MovieChat Forums > David Fincher Discussion > Why do the fans pretend he invented cine...

Why do the fans pretend he invented cinema?


Literally everything he and Nolan do has been done since the golden age of hollywood. But fanboys can't know that because they've never seen a film made before 1979.

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It's a common problem among many young film fans. They seem to rarely possess any interest in discovering films made before the American New Wave. For them, their filmmaking bible consists only of Scorsese, Tarantino, Kubrick, PTA, Aronofsky, Fincher, Nolan, Wright etc. I'm not knocking on those guys or anything, but just saying that there's more fish in the ocean.

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exactly. They are so ignorant and embarrassing.

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Well, I wouldn't really call them ignorant. I mean they pretty much grew up watching these directors films and only know of them. Heck I don't even know any of the old directors and only the ones since the 1980's+. Only cinemaphiles would remember the very old. Most just don't care for that. Same with the next gen once these directors die off or retire into very old age.

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they are ignorant and worse, they are audacious and insolent about it. I was born in the 80s, and I looked up the past out of sheer love of film. These people do not love film, they are fanatics.

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Do you also have a sheer love of video, or is it only film that you adore?

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what do you mean?

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Haha, nothing. I was just being a smartass.

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I find it constructive to recommend filmmakers and films that they may not be aware of, or haven't seen...

With things like AppleTV/iTunes, Netflix and Blurays/DVDs being cheap it is so much more accesible now... and at a high quality

I recommend Hitchcock (lots of people in their 20s haven't seen his movies) movies like North by Northwest, Vertigo and Rope... Hitchcock will appeal to people who like Fincher. As his movies are in the same genre, but Hitchcock's are at such a high level.

For Nolan fans I also recommend classic David Lean films such as Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago as their scale is so impressive even today. If they don't feel like watching such long movies, I'll recommend Pickpocket by Robert Bresson, I think it's an influence on Nolan's first movies Following and Memento.

I'm no expert, but there is such a wealth of high quality cinema from the past that the hardest part is to simply know where to start... I find making and receiving relevant recommendations helpful... What movies, directors or eras do you guys recommend?

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Are Arabia and Doctor Zhivago on a bigger scale than Cleopatra?

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Nope... Good choice 👍

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I thought so, I still haven't seen the other two, but critics always seem to dismiss Cleopatra, not sure why.

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You should check them out. I think you will appreciate them. They don't make them like this anymore.

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I want to, I'm waiting for there to be a screening. It just surprises me because I came across an article about a revival showing of the 70 mm format, and those films were there but there was no Cleopatra. They even included It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World in it, and I thought that was unfair. Maybe it is because of the 4 hour runtime, I don't know.

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I would love to see those on the big screen. Maybe Lawrence of Arabia is shown more often because it is so universally aclaimed and perhaps archivests have taken an interest...

Maybe Cleopatra was more controversial, in the sense that it divided opinion on it's release, or there are fewer prints and such...

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I just feel like people latch unto the critically acclaimed films and there's no questioning after that, it's strange. Also, some interesting information, Raintree County, another of Liz's films, was also shot on 70mm, however it was never shown on it because apparently all the 70mm theaters were booked upon release, so no one has ever seen it in its intended format.

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While I'd put Scorsese and PTA on my top lists, I also like James Cameron, Jean-Pierre Mellville, Ingmar Bergman, Masaki Kobayashi, Coen Brothers, Alfred Hitchcock, Hiroshi Teshigahara, Denis Villeneuve, Yorgos Lanthimos, Henri-Georges Clouzot and to some extent Guy Ritchie.

I agree with you. The younger generation seems to gravitate toward "cooler" directors like Nolan and Tarantino. And Usually they're directors that make English speaking films.

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Interesting choices... I'm afraid I have yet to see an Ingmar Bergman film even though i have at least half a dozen on my "To Watch" list... I'll try to watch one this month.

