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A Critical Companion to David Fincher

Edited by Francis Mickus - Contributions by Kyle Barrett; Soumyarup Bhattacharjee; Julia Brown; Min-Chi Chen; Roberto Donati; Joshua Fagan; Sony Jalarajan Raj; Isabelle Labrouillère; Francis Mickus; Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns; Antonio Pettierre; Carlos Gerald Pranger; Cintia Gutiérrez Reyes; Antonio Sanna; Adith K. Suresh and Kirsty Worrow

The thirteen chapters in this collection analyze David Fincher’s development as a filmmaker, from television commercials and music videos to serving as front runner on the series Mindhunter. The contributors explore a variety of characteristics, including Fincher’s attitudes toward his audiences, his attention to detail, his Gothic sense of evil, his modernization of film noir, and his reinvention of the serial killer. The diversity of approaches highlights the paradoxes of Fincher’s films and style, accentuating the tensions between his innovative methods and storytelling and unpacking the perennial questions of love, life, and death that his films raise. Scholars of film, television, and media will find this book especially salient.

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  • Reviews
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Lexington Books
Pages: 262 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9½
978-1-66693-956-9 • Hardback • June 2024 • $115.00 • (£88.00)
978-1-66693-957-6 • eBook • May 2024 • $50.00 • (£38.00)
Series: Critical Companions to Contemporary Directors
Subjects: Social Science / Media Studies, Performing Arts / Film / General, Language Arts & Disciplines / General

Francis Mickus is a doctoral candidate in history at the Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University.

Introduction: David Fincher, the Master of Offset, Francis Mickus

Section I: The Art of Making Movies

Chapter 1: Film of Fury: David Fincher’s Alien3 (1992) and the Scarring of a Franchise, Kyle Barrett

Chapter 2: Fincherdgaf: David Fincher, Star Image, and Fan Appreciation, Kirsty Worrow

Chapter 3: David Fincher as an Auteur: Pop Music Intertextuality and Film, Carlos Gerald Pranger and Cintia Gutiérrez Reyes

Chapter 4: Up Close and Personal: Details and Fragments in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Isabelle Labrouillère

Section II: A Darkness More Than Night…

Chapter 5: The Continuum of Evil in David Fincher’s Exteriors and Interiors, Antonio Pettierre and Antonio Sanna

Chapter 6: To Reign in Hell: David Fincher’s Enclosed Worlds of Transgression, Sony Jalarajan Raj and Adith K. Suresh

Chapter 7: Gothic Fincher: Alienation, Abjection, and the American Nightmare,Soumyarup Bhattacharjee

Chapter 8: Spectacle, Noir, and the Obsession with the Horrific Other in David Fincher’s Zodiac, Joshua Fagan

Section III: The Meaning of Responsibility

Chapter 9: ‘Upset the Order’: Disrupting Law in Music Videos, Alien3and The Game, Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns

Chapter 10: Who Watches the Watchmen: David Fincher’s Serial Killer Narratives, Min-Chi Chen

Chapter 11:‘You’re Not Even Trying’: The Practice of Persuasion and Influence in Fincher’s Filmography, Francis Mickus

Chapter 12: Paying Attention: Care Ethics and the Cost of Chronic Illness in Panic Room,Julia Brown

Chapter 13: The Guilty Game: The Peculiar Darkness of David Fincher’s World, Roberto Donati

A Critical Companion to David Fincher captures all the ways in which Fincher’s work is interesting and important. Among the book’s many strengths, it shows us a variety of methodologies at their best, from art history through fan studies, production histories, genre analysis and up-close textual readings. Showcasing the innovative work of young scholars, this volume maps the full range of Fincher studies and moves the field forward in exciting ways.


— William Straw, James McGill Professor of Urban Media Studies, McGill University


A Critical Companion to David Fincher, edited by Francis Mickus, offers a fascinating perspective on the work of one of the most emblematic filmmakers of our time. The multi-disciplinary approaches to the filmmaker's visual aesthetics, his cinematic sources of inspiration, his relationship to genre cinema and technology, his philosophical and moral stance on the representation of evil and violence... provide a comprehensive overview of how David Fincher's cinema questions the nature of cinema in its relationship to reality.


— Yann Calvet, Université de Caen Normandie


“David Fincher is an enigmatic figure, often beguiling and befuddling for viewers, critics, and scholars, operating as he does with one foot in the Hollywood system and the other without. The contributors to A Critical Companion to David Fincher have found multiple exciting angles from which to both situate and deconstruct this iconic and iconoclastic figure. This collection is a radical and ranging overview of Fincher’s œuvré, appropriately taking the reader on a long single-take tracking shot from the iconic filmmaker’s brain, through the viewfinder and camera apparatus, then out into the film-world and beyond. With detailed analyses of individual moments and scenes, and considered contextualisation of Fincher’s work in a variety of realms, the chapters herein will be of great use to cinema and media scholars, students, and enthusiasts alike."


— Daniel Binns, RMIT University


Francis Mickus’ edited volume on the work of David Fincher is not just an extensive review but a captivating journey into the mind of a multifaceted artist. The chapters in the collection, with their detailed attention to the moving image, interrogate Fincher’s approach to reality and the mind, his flirting with metaphysical and ethical questions, and his ability to cross genres. These articles, clearly and engagingly written, reflect varied perspectives in philosophy and film criticism, ultimately pointing to the importance of a dialogue between the two. They stand alone while talking to each other, generating a discussion that is sure to be appreciated by scholars and moviegoers alike.


