. David is incredibly precise about everything. I think we did 20 or 30 tests of flow, colour, amount and everything else. That whole sequence had to be planned to military precision because we had so much blood going everywhere that we had to clean up the actors and the bed in between takes. The actors were very patient and very cool. I will never forget Rosamund Pike on set going ‘Gary, my butt cheeks are sticking together from the blood’, or having to stick my hand up Neil Patrick Harris’ underpants to wire up the bloodline through his neck. Every time I shoved my hand up through his underwear, he said, ‘I think you and my husband are the only people who have had their hands in my underwear this much’. It was a great couple of days shooting that sequence and very bloody! And then to see the scene in the film and it be so iconic, it was fantastic. It was a badge of merit and to have David Fincher come to you at the end and shake your hand and say, ‘great job’. To me, that’s as good as any Oscar.
The Fincher Analyst 