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Notebook Feature

Quote of the day. Mikio Naruse...or David Fincher?

"The pace of their rush toward destruction never lets up, pile upon pile of medium shots, thousands of fast cuts..."

Daniel Kasman 27 Dec 2011

"The pace of their rush toward destruction never lets up, pile upon pile of medium shots, thousands of fast cuts pushing the protagonist toward a life of loneliness or self-sacrifice or oblivion and death." —Audie Bock, A Gesture and a Pose: The Cinema of Mikio Naruse

I’m no expert on Fincher but when I think of those films of his that I am acquainted with I hardly think of the qualifier “rush”. The pacing in both “Seven” and “Zodiac” is very measured.

I think the tempo of his movies have sped up as of late—The Social Network and Dragon Tattoo are quite relentless. But I never think of Naruse as fast either; this is more about an onslaught of shots, cuts–an accumulation.

Fincher is less rushed than persistent, I think. He exercises great control over the tempo of his films so that there is always a forward progression, even in the scenes of respite.

Fincher is a shark.

The art of lighting would be another common strong suit.

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Quote of the day. Mikio Naruse...or David Fincher?

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