Christopher Nolan vs. David Fincher

Vale

Vale

Now I wonder whom do you prefer more? Christopher Nolan or David Fincher?

Let's recap some of their filmography

Christopher Nolan

- Memento
- Insomnia
- Batman Begins
- The Prestige
- The Dark Knight
- Inception
- The Dark Knight Rises

David Fincher

- Seven
- Fight Club
- Zodiac
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- The Social Network
- Th Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Both of these filmmakers are very consistent with their themes. Both directors are similar in enough ways that I feel they can be compared....

Fincher's films are usually pretty dark. Nolan's protagonists are usually social outcasts in one way or another, driven by obsession.

I feel even though Nolan's films are extremely intricate, fun to piece together, always left to interpretation....DAVID FINCHER'S movies are just way too fun!!

Fight Club is my favorite movie of all time. Girl W/ Dragon Tattoo is filmed beautifully, paced well, makes punk emo girls seem hot.

If Inception was directed by Fincher, it would be perfect for me. But Inception is what makes it so hard for me to decide.

I'm not a Nolan fanboy. But it's such a Nolan film..so perfect.

I can see how some would accuse Fincher of being 1-dimensional. Too much violence or abrasive themes in his movies? Maybe compensating for something?

I don't personally feel that way. But I'd love to hear what you have to say!

What are your thoughts?
 
Far and away, Fincher is the better director. All of his movies except for Alien 3 were incredible.

Nolan on the other hand, had a good movie with Memento, and a great movie with Insomnia. Other than that, his work is dreadfully overrated, IMO.
 
I think these are, actually, surprisingly comparable directors.

For me, it'll always be Fincher- I just love the way he crafts his movies. I think they're always beautifully made and acted and just crafted with perfect professionalism and such a good eye.

I like a lot of Nolan's films but I think he sometimes lets himself down by crafting films based on ideas rather than putting together fully fleshed out and well-formed movies. I thought Inception was quite a weak, childish movie and the sort of thing that I don't think Fincher, even in his fledgling days, would've let get past the table read.
 
Nolan for me.

He has a grip on his art, he writes his movies, he bonds with the story and you feel it.

Girl w/ a Dragon Tattoo was very good but far from being unforgivable.

Inception is a little bit overrated because of its teaser who draw a lot of attention and made people who never heard of him go watch the movie.

The Batman trilogy is hardly overrated. It's the best comic movies of all time (the only contest would come from Watchmen but that's an adaptation).

Memento is for me a masterpiece. It's edited in such an original way and I like a director who does what he wants with his movies. The story is cyclical and it's the only open ending I've yet seen that really is justified.
 
TheArtist said:
The Batman trilogy is hardly overrated. It's the best comic movies of all time (the only contest would come from Watchmen but that's an adaptation).
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Batman Begins never got that high of marks when it was made, and I don't know many people at all that consider it a great movie. The Dark Knight, I put right on par with Batman Begins. Other than Ledger's performance (which was awe-inspiring) the movie was just as drawn out and anti climactic (althought the flipping over of the semi truck was cool.) It was 25 minutes too long and they should have saved the Two Face storyline for the next film. The Dark Knight Rises was almost laughable to me in its mediocrity. Worse than Batman Begins.

But then, this is all subjective... ;)

TheArtist said:
Memento is for me a masterpiece. It's edited in such an original way and I like a director who does what he wants with his movies. The story is cyclical and it's the only open ending I've yet seen that really is justified.
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I liked Memento, and I thought it was a good movie. But the hype was due to the novelty of how it was edited. Once you take that away, what do you have? It's not a movie I can watch over and over again, and that needs to happen for me to think it's something great.

But I will say again that Insomnia was a masterpiece. I hope Nolan returns to that kind of filmmaking and stays away from the gimicky kind of stuff he does, i.e. Inception.
 
Nolan easy.

I've seen all of Nolans compared to only some of Finchers but still.

Nolan has INCEPTION and TDK both classics IMO. Begins and Rises and Insomnia being his weaklinks. And then he has MEMENTO and The Prestige which are wonderful.

And then there's Following. Shot extremely low budget and damn good.

I thought Seven was spotty. Had some corny as dialogue except for Spacey.

The little bit of Fight Club seemed okay.

Curios Case and Social Network I enjoyed a lot. Very interesting stories. Although all his films have been gorgeous. The darkness is wonderful. And Girl with Tattoo I plan to see eventually.

Here's one for you. Who wins the Oscar first, Nolan or Fincher?

I'd say Fincher. Nolans been snubbed of nominations already.

But Nolan is about to change up his style. He made his shit load of money with good films. Now comes his real classics I think.
 
Vegas, you and I clearly hang out with different people. In my circle of friends, "Batman Begins" is UNANIMOUSLY revered as a GREAT movie. "Dark Knight" is even better, and "Rises" is on par. But like you say, it's all subjective. :)

Nolan vs. Fincher? They're both great, but I like Nolan's movies better. The more important question is who would win in a no-holds-barred death match.

I gotta go with Fincher. He's got a calm about him that just screams Serenity Now! When the s*^t hits the fan, I expect him to raise his fists and bring hell. Plus, he made "Fight Club", and you gotta have a little crazy in you to do that.
 
They are equal.

Fincher has this perfection in him that Nolan lacks. Zodiac, The Social Network and Seven are all his best, and they are all visually flawless- but also written flawlessly. And acted flawlessly. Fincher is able to extract the best performances from any actor, which is a daunting ability for a director, but in the meanwhile also get the most beautiful image from the scene as well. In a way, he's a better Kubrick: the same visual OCD, but he has what Stanley didn't, which is good communication with his actors.

