David Fincher, the esteemed director behind modern classics Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac and The Social Network has been opening up about his latest movie Gone Girl, out now in Cineworld.
The film is by turns a potboiling thriller and an examination of a collapsing marriage, with Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike playing central couple Nick and Amy Dunne. It's fertile ground for Fincher, who regularly courts dark, controversial material, whether it's the grisly serial killings of Se7en, the anarchism of Fight Club or the contested depiction of the origins of Facebook in The Social Network.
In an interview with NPR, Fincher says the film, adapted by author Gillian Flynn from her own novel, is in its own peculiar way some warped reflection of day to day life. "People doing updates on a sidewalk at a murder scene where a body had been removed weeks and weeks and weeks ago – when you see that in real life, there is a certain insanity to it," he explains.
The director continues: "A lot of people have said, 'Well, is it a satire of media?' It's not media, you know, the — CNNand The New York Times and NPRare not in the flower beds of the Dunne house. This is tragedy vampirism, and it's a very different thing."
However, those who've read the book of course aren't able to deny there's a rich vein of pitch-black, sadistic humour coursing through the centre of it – in the end, few things are more grotesque than humanity itself – and Fincher says this is in keeping with the rest of his filmic ouvre.
"I thought Fight Club was a comedy," the director admits. "I sort of thought this movie was funny, too. Look, it takes all kinds, right?"
It certainly does. Click here to read the full interview – and if you think Gone Girl sounds like your particular kind of poisoned chalice, click here to book your tickets.