{"id":134928,"date":"2020-12-16T20:00:53","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T17:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/david-fincher-gets-hopeful-film\/"},"modified":"2020-12-16T20:00:53","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T17:00:53","slug":"david-fincher-gets-hopeful-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/david-fincher-gets-hopeful-film\/","title":{"rendered":"#David Fincher Gets Hopeful \u2013 \/Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#David Fincher Gets Hopeful \u2013 \/Film<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2020 by Jack Giroux<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\"david<\/p>\n

I\u2019m tipsy, and I\u2019m thinking about <\/span>Mank<\/i><\/strong>, b<\/span>oth the movie and the man. I like to think he\u2019d enjoy the thought of somebody drinking and writing about a portrayal of himself almost 70 years after his death. Maybe I\u2019m wrong. What I do know is that <\/span>Mank<\/i> is a great movie.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mank <\/span><\/i>is also Fincher\u2019s most revealing work to date. It is an epic drama that conveys what he has to say about films and the people behind them. Fincher isn\u2019t exactly known for his warmth as a storyteller. The ending of <\/span>The Game<\/a> <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>The Curious Case of Benjamin Button <\/span><\/i>are the possible exceptions, but even those are about how death is coming for us all. <\/span>Mank<\/span><\/i> is a rare life-affirming experience from the filmmaker, about the importance of people, not films.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(This post contains spoilers<\/strong> for <\/em>Mank.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Mank <\/span><\/i>is the nickname for writer <\/span>Herman J. Mankiewicz<\/b> (played by <\/span>Gary Oldman<\/b>). The nonlinear story depicts the Oscar-winning writer during both his heyday in Hollywood and later, nearing the end of his career when he\u2019s writing the script<\/a> for <\/span>Citizen Kane<\/span><\/i>. It\u2019s a story that transitions through swaths of time without a single bump in the road, except the one that leaves Mankiewicz convalescing in bed.<\/span><\/p>\n

