David Fincher has lots of ideas — The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Last month David Fincher’s Mank was released on Netflix.
The period drama about the creation of Orson Welles’ 1941 masterpiece Citizen Kane was written by Fincher’s late father Jack, and marked the director’s return to film-making.
Fincher had enjoyed a six-year hiatus following the release of Gone Girl in 2014.
The 58-year-old made his film-making debut in 1992 with Alien3 however due to consistent meddling from executives he disavowed the finished product.
Since then he has made 9 feature length films which have made it on to physical media with a director’s commentary.
Listening to Fincher’s commentaries one thing is clear — he loves his films bristling with ideas. With almost every scene, even with some specific shots, he is trying to present an idea. And he loves to talk about it.
In 2008 he released the long-gestating The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt as a reverse-aging Benjamin. Written by Eric Roth it was compared considerably to Forest Gump at the time of its release, earning 13 Oscar nominations, winning three.
Editor’s note: This was supposed to have been written before Mank but the Criterion edition shipping from Los Angeles was delayed.
Here are David Fincher’s ideas in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (spoilers ahead, obviously):
Choosing to film the Daisy framing device in a hospital
“There’s something, you know, about this just post-war building that’s been refitted, you know, with the most modern stuff that you can find in 1987 and that was kind of the idea that. Because the Nolan (portmanteau of New Orleans) house is so beautiful, it’s so exquisite architecturally and with all… I just didn’t - it just felt to me, like gilding a gold lily.”
Queenie and Tizzy partners but not equals
“There’s an important kind of notion for me in the relationship between Queenie and Tizzy which is he is not her equal but he’s her partner.
“She’s got a job running this place really and he’s there to support her. He cooks and he helps out but they don’t live together, she lives in her apartment under the stairs and he lives back in the servant’s quarters and they’re not married but they have this kind of — they live with and for each other and yet they also live independently of each other. I thought that was a really interesting thing in Eric’s script.”
The healing preacher
“We had this idea that is everybody would be kinda sweaty, it should look like a summer’s night and everybody should be in summerwear and spray them with water so they look sweaty and then it was about 34F (1C) outside and everybody came up to me saying ‘it’s never been this cold’ and as soon as you bring a camera out of the box it was like ‘you’re doomed’.”
Crescendo of a cymbal at a funeral
“So Bob Wagner (first AD)had this idea of when we were shooting this scene that we should have this piece of music playing that comes to this crescendo so we can give Ted Manson, who plays the man struck by lightning, we should give him cymbals so he can crash them together at the end and we didn’t tell the cast because we wanted to pull back and get the real reaction of this lunacy of someone bringing cymbals to a funeral and so he did that and so you can see Taraji almost jump out of her shoes.”
Queenie falls pregnant with her own child
“I just loved how Taraji handled this notion, she looks across the room and she realises ‘oh I probably should have told Benjamin first’ but it’s so understated and I like understated.”
Benjamin and Daisy play in a ‘fort’ together
“I love this little moment, I love this idea of, you know, the fort where the kids play. The kids go to the fort.”
The framing device is overshadowed by Hurricane Katrina
“Some people don’t like the idea that this hurricane (nb: I think he means movie but mispoke) takes place during Katrina and again its not intended to be an inordinately important beat but its just kind of talking about change and the old city and the new city and it’s the time before a very chaotic moment in city history.”
Jared Harris (son of Richard Harris) playing someone who doesn’t want to follow his dad’s job
“I love the idea that Jared, you know, has this character who’s talking about the exact opposite situation he had in his life where he evidently wanted to do the same thing that his father did.”
Captain Mike Clark tattoos himself
“The notion of someone tattooing themselves is such an absurd one that we kept trying to make it as realistic as we could but obviously how does one do one’s elbow or a playing card on one’s clavicle but he’s pretty good, I’ve got to say, Capt Mike.”
Captain Mike comfortable with himself
“I love the idea of someone who’s so comfortable he can walk around with his pants around his ankles like… saying hello to everyone.”
Benjamin full of virility despite his appearance
“I do like the idea of this guy who may have a 70-year-old body but he’s got the will and desire of a 15-year-old.”
Captain Mike appears dead when Benjamin takes Daisy on the tugboat
“I always wanted this idea that we see Captain Mike but we don’t really know if he’s not dead and then he finally sort of moves, he finally breathes.”
Everything is okay when people are asleep
“I relate to this idea that somehow when everyone’s in their bed, you know, everything’s okay, the only bad stuff can happen tomorrow and so you have this moment of respite and I thought it was beautifully described in the script , it was one of these things where you kind of go ‘well I’m going to have to shoot this montage that’s going to fit these words and evoke this idea and I’m not so sure it’ll be good enough’.”
