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A Report On David Fincher’s Appearance With The ZODIAC Director’s Cut In NYC!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
I wish I’d been at this event.
Between this and the THERE WILL BE BLOOD screenings I missed, the last ten or twelve days where I’ve been “on vacation” have been killing me. Slowly.
I love this film, and I’m glad to see other people seem to feel the same way about it:
In what was touted as a "rare public appearance" David Fincher brought his preferred cut of Zodiac to a sell-out crowd at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater last night, November 19th. Confessions of a Blogger – I really dig Fincher. Even in the gorgeous quicksand that was Alien 3 you could see a very specific vision at work. Aside from Michael Mann and maybe a handful of others, Fincher has the cleanest visual aesthetic of any working filmmaker, and with Zodiac, he finally has the confidence to tame the effects trickery and film the story in a totally unobtrusive style. His rep as a rough-riding auteur who works actors like a chip-shouldered Kubrick preceded him, so imagine our surprise to be greeted by someone so humble and soft spoken that he didn't want to introduce the film himself, as he felt it would be too obsequious.
And as for the screening itself? The Scribe is on record for Zodiac being the very best film of 2007 so far. Zodiac heralded the return of the much missed 'police procedural' genre - in stark contrast to the forensics procedurals that we've been flush with since the 90s. Refreshingly free of CSI double speak about bullet trajectories, body gasses, and splatter patterns, Zodiac instead concentrates on the nuts and bolts of investigative work; immersing the viewer in decades worth of interviews and testimony of witnesses, victims, and even suspects. The 'Zodiac' terrified the Bay Area of Northern California with a series of shootings in the late 60s and early 70s, but like Jack the Ripper, only found true infamy after sending a series of letters and coded ciphers to major San Francisco newspapers, creating a climate of fear and paranoia similar to NYC's own Son of Sam case. The letters always promised more victims (including school buses), taunted the police for not finding him, and even claimed credit for random crimes in the area that he had nothing to do with. Nobody was ever officially charged with the murders, and with the exception with the police assigned to the case and the journalists who wrote about it, the Zodiac nearly faded from public memory. It was the publication of Robert Graysmith's book "Zodiac" in 1986 that helped to re-ignite interest in the case; Graysmith accuses Arthur Leigh Allen on the basis of an enormous amount of circumstantial evidence gathered by the former cartoonist during his years at the San Francisco Chronicle.
Fincher's film concentrates of the toll that years of chasing down dead end leads took on the men closest to the case – SFPD Inspector Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo), columnist Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr), and cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) and deftly juggles each character in what must have been a logistical nightmare to structure at the screenplay stage. The film covers more than a decade and throws enough names, dates, and alibis to make even the most attentive audience feel woozy, yet any patience exhibited is rewarded. Visually, the film has an amazingly exhilarating style yet never drifts too far from the docudrama approach. When Fincher does dip into his bag of digital trickery to lock onto a yellow cab from above and follow it through the streets of downtown San Francisco, or show the passage of a year with a time-lapse recreation of the construction of the landmark Transamerica building set to Marvin Gaye, it always flows naturally from the narrative and never feels like the "showing off because we could" camera shots in Fincher's previous Panic Room
The 7 minutes that had been added to the film bring it back to the length it was prior to a New Orleans preview screening where the majority of moviegoers apparently felt the film ran too long. Had they asked me, I would have been happy to tell them that removing and/or chopping up existing scenes in order to speed up a film usually has the opposite effect. I noticed three completely new scenes and two extensions:
1. The scene with Melvin Belli (Brian Cox) on the AM chat show now features a new exchange between him and the show's host.
2. When the detectives interview Belli during his Christmas party now has an additional exchange regarding the African safari he had just been on ("You must go there, gentleman…such a beautiful, savage place")
3. A new scene outside Morti's has Graysmith waking Avery out of a stupor in the backseat of a car ("Paul, you missed editorial, it's 11:30!")
4. To bridge a 4 year transition, we now have just under a minute of black featuring music and news clips pertaining to the years going by, sort of like the opening of Contact, only going forward.
5. Probably the longest single restoration, Toschi and Armstrong (Anthony Edwards) sit in Capt. Lee's (Dermot Mulroney) office and pitch their case for a search warrant to the District Attorney over one of those tiny speaker boxes. A very funny, if somewhat redundant scene.
Any new material is a treat, but I'd say that the only substantial change is the 4-year transition; after the breathtaking Transamerica Pyramid scene, having only tiny text on the screen to indicate a 4 year jump is a bit anticlimactic. It's funny to imagine a the look of satisfaction on the face of the studio executive, sure that taking 7 minutes out of a 165min film would turn it into a top grosser.
