2023-11-14 08:20:53
The name of David Fincher and the crime genre have gone hand in hand for a long time. We are talking about a filmmaker who has revolutionized the genre on more than one occasion and who, although throughout his filmography he has touched other genres, has shown to have a special affinity for morbid and gruesome stories, with characters in full moral disintegration and trapped in a dehumanized and dirty city. However, until now, the fiction of Fincher He had delved deeper into the psychology of psychopathic characters, with an irremediable drive for death and the suffering of others.
In his new movie, The murdererthe focus changes and the protagonist is not part of this group of criminals, but is a professional, with an ethic and a systemic work model that allows him to emotionally distance himself from his victims and the aberrant acts he is carrying out.
LEGACY
Throughout its existence, cinema has created a wide and excellent catalog of cold and implacable killers, but who adhere to their own ethics, on which they build their professionalism, from The Silence of a Man a Driverof Point blank a Ronin. These are silent, analytical, effective characters, but whose humanity navigates their edges. The unnamed character (another recurring feature) played by Michael Fassbender draws on many of them. Fincher’s film, among many other things, becomes a psychological study of its main character, a secretive killer, to which, as viewers, we access through the voice-over, but in which Fassbender manages to introduce slight flashes of light in his gaze, where, beneath his undaunted appearance, he lets the viewer glimpse a doubt, a certain empathy, elements that, within the story, cannot be allowed.
EXECUTION IS EVERYTHING
Fincher He is characterized by being, like his protagonist, a cold, calculating, meticulous filmmaker. Here, his staging is rigorous and precise, reminiscent of his other works such as La Red Social. Although there is an aesthetic purpose in all its planning, there is also a pristine washing and concretion process.
If the photograph of Erik Messerschmidt seeks to generate aseptic images (except for the chapter with Tilda Swintonby far the warmest of all), the assembly by Kirk Baxter It is minimalist, reducing the cuts to the minimum narrative expression, with the greatest possible economy. The sense of constant threat, of disturbance in the face of so much pristine image, comes through sound and music, which are coordinated in an exemplary way to dirty the narrative. In this way, diegetic sound, expressive sound and music merge and combine lines in a masterful way.
STICK TO THE PLAN
Michael Fassbender carries out a detailed and scrupulous interpretation. His character doesn’t spend more energy than necessary. Hence his movements are the most essential possible and always precise. Despite this, it is a tremendously physical performance in front of a character with little dialogue (outside of the voice-over) and whose body language becomes the true narrative of the plot.
Apart from that, this narrative structure based on different chapters generates micro films within the film, each one with its own subplot and its own identity, reserving the best for last from the forcefulness of the fight with Sala Baker to the elegance of dinner with Tilda Swinton. Each quote from the protagonist is a revelation and an excuse for Fincher display all your visual virtuosity.
THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED IF YOU WANT TO DO IT WELL
David Fincher He is a gifted filmmaker. His filmography to date had already made it clear. Within this trajectory, The murderer It is a major work, a new step in the process of purification and stylization of his cinema that we should not confuse with a typical thriller. It’s a shame that having a platform like Netflix behind it limits the distribution of the film in theaters, reducing the relevance of the film’s category. Poster for The Killer, by David Fincher. Image provided by Netflix.
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