The wordsmith is his own worst enemy and his own best friend, but he\u2019s also admirable through Fincher\u2019s lens. There\u2019s a bit of hero worship on display for this artist learning to fight for due credit when <\/span>Citizen Kane <\/span><\/i>comes around. In Mank\u2019s younger days, he was full of energy and hubris like Orson Welles (<\/span>Tom Burke<\/b>), but he didn\u2019t know how to play the game like another character ahead of their time, actress Marion Davies (<\/span>Amanda Seyfried<\/b>). Their relationship is the beating heart of the movie. They are cut from the same cloth and recognize it. The scribe and the actor relish booze, playful language, and good laughs. They also struggle with their place in time and the industry, as well as alcoholism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In one of the most evocative walk-and-talk scenes in years, Mank and Marion stroll around William Randolph Heart\u2019s (<\/span>Charles Dance<\/b>) mansion. Similar to the caged animals they pass, they\u2019re entertainers trapped. They walk freely and happily with one another, but they are confined to their spots on Hollywood\u2019s ladder. Visually, the walk-and-talk is stunning, but the real sense of awe is the connection forged between these two friends. I couldn\u2019t help but wonder if Seyfried and Oldman\u2019s collaboration in <\/span>Red Riding Hood<\/span><\/i>, of all movies<\/a>, led to such a believable intimacy here. It\u2019s their affection for one another, that level of vulnerability, that breaks new ground for Fincher.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mank
\nFincher doesn\u2019t believe in making comforting movies, so of course, he even makes us question for a second the authenticity of his film\u2019s beautiful friendship. At the beginning of the story, Rita Alexander (<\/span>Lily Collins<\/b>) asks if he knew Marion Davies. \u201cIf anyone did\u2026\u201d he replies, to suggest no one did.\u00a0<\/span>The director often portrays people in his stories as playing roles. Nick and Amy played the perfect couple in <\/span>Gone Girl<\/span><\/i>, the narrator created a role for himself in <\/span>Fight Club<\/span><\/i>, and John Doe cast himself in the sick biblical story he\u2019s telling in <\/span>Se7en<\/span><\/i>. Mark Zuckerberg was <\/span>trying <\/span><\/i>to be an asshole, too. Mank and Davies once played their parts in the industry, too: the charming actress, and the witty writer. At the end, though, they\u2019re no longer playing parts. They\u2019re no longer under contract.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mank\u2019s reliability as a narrator also makes us question his relationship with the starlet and wife of William Randolph Hearst (<\/span>Charles Dance<\/b>). Most of their relationship is portrayed through old drunken memories, heightened by booze and a writer\u2019s grandiose imagination. Even when it comes to a lovely friendship, Fincher calls bullshit a little bit. Joy is always fleeting in Fincher movies. \u201c<\/span>I was thinking how <\/span>nothing lasts, and what a shame<\/span> that <\/span>is<\/span>,\u201d Benjamin Button said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Years after the pair\u2019s \u201cglory days,\u201d two are reunited for a picnic, a <\/span>picnic <\/span><\/i>in a Fincher film (without a murderer present). The music swells with such sweetness from composers <\/span>Trent Reznor <\/b>and <\/span>Atticus Ross<\/b>, two other lords of darkness showing a more tender side here as well. The director contrasts the pleasant image with weightier emotions, but still, it\u2019s unmistakably a scene from Fincher\u2019s heart. Both Marion and Mank have grown, with the latter learning he isn\u2019t always the smartest guy in the room and that he, too, misread Marion and her love for Hearst.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fincher\u2019s compassion is more earnest than ever. To be fair, there\u2019s usually empathy to go along with the macabre in his work. The director has been called cold, but for me, that\u2019s never been the case. Look at the rebirth in <\/span>The Game<\/span><\/i>, the paternal relationship between Somerset and David Mills in <\/span>Se7en<\/span><\/i>, the accepting relationship between Nick and Margot in <\/span>Gone Girl<\/span><\/i>, and the obsession eating away at good people searching for the truth in <\/span>Zodiac<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the extraordinary yet average man grasping on to time in <\/span>The Curious Case of Benjamin Button<\/span><\/i>, and the destruction of a genuine friendship in <\/span>The Social<\/a> Network <\/span><\/i>\u2013 the loss of something real in exchange for something artificial \u2013 between Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin. The lucid pacing and framing keep the eye and mind engaged at all times, but Fincher does tell his stories with feeling, and that\u2019s what keeps us coming back for more.\u00a0<\/span>
\nIt\u2019s the emotions that rang loudest, for me, in <\/span>Mank<\/span><\/i>, though. Fincher hits every note and lands every blow, especially near the end. There\u2019s a quiet but especially devastating scene in which Mank, as drunk as we\u2019ve ever seen him, is told, \u201cHe likes the way you talk, not the way you write.\u201d The rare silence from Mank is somehow the loudest he gets in the whole movie.\u00a0<\/span>The encounter is one of his \u2013 or any writer\u2019s for that matter \u2013 personal fears come to life. Yes, it\u2019s a champagne problem; the movie is full of champagne for reasons beyond alcoholism. But what once defined the writer\u2019s self-worth is squashed in an instant with one line that wounds him for a long time. The insult may come from a clown wielding power, Louis B. Mayer (<\/span>Arliss Howard<\/b>), but nonetheless, it hurts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Not to glamorize on-screen or real misery, but the\u00a0lead character does become a better artist for the pain he\u2019s suffered. Mank turns that pain into something joyful, his best work yet. Remember, \u201cI need an idea,\u201d Mark Zuckerberg said after getting dumped. Pain is sometimes art in Fincher\u2019s movies, but that\u2019s truer than ever in this instance. Pain helps create a masterpiece.<\/span><\/p>\n

In many of the director\u2019s movies, you can hear him laughing at his characters, kicking them while they\u2019re down. He\u2019s not laughing at Mank, Marion, and absolutely\u00a0<\/span>not Orson Welles \u2013 Fincher\u2019s camera is especially loving of the legendary filmmaker. Like Fincher, Welles was a wunderkind himself who reached remarkable success well before the age of 30. The once in-demand music video director must see himself in Welles, a young and meticulous filmmaker who fought his battles to manifest visions that lasted beyond his life. (Based on what Fincher\u2019s collaborators have said, he has a similar endgame in mind.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\"mank<\/p>\n