— Laura T. Di Summa, William Patterson University


A Critical Companion to David Fincher

Cover Image
Hardback
eBook
Summary
Summary
  • The thirteen chapters in this collection analyze David Fincher’s development as a filmmaker, from television commercials and music videos to serving as front runner on the series Mindhunter. The contributors explore a variety of characteristics, including Fincher’s attitudes toward his audiences, his attention to detail, his Gothic sense of evil, his modernization of film noir, and his reinvention of the serial killer. The diversity of approaches highlights the paradoxes of Fincher’s films and style, accentuating the tensions between his innovative methods and storytelling and unpacking the perennial questions of love, life, and death that his films raise. Scholars of film, television, and media will find this book especially salient.

Details
Details
  • Lexington Books
    Pages: 262 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9½
    978-1-66693-956-9 • Hardback • June 2024 • $115.00 • (£88.00)
    978-1-66693-957-6 • eBook • May 2024 • $50.00 • (£38.00)
    Series: Critical Companions to Contemporary Directors
    Subjects: Social Science / Media Studies, Performing Arts / Film / General, Language Arts & Disciplines / General
Author
Author
  • Francis Mickus is a doctoral candidate in history at the Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Introduction: David Fincher, the Master of Offset, Francis Mickus

    Section I: The Art of Making Movies

    Chapter 1: Film of Fury: David Fincher’s Alien3 (1992) and the Scarring of a Franchise, Kyle Barrett

    Chapter 2: Fincherdgaf: David Fincher, Star Image, and Fan Appreciation, Kirsty Worrow

    Chapter 3: David Fincher as an Auteur: Pop Music Intertextuality and Film, Carlos Gerald Pranger and Cintia Gutiérrez Reyes

    Chapter 4: Up Close and Personal: Details and Fragments in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Isabelle Labrouillère

    Section II: A Darkness More Than Night…

    Chapter 5: The Continuum of Evil in David Fincher’s Exteriors and Interiors, Antonio Pettierre and Antonio Sanna

    Chapter 6: To Reign in Hell: David Fincher’s Enclosed Worlds of Transgression, Sony Jalarajan Raj and Adith K. Suresh

    Chapter 7: Gothic Fincher: Alienation, Abjection, and the American Nightmare,Soumyarup Bhattacharjee

    Chapter 8: Spectacle, Noir, and the Obsession with the Horrific Other in David Fincher’s Zodiac, Joshua Fagan

    Section III: The Meaning of Responsibility

    Chapter 9: ‘Upset the Order’: Disrupting Law in Music Videos, Alien3and The Game, Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns

    Chapter 10: Who Watches the Watchmen: David Fincher’s Serial Killer Narratives, Min-Chi Chen

    Chapter 11:‘You’re Not Even Trying’: The Practice of Persuasion and Influence in Fincher’s Filmography, Francis Mickus

    Chapter 12: Paying Attention: Care Ethics and the Cost of Chronic Illness in Panic Room,Julia Brown

    Chapter 13: The Guilty Game: The Peculiar Darkness of David Fincher’s World, Roberto Donati

Reviews
Reviews
  • A Critical Companion to David Fincher captures all the ways in which Fincher’s work is interesting and important. Among the book’s many strengths, it shows us a variety of methodologies at their best, from art history through fan studies, production histories, genre analysis and up-close textual readings. Showcasing the innovative work of young scholars, this volume maps the full range of Fincher studies and moves the field forward in exciting ways.


    — William Straw, James McGill Professor of Urban Media Studies, McGill University


    A Critical Companion to David Fincher, edited by Francis Mickus, offers a fascinating perspective on the work of one of the most emblematic filmmakers of our time. The multi-disciplinary approaches to the filmmaker's visual aesthetics, his cinematic sources of inspiration, his relationship to genre cinema and technology, his philosophical and moral stance on the representation of evil and violence... provide a comprehensive overview of how David Fincher's cinema questions the nature of cinema in its relationship to reality.


    — Yann Calvet, Université de Caen Normandie


    “David Fincher is an enigmatic figure, often beguiling and befuddling for viewers, critics, and scholars, operating as he does with one foot in the Hollywood system and the other without. The contributors to A Critical Companion to David Fincher have found multiple exciting angles from which to both situate and deconstruct this iconic and iconoclastic figure. This collection is a radical and ranging overview of Fincher’s œuvré, appropriately taking the reader on a long single-take tracking shot from the iconic filmmaker’s brain, through the viewfinder and camera apparatus, then out into the film-world and beyond. With detailed analyses of individual moments and scenes, and considered contextualisation of Fincher’s work in a variety of realms, the chapters herein will be of great use to cinema and media scholars, students, and enthusiasts alike."


    — Daniel Binns, RMIT University


    Francis Mickus’ edited volume on the work of David Fincher is not just an extensive review but a captivating journey into the mind of a multifaceted artist. The chapters in the collection, with their detailed attention to the moving image, interrogate Fincher’s approach to reality and the mind, his flirting with metaphysical and ethical questions, and his ability to cross genres. These articles, clearly and engagingly written, reflect varied perspectives in philosophy and film criticism, ultimately pointing to the importance of a dialogue between the two. They stand alone while talking to each other, generating a discussion that is sure to be appreciated by scholars and moviegoers alike.


    — Laura T. Di Summa, William Patterson University


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