During the Q&A that followed, the painfully shy Fincher (who seemed to be attempting to hide behind a hand held microphone) fielded question regarding shooting features digitally (the Viper camera was used on Zodiac, but each digital camera has quirks that have to be dealt with), working with actors (If they're not cooperating, make them to a bunch of takes without any direction and have them come crawling back), Mission Impossible III (besides not wanting to do another sequel with a "3" in the title all that much, the studio wanted to start production with only 40 pages of script and Fincher balked), and the surprising difficulty in getting permission to use vintage studio logos.
All in all, it was an amazing four hours. The digital projection at the Walter Reade was flawless, and rivals the recent digital Blade Runner showing at the Ziegfeld for pure clarity of image. It was also projected right off Fincher's own digital copy; I've been slow to warm to shooting films digitally, even Michael Mann – who has achieved amazing night visuals with Collateral and Miami Vice - can't quite get a handle on the excessive grain and the plastic sheen it can give to human skin. Zodiac is the first film that supports the argument that digital is the future of filmmaking. The slightly washed-out look is how most of us regard the period, and the clarity it gives to night shots (just look at the films opening shot, featuring fireworks over Vallejo) is stunning.
This cut of Zodiac will appear on DVD and HD-DVD on January 8th, featuring some of the best packaging I ever seen.
Call me - The Blood Spattered Scribe!
And as for the screening itself? The Scribe is on record for Zodiac being the very best film of 2007 so far. Zodiac heralded the return of the much missed 'police procedural' genre - in stark contrast to the forensics procedurals that we've been flush with since the 90s. Refreshingly free of CSI double speak about bullet trajectories, body gasses, and splatter patterns, Zodiac instead concentrates on the nuts and bolts of investigative work; immersing the viewer in decades worth of interviews and testimony of witnesses, victims, and even suspects. The 'Zodiac' terrified the Bay Area of Northern California with a series of shootings in the late 60s and early 70s, but like Jack the Ripper, only found true infamy after sending a series of letters and coded ciphers to major San Francisco newspapers, creating a climate of fear and paranoia similar to NYC's own Son of Sam case. The letters always promised more victims (including school buses), taunted the police for not finding him, and even claimed credit for random crimes in the area that he had nothing to do with. Nobody was ever officially charged with the murders, and with the exception with the police assigned to the case and the journalists who wrote about it, the Zodiac nearly faded from public memory. It was the publication of Robert Graysmith's book "Zodiac" in 1986 that helped to re-ignite interest in the case; Graysmith accuses Arthur Leigh Allen on the basis of an enormous amount of circumstantial evidence gathered by the former cartoonist during his years at the San Francisco Chronicle.
Fincher's film concentrates of the toll that years of chasing down dead end leads took on the men closest to the case – SFPD Inspector Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo), columnist Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr), and cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) and deftly juggles each character in what must have been a logistical nightmare to structure at the screenplay stage. The film covers more than a decade and throws enough names, dates, and alibis to make even the most attentive audience feel woozy, yet any patience exhibited is rewarded. Visually, the film has an amazingly exhilarating style yet never drifts too far from the docudrama approach. When Fincher does dip into his bag of digital trickery to lock onto a yellow cab from above and follow it through the streets of downtown San Francisco, or show the passage of a year with a time-lapse recreation of the construction of the landmark Transamerica building set to Marvin Gaye, it always flows naturally from the narrative and never feels like the "showing off because we could" camera shots in Fincher's previous Panic Room
The 7 minutes that had been added to the film bring it back to the length it was prior to a New Orleans preview screening where the majority of moviegoers apparently felt the film ran too long. Had they asked me, I would have been happy to tell them that removing and/or chopping up existing scenes in order to speed up a film usually has the opposite effect. I noticed three completely new scenes and two extensions:
1. The scene with Melvin Belli (Brian Cox) on the AM chat show now features a new exchange between him and the show's host.
2. When the detectives interview Belli during his Christmas party now has an additional exchange regarding the African safari he had just been on ("You must go there, gentleman…such a beautiful, savage place")
3. A new scene outside Morti's has Graysmith waking Avery out of a stupor in the backseat of a car ("Paul, you missed editorial, it's 11:30!")
4. To bridge a 4 year transition, we now have just under a minute of black featuring music and news clips pertaining to the years going by, sort of like the opening of Contact, only going forward.