Consider how Welles is introduced. He doesn\u2019t first appear in a meeting or a walk and talk \u2013 it\u2019s as if the voice of God is over the phone.\u00a0<\/span>The shot introducing the filmmaker in the flesh even has a sense of majesty. Welles was a larger-than-life man, but Fincher depicts him, <\/span>the director<\/span>, as the great and powerful Oz. It says a lot. The writer is the drunk in the hospital bed, and the director is the supernatural force that appears next to that bed. Fincher has stated nothing but respect for screenwriters, but still, something about that image of the writer and director makes me laugh. I imagine Fincher finds it funny, too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout <\/span>Jack Fincher<\/b>\u2019s script, the making of <\/span>Citizen Kane <\/span><\/i>isn\u2019t that important. It\u2019s not as crucial as the making of Herman J. Mankiewicz, the proud man we see at the end delivering his Oscar speech. Yes, credit matters, but according to the Fincher family, people matter more. As inspiring as the writer\u2019s journey is towards artistic pride and finding his voice, it\u2019s his value of life, his friends (including Rita Alexander), and rescuing villagers from Germany that are his defining achievements.\u00a0<\/span>
\nGood people and good deeds make Herman J. Mankiewicz whole, not <\/span>Citizen Kane<\/span><\/i>. When the screenwriter is loathing the rich swine around him on election night, they\u2019re drowning him as much as the booze. After the drowning, he still runs to his friend in need, the fictional character Shelly Metcalf (<\/span>Jamie McShane<\/b>). Hollywood may forget Shelly Metcalf, but the writer never forgets. Movies are just movies to Fincher, and movies are just movies to Mank.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In Fincher\u2019s depiction of Hollywood, movies \u2013 even one of the<\/span> greatest<\/span> movies of all time \u2013 aren\u2019t that significant. Lives and friendships\u2026now that\u2019s significant. Here\u00a0<\/span>is a rare movie about Hollywood from Hollywood that doesn\u2019t pat itself on the back with an air of self-importance. The director isn\u2019t someone who\u2019ll celebrate Hollywood. Even in the opening text, the filmmaker takes a swipe at the machine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fincher prioritizes people over credits. The director\u2019s love for Mank and Marion, in particular, moved me and maybe said more about Fincher, the man, than Fincher\u00a0 the craftsman. Similar to his protagonist, he slowly reveals how much he cares over the course of <\/span>Mank<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The world is cruel in Fincher\u2019s films. He doesn\u2019t sugarcoat. And yet,\u00a0Mank<\/em><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>left me happy. Not about the state of the world, but about caring characters like <\/span>Herman J. Mankiewicz, Marion Davies, and hell, David Fincher. \u201c<\/span>Some people go to the movies to be reminded that everything\u2019s okay,\u201d he once said. \u201cI don\u2019t make those kinds of movies. That, to me, is a lie. Everything\u2019s not okay.<\/span>\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s certainly true in <\/span>Mank<\/span><\/i>, but Fincher\u2019s latest piece of work made me feel like it was.<\/span><\/p>\n

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“#David Fincher Gets Hopeful \u2013 \/Film” Posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2020 by Jack Giroux I\u2019m tipsy, and I\u2019m thinking about Mank, both the movie and the man. I like to think he\u2019d enjoy the thought of somebody drinking and writing about a portrayal of himself almost 70 years after his death. Maybe I\u2019m wrong….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":134929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/david-fincher-1-e1605110576806.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1568,17871,70635,14319,1523,1570,17094,66047,14322,1377,60751,70634,1552],"class_list":["post-134928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-featured-stories-sidebar","tag-amanda-seyfried","tag-atticus-ross","tag-david-fincher","tag-drama","tag-features","tag-gary-oldman","tag-lily-collins","tag-mank","tag-netflix","tag-orson-welles","tag-trent-reznor","tag-true-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}