David Fincher's new film, planted.
Douban 6.7, setting the worst record in Fincher's career.
Although on an audiovisual level, Finch has not yet missed; But at the logical level of the story, Finch is guilty of a big taboo.
A professional killer who fails to solve the target, he goes to solve the boss.
What is even more unacceptable is that the whole film presents a sense of tearing that is inconsistent from the outside.
It not only reflects the dilemma of Fincher's creation, but also reflects Netflix's rapid development and dependence on top directors.
Taciturn words nagging
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After "Zodiac Killer", Finch said that he "never touched" the serial killer movie again.
Clearly, Finch failed to keep his word. Although "Hitman" is not a story about serial murders, it does contain a series of murders.
He continues to explore the frontiers pioneered by The Seven Deadly Sins, The Zodiac and even The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
However, this time, Finch's trick failed. The reason for the failure was that Finch had lost his artistic self-confidence.
Fassbinder, a nameless killer who, after failing in a mission, begins to visit a succession of clients and superiors in turn to make sure they are no longer a threat to his life.
The film reunites Finch with Kevin Walker, the screenwriter of The Seven Deadly Sins, who ambitiously asked Walker to write a "script where the protagonist doesn't speak as much as possible."
Walker recalled, "Finch told me to write a script without dialogue as much as possible. In order to show that I am awesome, I came up with a script with only thirteen lines of dialogue. That's the limit of what I can do. ”
Still, Finch sets a mantra for the killer.
An important premise David sets for Walker is that the killer will keep repeating this mantra, and as the plot progresses, the mantra begins to crumble and contradict itself.
"No matter how unemotional he says he is, it's driven by a deep, deep, deep emotion that he doesn't even want to admit exists," Finch said. ”
Finch is not alone in being willing to be silent. During the Actors' Strike, Fassbender watched a large number of old films, including Melville's The Lone Killer.
Alain Delon's silent killer is unforgettable. He told his agent that he was willing to do something similar.
A few days later, at a reception in Paris, Fincher and Fassbender met by chance. Finch concocted Martini and told Fassbender the story of The Killer.
"I was holding a picture of Fassbender with a bucket hat and telling him, touch the brim of your hat, and that's the movie shot," Finch said. —the same as "The Lone Killer".
But this painstaking Zen realm was destroyed by Vinci himself.
In order to make the film look smoother, but also to make the characters more detailed and full. Finch still stepped up a long part of his inner monologue.
The monologues cover the killer's psychological dynamics, habits, habits, and even his complaints about his assassination targets.
As a result, while Fincher constructs the image of the taver, he also creates the image of chatter; He deconstructs the structure at the same time, and dismantles it as he builds it.
A paradox emerges: this is a film that emphasizes "quietness" in the audiovisual language, but the large and unnecessary monologues are destroying this audiovisual effect.
Perhaps, this is Fincher's intentional "experiment"; Or perhaps, Fincher is forcing himself to "stay true to the original".
But in any case, thirteen lines and one hundred and thirty monologues undoubtedly ruined Finch's creation.
Self-esteem loses the popularity of passers-by
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The pandemic and strikes have brought the global film and television industry to a standstill. Great directors began to have the time and opportunity to reflect on their own creations.
As a result, Nolan and Scorsese used "Oppenheimer" and "The Killer of the Flower Moon" to adjust and choose the pinnacle of self-creation.
Finch is no exception.
In "Hitman", he abandoned the complex story structure pioneered by "Fight Club" and "Gone Girl" in favor of a more minimalist story.
As the story progresses, the killer constantly jumps between following the rules and breaking the rules. Accidents, black humor, flying all over the sky.
Here, the killer is not 007, but a social animal. For the sake of his family and for himself, he constantly tried repeatedly on the verge of death.
This time, Finch removed all the elements that obscured his vision. The rest is pure audition pacing and action sequences.
So, he created a "minimalist" film - anti-climax, anti-genre, anti-cinema.
Perhaps, he wants to use an "unexpected" way to create a "realistic" image of a killer. But he still didn't calm down, and contributed a unique Hollywood texture of action scenes in the film.
This is a far cry from Melville's calmness.
What's even more worthy of criticism is that Finch's villain has a strong sense of game NPC. They're not even tool men, they're just a list of tasks for killers to clear the level.