5. Probably the longest single restoration, Toschi and Armstrong (Anthony Edwards) sit in Capt. Lee's (Dermot Mulroney) office and pitch their case for a search warrant to the District Attorney over one of those tiny speaker boxes. A very funny, if somewhat redundant scene.
Any new material is a treat, but I'd say that the only substantial change is the 4-year transition; after the breathtaking Transamerica Pyramid scene, having only tiny text on the screen to indicate a 4 year jump is a bit anticlimactic. It's funny to imagine a the look of satisfaction on the face of the studio executive, sure that taking 7 minutes out of a 165min film would turn it into a top grosser.
During the Q&A that followed, the painfully shy Fincher (who seemed to be attempting to hide behind a hand held microphone) fielded question regarding shooting features digitally (the Viper camera was used on Zodiac, but each digital camera has quirks that have to be dealt with), working with actors (If they're not cooperating, make them to a bunch of takes without any direction and have them come crawling back), Mission Impossible III (besides not wanting to do another sequel with a "3" in the title all that much, the studio wanted to start production with only 40 pages of script and Fincher balked), and the surprising difficulty in getting permission to use vintage studio logos.
All in all, it was an amazing four hours. The digital projection at the Walter Reade was flawless, and rivals the recent digital Blade Runner showing at the Ziegfeld for pure clarity of image. It was also projected right off Fincher's own digital copy; I've been slow to warm to shooting films digitally, even Michael Mann – who has achieved amazing night visuals with Collateral and Miami Vice - can't quite get a handle on the excessive grain and the plastic sheen it can give to human skin. Zodiac is the first film that supports the argument that digital is the future of filmmaking. The slightly washed-out look is how most of us regard the period, and the clarity it gives to night shots (just look at the films opening shot, featuring fireworks over Vallejo) is stunning.
This cut of Zodiac will appear on DVD and HD-DVD on January 8th, featuring some of the best packaging I ever seen.
Call me - The Blood Spattered Scribe!
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+ Expand All
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and it would still be boring.
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it's a masterpiece. now with seven more masterul minutes.
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Se7en more minutes....
*gets coat* -
but I think you have to be in the 'mood' to watch it. It's by no means an action packed movie, but I still found it intriguing and the acting was solid.
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and I think its really impressive the way Fincher handled the film.
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I'm sure I recall Morty reviewing it when it first came out and saying that this version WAS the Fincher director's extended cut. I wonder what his reaction to this will be?
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read about it from a test screening and was disappointed when it wasn't in the theatrical release. I really love the movie, but you have *got* to have patience and be in the right mood for it. Love the way it looks too. Hands down the best looking digitally shot film so far.
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Hands down. Very nicely written review dude...
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I'm intrigued about the reasons why getting to use the studios' vintage logos was a problem. Can you brief us on what the problem was? The usual red tape?
Thanks, -
His only good movies are Se7en, the Game and Fight Club.
Stil, a talented guy. -
is a disappointment by Fincher standards but still head and shoulders anove most of the drek released nowadays. I've loved his work since the title credits of Alien 3.
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Reserve a copy for me RIGHT NOW.... Fincher has set the standard shooting with the Viper camera and achieving a look of film, everyone is playing catch up.... Even Mann
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He said that the studios regard their logos as corporate branding (my words, not his) and it wasn't so much that they were opposed to the idea, as that approval for changing it had to be given at many different levels.
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7 minutes does not warrent a whole new DVD. Yeah I respect the purity of a movie and the directors idea of a movie. But 7 minutes? Why couldn't they just toss that on as deleated scenes with the first DVD? This is the reason dvd sales are falling so fast. Everyone is finally catching on that there is no longer a reason to by a movie, they'd rather rent it then buy it and just have a slightly better version come out later. Plus its just over kill and bored the consumer and makes them dislike the idea of purchasing dvd's. It makes me so made now that dvd's are coming out in less the 6 months of their theatrical run. Just hold off the DVD release until they have everything ready for the deluxe version, and then just release them both at the same time, a deluxe versionand a bare bones version. Especially for movies like this, was anyone really counting the days till this DIRECTORS cut dvd came out? No. Its a good movie, anti Fincher I think thats why people didn't like it, stick anyone elses name on the tittle credits it would have been far more positive. Plus no big stars. I remember watching the dvd seeing the preview for this going??? WTF why did they just not wait. The movie industry is eating itself, and us movie nerds don't help it by being overly sensative about the preservation of a movie.
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To learn how to edit what I type.
