Fight Club

The Film I chose to watch for this assignment was Fight Club, directed by David Fincher. This film had many stylistic techniques that we discussed in class. When purchasing this video I was looking in the thriller section but eventually found it in drama. I thought this film was both a drama and a thriller. The outstanding cinematography and creative directive eye of David Fincher made this one of the best films I’ve seen in awhile. What David Fincher did that really made this film stand apart from current generic films was his ability to replicate and portray this film as a classic film-noir. Many of his techniques such as dark shadows, concentrated lighting, medium close up shots, shot reverse shot and flashbacks are a few that were also present in some of his other films such as Panic Room, Zodiac, and of course Se7en. His ability to copy classic film-noir and generate it into a modern day style that ocurrs to the current generation is what really made this film interesting.

The films mise-en-scene was one aspect that really made it film-noirish. From the beginning, the setting contained dark shadows, dark streets, and dark rooms. For example the rooms where when Edward Norton visited at the rehab center were very dark and gloomy except for certain areas of focus that were lit, usually there were there were people doing something. The darkness was a direct demonstration of the mood that surrounded the atmosphere, a dark depressing, sad, and gloomy mood. The props and the makeup added to the entire depressing feel of the movie as well. Characters were all dressed in either black, white shirts, or dark brown clothing. The character played by Edward Norton always had dark eye bags, black bruises and scars all over his pale white complexion, and any blood that was ever exposed in the film was a darker shade of red, almost black. All these were great contributions to the mise-en-scene of the movie.

The sound in this movie was very unusual as well. Of course the film is entirely narrated by Edward Norton’s character which adds to the movies mood. His dull voice just enhances the movies depressing feel, because you can really hear how bored and tired with life he really is. The music in the movie was very appropriate because instead of picking songs performed and sung by other artists, the movie contains clips of sounds that are strictly instrumental. For example when Tyler Durden gets beat up by Lou in the basement, a lyric less song filled with drums, turntables, and techno sounds. The music begins to fill up the background and it accelerates as the fighting becomes more intense. This happens several times throughout the movie. The instrumental music occurs and peaks at times when intense and stressful scenes occur. Another example was when Tyler Durden and Marla have sex. The instrumental music fills the background, behind her moaning sexual sounds.

The use of several editing techniques such as fading and dissolving were also used in this film. The dissolving technique was used when the computers that were on display at a store were blown up and the camera focused on the flames, which began to dissolve into the next scene that focused on Brad Pitt