The films that have had the greatest cultural impact are not always
the most exemplary. But for whatever reason they seize the public imagination
and run with it, often through a furious wave of subsequent mediocrity.
Originally, former music-video director David Fincher's Se7en (1995)
didn't hold much promise market-wise, despite its inherent star power.
Genre fans scoffed at the presence of Brad Pitt - who was nevertheless
no stranger to horror, with Cutting Class, Kalifornia and Interview
with a Vampire under his belt already - and the Tiger-Beat set certainly
wasn't going to respond well to the unglamorous characters and seedy
set-dec. But the film surprised everyone by spawning a wealth of imitations
-- conceptually, stylistically, and morally. Like it or not, it's become
one of the pivotal genre films of the last decade.
The premise of Fincher's much-copied picture was simple: a serial killer/moral
vigilante who uses the seven deadly sins -- gluttony, greed, sloth, pride, lust,
envy and wrath -- as his calling card. As David Mills and William Somerset respectively,
Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman are stock characters -- the impetuous young rookie
partnered with the jaded and tight-lipped wise-man-on-the-mountain-type (complete
with recognizable literary name). Their performances fit the film but are just
components in a larger picture. Pitt tries too hard. The story was competently
written but not especially clever.
So it comes as no shock that it wasn't to be Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman or even
Kevin Spacey that would prove the star of Fincher's thriller - it was cinematographer
Darius Khondji (Delicatessen, City of Lost Children) and to a lesser extent,
Trent Reznor and the manufactured industrial aesthetic.
Khondji likely owes a certain debt to predecessors like The Element of Crime (1984) and Zentropa
(1991) - along with veteran chiaroscuro cinematographer Vittorio Storaro -- but Se7en unleashed
monochromatic saturation as the new standard. Spanish Aftermath director Nacho
Cerda cited Khondji as unconsciously blazing a vital new stylistic path in Spain,
with disciples like Alejandro Amenabar (Thesis), Paco Plaza (Abuelitos), Juan
Carlos Fresnadillo (Intacto) and Jaume Balaguero (The Nameless) spearheading
the New Spanish Fantastic shortly thereafter.
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