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Bergman is great. Just a warning, pretty much all of his films are really slow so if you're not into that, you'll be disappointed.

I recommend Fanny and Alexander, Cries & Whispers, Face to Face.

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I'm fine with slow movies 👍

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Those choices are kinda terrible, Guy Ritchie??

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People who like Fincher's "Zodiac" as much as I do owe it to themselves to peruse paranoid thriller extraordinaire Alan J. Pakula's oeuvre -- "Klute," "The Parallax View," and "All The President's Men" in particular.

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What's too like so much about Zodiac?

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I don't get the obsession with Zodiac either, I don't like complaining about movies being boring, but Zodiac is boring! With a forgettable star studded cast, makes it even more distracting and boring.

Forgettable Jake Gyllenhaal + forgettable character = mind numbingly bored

I feel like Fincher lost a lot of his polarization after Fight Club, I don't think Fight Club is the greatest fucking thing alive, but I do recognize it has a sort of unique flare to it that only classic films can have.

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He also did a movie based on a book by a known charlatan.

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Which one? A lot of his movies are based on books, haha.

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zodiac

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You've criticized my lists (among other users) before I think you just like to hate.

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Did you just put Edgar Wright's name on the same list as these legends?

His films are entertaining, but no way are they in the same league as Scorsese, Kubrick, PTA, Tarantino, etc.

Baby Driver was a total mess

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I was listing directors based on their popularity with young movie fans. Edgar Wright, somehow, is up there with those legends to a lot of those people (I hate his movies, to be honest).

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I get you. And I hate Edgar Wright's movies too. But I would not encourage LetThemEatCake. He is a bitter old man who hates on pretty much every modern artist

EVERY SINGLE PERSON, including you and LetThemEatCake, pay more attention to artists from their generation than they do older artists. Do you spend your free time reading medieval literature? Do you watch old silent films? Do you feel that every musician since Beethoven has just been treading the same ground? No, no, no


Yes, lots of great films were made in the 50s and 60s, but you kind of have to go out of your way to watch them these days, so it's totally understandable that most young people, even those who consider themselves film fanatics, haven't seen most of them. It's not like they show Hitchcock movies on cable. Besides, I don't care how good you think Citizen Kane or The Seventh Seal are, Martin Scorsese's work stands up to that of any other filmmaker in history

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They are overrated for sure, I hate talking to cinephiles my age acting like "Magnolia" is a mind-blowing masterpiece, the biggest story since Exodus itself was written, haha.

Then I try to show them films by Delmer Daves or Don Siegel and they look at me like I have bad taste.

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I know, Magnolia sucks.

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Why are you so hateful towards modern artists? It's like you think that movies should have just stopped being made after the 60s

Sure, Nolan and Fincher are standing of the shoulders of greats like Hitchcock, but that doesn't mean that their movies are bad

Fincher is one of the few directors working today who consistently makes good mainstream thrillers targeted for adult audiences. That kind of consistency is very rare in Hollywood. Enjoy them for what they are and stop focusing on what young people like. Your ugly, abrasive personality is not going to inspire anybody to seek out classic films

And being an old fuck does not automatically mean that you're smarter or have better taste, you just grew up in a different time period with different films. Most movie lovers' taste is determined by what kinds of films they were exposed to as kids, and most kids first watch movies on cable/satellite/antenna or in the movies. So yeah, most people will prefer the movies from their own generation. You're just old and can't accept that most people on the internet are young and want to talk about movies that speak to THEIR generation. Go start a movie club in your local retirement home if you're so in love with Golden Age films

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Fincher, Nolan, Tarantino, Scorsese and co are the types of directors that 'movie bros' gravitate towards. We're talking your conventional heterosexual white american male in his early 20s who has started his journey towards becoming a 'cinephile'.

Historically people gravitated towards Kubrick and Hitchcock. I know I did in my teens when I was becoming interested in 'cinema'.

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