Nolan on the other hand, is always able to get the best pace from his stories, which are spectacular- and original, unlike Fincher's. But he can't always get the best image. Or performances. All his films have been great, but except for Memento and The Dark Knight, they are hardly perfect. They have their ugly shots, their terrible actors and their forgettable scenes. But here's where he is able to trump Fincher: he can put heart into the film. He has a strong sense of emotion that enables him to elevate his films much higher: a central drive for the character, something Fincher has only perfected with Fight Club. But Nolan works this in beautifully in absolutely all his films, most notably Memento and the Batman franchise. He also has an enormous visionary scope, something Fincher's tightened vision seems to lack.

In all, Fincher is able to get what he wants, how he wants it, and as a result, his films are perfect, but leave a little bit of heart to be desired. Nolan may not always produce flawless works, but they are overall stronger and stand better emotionally.

With that said, they both have strengths and weaknesses that cancel each other out. So they're equal.

Nolan's best film: The Dark Knight - 10/10
Fincher's best film: Zodiac - 10/10
 
This is kinda interesting because i just had this debate with a friend of mine im a huge fincher fan. Fight club is one of my all time favorite movies. Anyway so my friend brings up dark knight rises saying it was the greatest movie too come out this decade. Personally i thought it was garbage am i crazy cause as of now i feel like im the only one who thinks that.
 
AcespadexXx said:
This is kinda interesting because i just had this debate with a friend of mine im a huge fincher fan. Fight club is one of my all time favorite movies. Anyway so my friend brings up dark knight rises saying it was the greatest movie too come out this decade. Personally i thought it was garbage am i crazy cause as of now i feel like im the only one who thinks that.
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Dude! How weird.

An no, I definitely started nodding off during The Dark Knight Rises. Partly because I didn't enjoy Bane like I did The Joker.

And it seemed too dialogue-heavy. Very strange because Inception is much dialogue which I love, but I just didn't like TDKR
 
Yeah it was 2 1/2 hours of nothing happening. I agree inception was pretty good i like the movie i just didnt like all the other people who liked the movie. It was a cool movie with twists and turns i just feel the public over complicated it. It wasnt that hard too understand. Thats just what i noticed
 
AcespadexXx said:
Thats a tough one is it tag team? Like Nolan has Christian bale and Fincher has Brad Pitt
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Oh, well if it's tag-team, Bale/Nolan would win easily. Bale's extraordinary talent is only matched by his temper.

And oddly, that puts him on a very short list of actors I'd most like to work with. Silly Shane Hurlbut, I think he had it coming. Bale is genius. :D
 
And also...

Nolan's weakest film: The Dark Knight Rises - 7/10
Fincher's weakest film: Panic Room - 7/10

(I'm excluding Alien 3, as it was terrible because of studio interference, not Fincher's direction)
 
I would have to agree nolan bale take the gold on that one. Even though i feel brad pitt is a great actor. Bale for sure has a meaner bite well played sir
 
Cracker Funk said:
Oh, well if it's tag-team, Bale/Nolan would win easily. Bale's extraordinary talent is only matched by his temper.
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A little off-topic but this reminds of this. I think you'll dig it.

And Begins was great. Best coming-of age movie. 40 minutes screen time before seeing THE Batman in a Batman movie ? That's proof of how much work goes into the characters on Nolan's part.
 
Bale is a fantastic actor, but his best performances were not directed by Nolan (The Fighter, American Psycho). In fact I doubt Nolan has much to do with Bale's acting in his films at all. McG got an equal performance from him in Terminator Salvation.

Fincher, on the other hand, is able to get great and wildly deviant performances from Pitt. He is simply incredible in Seven, Benjamin Button and especially Fight Club. But we all know Brad isn't always a good actor. Fincher gets it from him.
 
AcespadexXx said:
Yeah it was 2 1/2 hours of nothing happening. I agree inception was pretty good i like the movie i just didnt like all the other people who liked the movie. It was a cool movie with twists and turns i just feel the public over complicated it. It wasnt that hard too understand. Thats just what i noticed
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Man, I agree with this a thousand fold. I liked Inception. It was reasonably intelligent...for an action movie. It's not this grand deep revelation of a film. If people didn't like it, it wasn't because they "didn't get it" (though there are people who didn't, on both sides of the fence). Cabin In The Woods (easily my favorite film this year) got a lot of that nonsense too.

The internet makes me sad sometimes.

As to the original subject, I think I might like Nolan more. Though I haven't seen all of Fincher's, I've seen all of Nolan's. My favorite of his I like more than my favorite of Fincher's that I've seen (The Prestige, which oddly I didn't like nearly as much as the similarly themed The Illusionist that came out the same year). I did enjoy Zodiac and Fight Club, but I think my favorite of his is The Game. I like a lot about Se7en, but somehow am not really a fan of the film. Not one of Brad Pitt's better performances.

Oh, and while I think that the Dark Knight was probably a better film than TDKR, I don't like it nearly as much. But I like Bane a lot, and the film focuses way more on Batman, which I liked. Definitely a taste not quality thing. And none of the three do I like nearly as much as Avengers or Watchmen, but that's me!
 
JoshL said:
Cabin In The Woods (easily my favorite film this year) got a lot of that nonsense too.
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I so agree Cabin was fantastic the less you knew going into that movie the better it was. I have been highly impressed with Joss Whedons work lately firefly was a great show, Avengers (Now dont bash me huge marvel buff) was in my opinion the best comic book movie so far. He is multi talented he wrote/directed firefly, wrote cabin, directed avengers. To me thats the quality we should all be looking for in a great director sorry to get so far off topic. Still think Fincher is a better director
 
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