In terms of spiritual values, "Hitman" leans more towards "Hitman 47" and "Assassin's Creed". At the level of audition language, "Killer" is like a return to art films.
This sense of tearing aptly reflects the dilemma of Vinci's creation.
The director, who came from MTV, knows everything well, and once he believes in it, he will lose control of the film. The logical self-consistency of "visual image" and "aesthetic motivation" is absent in this film.
Perhaps during the filming of the film, Fincher got the pleasure of MV-style creation; Or perhaps, he has found the excitement that has been missing for a long time.
It's a pity that this kind of trait that excites him makes the audience uninterested.
The previous "Gone Girl" was entangled with each other, constrained and achieved in terms of text and technique, but here it has been reduced to the self-entertainment of the director's technique.
It was supposed to be a film that returned to the fundamentals of the genre, and it could have been the "Lone Killer" of this era. But on the road of self-destruction, he rode in the dust.
The profession of "killer" is almost the same as Finch's authorial temperament. It's just that he doesn't want to dig into the plot and narrative, all the camera performance, character research, and text stories are superficial.
If you float on the surface, you will be scribbled and boring, and if you are scribbled and bored, you will be mediocre.
Therefore, the film has come to this point not because the audience doesn't buy it, but because Finch doesn't take the audience seriously, let alone treat Luc Jeccammon's comics as a "valid text".
Netflix, which has deep pockets, supports him as always. He had a good time, but at the same time he lost his popularity.
David backstabs Fincher
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Respecting the audience, rather than stress-testing it, is the magic weapon of Hollywood movies to market around the world. It is also the ladder for Finch to go from a B-level film director to a first-class director.
But in "Killer", he betrayed his directorial beliefs again and again, and let the character go to nothingness again and again. The protagonist's motive for killing lacks feasibility and logic, which is the opposite of John played by Spacey in "The Seven Deadly Sins".
Finch said in an interview that he was interested in the character's nihilism: "It had to do with his self-loathing, and then I started thinking about his inner monologue. He told the whole story to himself, and it was a way for him to belittle his prey, and I thought the process could be interesting. ”
He used "Hitman" to create an opportunity for himself to explore the relationship between the film and the audience. What builds this relationship is the monologue in the film.
"I love the understanding between the narrator and the audience. Seeing life through the eyes and scope of an assassin puts the viewer in an interesting position. Let's see how far they will go. ”
In fact, it was not Fincher's intention to stress test the audience. "Hitman" is his project that spans more than a decade.
In the beginning, he didn't structure the film like that. He wanted to adapt the story into a five-act structure, each twenty minutes long, with different scenes from one scene to another, and finally form a palindrome structure.
But this philosophical framework has not been recognized by Fincher in 2023, especially after "Love Death", he seems to prefer more and more popular and popular.
It's just that this popular culture hasn't gone far either, and after stripping away the drama and suspense of the film, the story is bleak and straightforward. There is no subtlety and accuracy of "The Seven Deadly Sins" at all.
Finch laughs at himself and says he has expectations for the film. "It's more like angry revenge," he said.
"Hitman" premiered in Venice and received dismal reviews after that. The last time Finch appeared in Venice was in Fight Club.
Subsequently, he was driven out of the city, which is known for its river system, due to the spread of "fascism" in Fight Club.
"Nobody liked that movie at the time, and 20 years later, people were asking, 'Why can't you make movies like you did?' All I can do is shrug my shoulders and say, yes, okay. ”
Finch gave himself the goal of flying straight to the target, ignoring the fascinating details.
"My goal this time was to create a completely unique cinematic experience, to exclude the fascinating stuff, and I didn't want to create a labyrinth, but an arrow that hit the bull's-eye," he said. ”
There is no doubt that, judging by the performance of "Hitman", he did this, while also abandoning the audience. Just like "Love Death" is getting worse and worse, he seems to be deeply trapped in the dilemma of creation and can't extricate himself.
After Venice, Finch was asked how long it had been since he had watched Fight Club. Finch replied that he hadn't seen the film since it was finished.
Abandoning the past and successful experience is the only way for a great director to become a cow director. But he abandoned artistic correctness and embraced the cycle of self-infallibility -
In this sense, David, stabbed Finch in the back.
Author丨Yun Qijun
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Editor丨Yun Qijun Typesetting丨lmx
Media Coordinator丨Saye Soul Sales Hall