Daisy in hospital being told about how Benjamin had fallen in love
“Originally this scene was later, it was after we’d discovered that they’d fallen in love and Kirk (Baxter, editor) moved this and I thought it was a nice idea because she sort of made an impression on him and then we jumped into the future and saw this moment from the past where she received this postcard and how this sort of affected her.”
Married people living separate lives
“Here’s the reiteration of this notion of people who are married but have these very separate lives.
“When Mayes says I’d like to see my wife one more time you get this idea that he’s dealing with some sort of illness chronic or terminal and he’s been off making a living and he now gets an option to bow out of the Second World War and he says I think I’m going to head home and see my wife one last time and I love those little notions and they’re very Eric Roth.”
Native American man is the most war-hungry
“I love the idea of the most gung-ho guy on the boat is the guy who has been totally fucked over by America.”
Benjamin is trusted with money
“I love this idea of someone saying ‘hey, I’ve been watching you, you seem trustworthy’, (you)can’t say that about a lot of people.. I do think you can say that about Benjamin though.”
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Per his commentary on Criterion edition, this is David Fincher’s favourite shot in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. <a href=”https://t.co/3cDzv0doMY">pic.twitter.com/3cDzv0doMY</a></p>— Tom Davidson (@TomDavidson09) <a href=”https://twitter.com/TomDavidson09/status/1349402799776419840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset=”utf-8"></script>
Man struck by lightning while driving a car
“I love the idea of someone operating a motor vehicle when they get struck by lightning and their hat flies off and you can’t see it here… we did have his yellow labrador sitting in the seat next to him and we had flashpaper on the dashboard, so it all smoked and this giant cloud of smoke came up and the dog was just terrified.”
‘The dog never dies’
“There’s the dog, the dog that never dies and I always loved this idea that there was this dog that outlived everyone.”
Daisy dances for Benjamin as a method of seduction
“I love the notion of her doing this dance for him that took the place of all of possible seduction that comes later.
“Everything from the moment she does that spin and then when she drops to the floor which — I still don’t know how Katherine, Katherine (Crockett) who doubled Cate, no idea how a human being does that.”
‘Our lives are defined by opportunities’
“This last line was a notion Eric and I discussed which was the notion of how people’s lives are defined by opportunities and often by the opportunities that they don’t choose to avail themselves of and again that goes back to the notion of regret.”
Benjamin getting younger in an old people’s home
“I love the notion of somebody getting younger all alone and that it comes at a time when you see, again another body being carried out of the old folk’s home and whisked away… I love that, as a notion, the people who come to take the dead away.”
Empty kitchen in Thomas Button’s house
“I love the notion of somebody looking through a window and seeing an empty kitchen and somebody else saying ‘ah man, some of the best times of my life were looking through that window’. There’s something very simple, very primitive about it.”
Matte paintings used in Paris
“I love the little tiny matte paintings that just, you know, support the idea that you’re in a different place or a different city but there’s no, like, you know, ‘Look! Notre dame!’”
Daisy explaining her recovery with no one else in the room
“I love the notion of this giant explanation, where she went, where those lost years went as she learnt to walk again, I love the fact that her daughter’s out of the room trying to get the nurse to come in as all that’s going on and we hear it and it’s somehow… lost.”
Benjamin doesn’t want to know what Daisy has been up to
“I do like the notion of a woman saying ‘don’t you wanna know where I’ve been?’ and it’s just ‘nope’.”
Caroline introduces notion of jealousy
“I really like the idea that Eric had of introducing this notion of jealousy because we’re getting out of the 60s now and all of a sudden Julia’s asking ‘well, wait a minute, you’re just about to infringe on the memory of my father and there’s all these pages of how great and groovy this Benjamin guy is’.”
No one came to Thomas Button’s funeral whereas Queenie’s is packed
“I love the notion that when his father died nobody came, it was quiet and there was no sense of remorse and then of course when Queenie dies people have no problem just bawling their eyes out because she’s beloved and she made an impression and here’s this guy who had all this money and influence who couldn’t make an impression even on his own.”
Daisy’s family own a Wagoneer
“I love this little look that she gives him before she pulls her coat tight, then she walks off. And again I love this idea that they have a (Jeep) Wagoneer or something, it’s kind of a great car.”
Caroline remembers meeting Benjamin
“I like this idea, this was Eric’s idea, that somehow she kind of remembers, remembers that kid, that day, I thought that was kind of interesting and it’s not creepy it’s just sort of ‘oh wow that was my dad and I did note it in some weird way but I’m not sure why’.”
A rollcall of the stars at the end
“I love this idea of suddenly kind of everyone stepping out into the fable for the last little moment, because you’re dealing with tough stuff then to have this little cushion.”
