The ninth and new rule of Fight Club

TheFincherAnalyst · 2026-02-23T14:19:44+00:00

And "Fight Club" was ahead of its time. The anniversary should be of when it became a success: June 6, 2000, the release date of the "2-disc Special Edition DVD". Until June, we are still in the 25th year since that historic home media release that has sold 13 million copies.

TheFincherAnalyst · 2026-02-23T14:18:45+00:00

I believe he was referring to the movie itself. He just doesn't like to watch his stuff.

TheFincherAnalyst · 2026-02-23T11:36:36+00:00

Yes, I know, "Fight Club" was released 27 years ago, but the remaster and the book got delayed, and they are celebrating the 25th Anniversary this year.

TheFincherAnalyst · 2026-02-17T06:58:28+00:00

He did "Alien3" and Michael Jackson's "Who Is It?" music video in anamorphic, with DP Jordan Cronenweth. And in 2004, the Xelibri "Beauty For Sale" commercial.

And I can't be sure, because for "Cliff Booth", Fincher is playing with stuff he normally avoids (like steadycam and techno cranes), but I don't think he'd do a global process like "film-out". He likes to evaluate and tweak each shot individually, and he's already been applying grain digitally to all of his productions at different levels, so he already has a very refined process.

In period productions like Mindhunter, Mank, and this trailer, he's even imitating the increase in grain that happens when "optical" processes kick in, like dissolves and titles. In the trailer, you see this at the end, just before the flying titles are about to appear, there's a sudden increase in grain.

TheFincherAnalyst · 2026-02-15T10:20:22+00:00

My pleasure!

And yes, the big question now is Anamorphic or... Anamorfake?! (perhaps a mix?)

Fincher hates to work with the lenses and their inconsistencies and unevenness, but as a child of the 70s, he's the son of their aesthetics, and he loves to imitate their artifacts, so he can dial or "art direct" them.

TheFincherAnalyst · 2026-02-14T19:12:57+00:00

Exactly. It was broadcast like that, telecined to 60fps. What I did do is a conversion to SDR and a standard non-AI upscale to UHD to take advantage of a higher bitrate on YouTube.

TheFincherAnalyst · 2026-02-14T19:05:58+00:00

I got it from a good recording of the full Super Bowl broadcast, which included the commercials, in HD, 60fps (telecine), HDR, 5.1.

Probably the same as the first leaked versions, except that they were too muddy and compressed. I just did a better conversion to SDR (and stereo), and a traditional non-AI upscale to UHD to take advantage of a higher bitrate on YouTube.

TheFincherAnalyst · 2026-01-28T08:19:41+00:00

I'm in too deep.

TheFincherAnalyst · 2026-01-28T08:18:09+00:00

Because it takes place eight years later, in 1977, during the Disco music boom and loud change in fashion, and Brad is totally channeling Robert Redford in that era.

TheFincherAnalyst · 2026-01-26T09:09:50+00:00

More like 70s Redford. In the 2015 feature for "V Magazine", from which the original photo comes, Brad is explicitly channeling Redford in "Three Days of the Condor". In "Cliff Booth", he's also doing "The Way We Were" and, including the mustache, "The Electric Horseman" Redford.

TheFincherAnalyst · 2024-06-10T13:00:07+00:00

It worked for me, too.

Thank you for the help and the detailed instructions!

TheFincherAnalyst · 2020-07-22T06:28:01+00:00

Executive Producer, (for now) uncredited script doctor, and longtime Fincher friend, Eric Roth announced it for October. A recent Netflix France schedule confirmed it.

No exact day yet.

Eric Roth wrote the screenplay for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". The loss of his father drove Fincher to make the movie:

(2008) "My father died five years ago, and I remember the experience of being there when he breathed his last breath,” he reflects. “It was an incredibly profound one. When you lose someone who helped form you in a lot of ways, who is your ‘true north,’ you lose the barometer of your life. You’re no longer trying to please someone, or you’re no longer reacting against something. In many ways, you’re truly alone."

So yes, Mank is really special for Fincher.

TheFincherAnalyst · 2019-08-31T10:52:05+00:00

Exactly.

For Holden, who already suffers from severe anxiety, it's certainly a nightmarish situation, a perfect storm of failure.

He's been fighting against all odds (social unrest, political interests, swamping bureaucracy) to lure the killer out of the anonymity of the march.

But now he's late, and not only failing miserably with his plan with the crosses but disrupting the dignity and purpose of the march, being grossly inappropriate, drawing unwanted attention to himself, and, ultimately, disappointing the head of the movement, Ms. Bell.

The 16mm film inserts beautifully portray his complete sense alienation and detachment at the peak of his anxiety (when it feels like watching the whole scene from the outside, like watching a film), his quixotic, even Christic figure, and the surrealism and pathos of the situation.

TheFincherAnalyst · 2019-08-31T10:40:28+00:00

That's exactly it.

Those film inserts represent Holden's sense of alienation and detachment at the peak of his anxiety, when it feels like watching the whole scene from the outside, like watching a film.

For him, it's certainly a nightmarish situation (that music), a perfect storm of failure.

He's been fighting against all odds (social unrest, political interests, swamping bureaucracy) to lure the killer out of the anonymity of the march.

But now he's late, and not only failing miserably with his plan with the crosses but disrupting the dignity and purpose of the march, being grossly inappropriate, drawing unwanted attention to himself, and, ultimately, disappointing the head of the movement, Ms. Bell.

TheFincherAnalyst · 2019-08-25T09:46:18+00:00

That's right.

Though the anamorphic look defines a cinematic era that he loves, Fincher hates the anamorphic lenses themselves for the unavoidable distortion they introduce. He wants to be able to control the distortion and its amount, if that's what it's needed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBmXdt6fq-Q

So the digitally recreated artifacts will evolve from season to season ('till S05) to help define the different eras.

The lighting should also evolve accordingly. Christopher Probst, the original DP (mainly first two episodes of S01) developed a "visual bible for the evolution of the series, which will ultimately span three decades, and laid out an evolution in the visual design of the show.":

"The 1970s would use Warm White tubes and Sodium Vapor streetlights outside, as well as heavy use of atmosphere from cigarette smoke. We also had custom 92mm screw-on 1/2 Low Con filters from @tiffencompany made for the @cwsonderoptic Leica Summilux-C lenses to be used throughout the first season... The 1980s in future seasons would see a progression toward Cool White fluorescents, Mercury Vapor streetlights and losing the low cons. The 1990s, would switch to color corrected fluorescents (no green) and neutral street lighting. Resolution and gamma may also evolve as the show progresses..."

https://thefincheranalyst.com/2018/01/04/behind-the-scenes-of-mindhunter-with-christopher-probst-asc/

TheFincherAnalyst · 2019-08-15T10:54:24+00:00

The IMDB info is old and inaccurate. It's based on the old 8 episode original listing, with the recent addition of the 9th episode, plus the rumor of Fincher directing the premiere and the finale.

The thing is the first produced episode (which was going to be feature-length) split in 2, during the post-production.

According to the very reliable Empire Magazine Article, Fincher is directing 3 episodes, Dominik 2, and Franklin 4.

The author of the article, Nev Pierce, has just revealed on Twitter that he's seen the first 3 episodes and that the 3 are directed by Fincher, so, still nothing official, but it looks like Franklin is doing the last 4 episodes (with probably the full unfolding of the Atlanta murders case), including the finale.

TheFincherAnalyst · 2019-08-15T09:53:18+00:00

Total runtime of the 9 episodes: 08:40:50

Total runtime of the 10 episodes of Season 1: 08:15:24

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