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And I'm happy to hear that these cut in fact has MORE footage in it. My one regret is eagerly buying Zodiac when it came out, not being aware that the only special feature on the DVD is an advertisement for the deluxe edition of the DVD. Fucking insulting. I just wanted a commentary at least.
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Nov 21, 2007 9:45:40 AM CST
Nice mention of the Alien 3 title credits kwisatzhaderach
by the mothman
You could tell there was something going on there, and in the Finch's latter works the 'something' remains (my best effort at a definition is 'the framing of shots for maximum stylistic impact, mostly through the use of space in the frame'). He could probably shoot action as well as anyone, but I like that he doesn't move the camera unless absolutely necessary.
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Do people really watch the commentary that much? Because I very rarely listen to the commentary. The last one I did was on night of the musem just so I could hear Reno's finest explain to me why they did this crap, which they did so they could get money to do whatever they want with other projects. But I just don't have time to go back and watch a movie with just the commentary track, got too many movies to watch and not enough time. I don't get paid to watch movies though I am always applying.
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He's competent, but no Kubrick.
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"His "only" good movies are Se7en, the Game and Fight Club." ?!
Dude, that's 3 more good movies than 98% of our other directors have made. 4, when you count Zodiac. Hell, his entire oeuvre is like, what, 6 movies? That's a hell of a record. -
He's equal parts visionary and crashing bore. When Fincher takes a dump, he craps out more imagination, vision and creativity than the Michael Bays and Jerry Bruckheimers of the world will create in their lifetimes.
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Once you've gotten an HD television and have witnessed the incredible jump in resolution, it's nearly impossible to go back to standard dvd. Has anyone had a pleasant experience with dvd upconversion? I'm considering an HD-DVD player with upconversion, but still looking at options/pricing. -- And by the way, as much of a fan of David Fincher that I am, I've yet to check this out. And I'd love to watch it at home in HD. Maybe I will.
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It's REALLY nice to be able to download time-sensitive movie rentals (usually 14 days or 24 hours once you begin the movie, whichever comes first), ...in 720p, on Xbox Live. But now, I look at our HUGE library of standard dvds... and wish I could make them all turn into HD-DVDs.
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Cool post. I know what you mean. Fincher is the only 'blockbuster' (although he doesn't really make blockbusters) director left who uses the frame and movement within the frame to generate action and excitement as opposed to frenzied millisecond cutting. Which does not generate excitement, only headaches. I like to be able to see what the fuck is going on in an action sequence as opposed to getting thirty different viewpoints of the same thing from different angles mashed to a pulp by MTV editing. Sorry, I get upset thinking about the mess Hollywood is in.
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You could tell Fincher was really aiming for something with this project, something beyond what Renny Harlin would have done with it for example. That Fox came in and cut him off at the balls at every opportunity and yet the resulting, compromised film is still a thing of beauty speaks volumes about Fincher and his talent.
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I was at a film shoot all day yesterday that went long. I liked to myself and said that it was no big deal to miss it and I could see the dvd in a few months, but now I'm pissed. This sounded great. Well played, Scribe.
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I could be wrong, but I'd be willing to bet that the opening shot was CGI. That said, the film looked fantastic (love Savides) and as a Zodiac fanatic long before the film, Fincher did an amzing job.
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Nov 21, 2007 2:24:46 PM CST
Declaring Fincher a 'journeyman' should be a banable offence
by judge dredds fresh undies
Yeah, Panic Room sucked but I suspect the reason he even did that film was to get another hit under his belt after Fight Club flopped.
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Why does Panic Room suck? I don't understand why any lover of film, let alone someone who loves Fincher's work, could believe that. Makes no sense to me at all.
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I worked on the Vallejo shot.....
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If, when I got to the end, there was some sort of definitive CONCLUSION (as in "it was THIS GUY") I might have been more forgiving of a film that took so fucking long to say NOTHING
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1. Wishing for ZODIAC to possess a "definitive CONCLUSION" is pretty laughable, given that the Zodiac killer was never caught/identified. You missed one of the primary points of the film: its focus is aimed at those who befall the spell of obsession and wanting to know/learn something that is inconclusive. Maniaq, I guess you can count yourself amongst the Zodiac's victims. The film said far more than nothing.
2. The auteur theory is bullshit and the usage of said term needs to be fucking deep-sixed. -
I think the point about the detrimental effect the case had on the main characters was made at least a good hour before the end of the film. Sorry if it's too demanding of me, but I like my films to have a beginning, a middle and an ENDING
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Uh....what?
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