Post by Capo on Jun 1, 2007 1:51:00 GMT
Seven
David Fincher 1995 USA
Two cops, a rookie and a veteran, chase a killer who is working his way through the seven deadly sins.
What might seem like a straightforward genre film (serial killer and/or buddy-cop movie, and one which could have easily gone down the racial tension route but doesn't) is a subtly intelligent take on convention, to aesthetically pleasing and finally emotionally devastating effect. It's one of the most obvious examples of the decade for effective use of mise-en-scène, a sometimes elusive term which here marks, primarily, location and the means by which it is framed - it's always raining, always grey, with anonymous towerblocks filling establishing shots, characters shot from below the waist, swamped in urban boredom (Paltrow), resignation (Freeman), morbidity (Wild Bill's Leather Store) and frustration (the subway which rattles Pitt and Paltrow's apartment every five minutes). An exploration of several things simultaneously, each as fascinating as the other, however prominent or subdued it may seem in the overall narrative: the building chemistry between Pitt and Morgan, the development of optimism vs fatalism, the role the Media plays in police procedure, the ease with which information is bought and sold and of course police procedure itself. Paltrow plays the one female character in the film, a figure of light and charm in a dark, patriarchal world of obsessed loners, and her appearance is limited, it seems, but integral to so many of the other strands explored, as the film hurtles into its climax, at which point the Pitt-Morgan relationship comes head-to-head with the evil of the serial killer himself. The sense of doom throughout is summed up by Freeman's self-reflexive warning half-way through (to Pitt): "This isn't going to have a happy ending."
David Fincher 1995 USA
Two cops, a rookie and a veteran, chase a killer who is working his way through the seven deadly sins.
What might seem like a straightforward genre film (serial killer and/or buddy-cop movie, and one which could have easily gone down the racial tension route but doesn't) is a subtly intelligent take on convention, to aesthetically pleasing and finally emotionally devastating effect. It's one of the most obvious examples of the decade for effective use of mise-en-scène, a sometimes elusive term which here marks, primarily, location and the means by which it is framed - it's always raining, always grey, with anonymous towerblocks filling establishing shots, characters shot from below the waist, swamped in urban boredom (Paltrow), resignation (Freeman), morbidity (Wild Bill's Leather Store) and frustration (the subway which rattles Pitt and Paltrow's apartment every five minutes). An exploration of several things simultaneously, each as fascinating as the other, however prominent or subdued it may seem in the overall narrative: the building chemistry between Pitt and Morgan, the development of optimism vs fatalism, the role the Media plays in police procedure, the ease with which information is bought and sold and of course police procedure itself. Paltrow plays the one female character in the film, a figure of light and charm in a dark, patriarchal world of obsessed loners, and her appearance is limited, it seems, but integral to so many of the other strands explored, as the film hurtles into its climax, at which point the Pitt-Morgan relationship comes head-to-head with the evil of the serial killer himself. The sense of doom throughout is summed up by Freeman's self-reflexive warning half-way through (to Pitt): "This isn't going to have a happy ending."
