Interview [Written]: David Fincher

A recent Little White Lies interview with director David Fincher (Se7en, The Social Network, Zodiac) about his newest movie Gone Girl, screenplay by Gillian Flynn who adapted her own novel.

LWLies: It’s hard to think of films in which the focus is equally divided between two characters. Was this a challenge in the case of Gone Girl?

Fincher: We had the two parallel stories in Dragon Tattoo, at least for the first hour. Which was weird, because the audience is then waiting for them to cross over. It’s like the Batman TV show, where you have the villain over here doing his thing, and Batman over here doing his. There’s usually the promise of intersection. But with this film, the dangling participle is — is she dead? And if she’s not dead, where is she? So that’s a slightly different thing, because I felt you had to be alongside him, wondering whether or not he’s a monster.

There’s a mid-point switch in the book. Does having a big event right in the central point of a narrative translate to cinematic storytelling and pacing?

In the movie it’s almost at the half-way point. But, yeah, everything is modulated. You try to modulate all the performances, you try to modulate all the rhythms of how you’re doling out information. You also keep in mind where the enjoyment is for this character thread, where’s the enjoyment for the audience in watching this relationship. And you do it all knowing that in three pages, the other shoe’s gonna drop. My hope is not to make the discussion about that switch. It’s not going to be marketed like Psycho. No-one admitted to the theatre after it has started.

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One of her reference points for the book was Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Was nastiness one of your tonal benchmarks?

Nastiness is subjective. I was interested in the material because I loved Gillian’s idea of narcissism, and narcissism in attraction. The idea that a person feels they’re deserving of a certain type of spouse, and the degree to which people will build a façade in order to ensnare another person who’s own façade seems like it’s compatible. I liked how spouses find that, after three, four, five years, they get exhausted keeping up their end of the delusion. I liked that, but played out in front of this insane backdrop of the cable TV news cycle.

The story seems to double as a satire of hysterical rolling news coverage.

It’s an interesting thing, because you’re wondering how satirical you can be. You watch these shows and there’s nothing to make fun of. You have to play it straight. You can’t take that stuff and hyperbolise it enough because it just looks like what it is, which is screaming speculation. I like those elements. I like the idea of what’s going on behind the bedroom door, and how close scrutiny changes inter-personal dynamics. So, how do you act around your sister when you’ve just been accused of incest on television? Do you kiss ’em good night? What’s an inappropriately long hug? And the notion of normalcy and perception: The good wife, the good husband, the good neighbour, the good Christian. It’s obvious that Gillian is curious about what everyone else is up to, then she draws it through the ringer and stretches it out and lets you see it for all of its absurdity.

For the rest of the interview, go here.

HT to Brian Duffield for the link.

UPDATE: For Fincher’s Playboy interview, go here.

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