After exploring murderous psychology in Mindhunter, he renews the concept once again in this new film The Killer.

As a director, Fincher’s view of his characters can be likened to a glimpse into their souls and psyches, with the director never taking his eyes off them, in an almost intrinsic dimension. Whether it’s Kevin Spacey’s character in Seven or Jessie Eisenberg’s in The Social Network. Fincher invites us to explore the interiority of his characters, and after exploring murderous psychology in Mindhunter, he renews the concept once again in this new film The Killer. Introduced as a flawless, cold and methodical hitman, the character played by Michael Fassbender, making his comeback after a four-year absence from the screen, soon finds himself embroiled in a quest that causes him to lose all his methods.

For his second feature film collaboration with Netflix, the director is adapting the French comic book Le Tueur, published in 13 volumes between 1998 and 2014. A comic that had already caught the filmmaker’s attention at the time :

They just sent it to me, like they send me everything about sociopathic killers [laughs] ! It was around 2009, I was working on Zodiac or The Curious Case of Benjamin Button [2008]. The nihilistic, sarcastic tone appealed to me a lot.

MACHERET Mathieu, “David Fincher pour « The Killer », sur Netflix : « J’ai aimé tracer le …” 09 Nov. 2023, URL : https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2023/11/09/david-fincher-pour-the-killer-sur-netflix-j-ai-aimetracer-le-film-comme-un-grand-coup-de-pinceau_6199225_3246.html.

Of the comic book characters, Fincher keeps only his main protagonist, The Killer, at the centre of his plot, but also of the storytelling.

It’s impossible to talk about the film without mentioning its first twenty minutes, which introduce us both to the character of the killer and his methods, but also to his thoughts as he prepares and waits for the opportune moment to murder a businessman. Like Le Samouraï in the work of Jean Pierre Melville, meticulously trying out each key in the car, the sequence also takes its time to settle us into the calm waiting of a professional killer. This sequence reveals Fincher’s meticulous, seemingly minimalist cinematography, which proves to be as complex as ever with each video revealing the extent of the special effects applied down to the smallest detail. This sequence also sets up the killer’s voice-over narration, which follows us throughout the film. In a nihilistic, sarcastic tone, he continually describes his highly pessimistic vision of our increasingly individualistic society, while at the same time explaining his methods as a hitman, which he repeats over and over again: “Stick to the plan”, “Anticipate”, “Don’t improvise”.But as he misses his target and goes on the run, we begin to have our doubts about his killing abilities. Almost like a game, the director will deceive our expectations repeatedly in his character and in his direction, focusing on an object to give it importance in our killer’s eventual failure, without that object ever having any significance. It is in this game with our expectations that The Killer holds our attention, Fincher having fun with his reputation as a methodical director where everything matters. Taking the opposite tack to the perfect killer à la John Wick or James Bond, we no longer know whether the mission will be a success or a resounding failure, no matter what fine words our killer says about his preparation.

This constant voiceover is complemented by a sound design that traps us in the protagonist’s head, following every step of his plan, so that we feel trapped and oppressed in his concentration, almost underwater and holding our breath. But we can also consider that this constant oppression by the sound and the character’s voice-over can work against the film and lead the viewer to reject it, and this is perhaps the essence of what makes the character’s mistakes: by repeating the same instructions and the same messages to himself too often, he unconsciously comes to reject his own ideas, which he educates us about almost without understanding them; after all, our killer is talking to himself just as much as to us. Michael Fassbender’s character is full of contradictions, and the film itself is a film of all contradictions. The character swears by the fact of being alone and yet living as a couple, of not making things personal, which very quickly becomes the main element and motivation. Fincher plays with the codes we’ve allotted him, going against our expectations with this character who makes philosophical comments and never leaves his undercover bob.

But while Fincher’s editing and storytelling play with us, his direction remains as expected as ever, and the shaky camera movements added in post-production as his protagonist flees in no way detract from its clinical, meticulous aspect. Each shot is carefully framed and controlled, and perhaps too much in keeping with his own character’s mantra: “don’t improvise”.

Nevertheless, Fassbender’s performance fits perfectly with the cold, repetitive atmosphere of the cinematography by Fincher and Erik Messerschmidt, who have worked together since Gone Girl. The actor contrasts his stoic, attentive face with a cynical humour that elicits several laughs and defuses a film that might otherwise take itself too seriously. It’s a shame, however, that we don’t get enough of Tilda Swinton’s performance as she interacts with our killer, mixing mystery and humour, only coming into play in the final third of the story.

With The Killer, Fincher knows that, as a director who has brought many killers and other sociopaths to the screen during his career, he is eagerly awaited. Having sided with the police and investigators in Seven and Mindhunter, in The Killer the director finds a contradictory hybrid character with an anti-system psychology reminiscent of Tyler Durden, to play with the viewer:

I think it’s a good thing to have an audience have some expectation of you because it gives you opportunities to subvert that. […] You get to play with expectations. It’s your responsibility to be aware of that and use it to your advantage, as opposed to letting it get in the way of the story you’re trying to tell.

PIERCE Nev, « EMPIRE 30: David Fincher Answers Your Questions », 04 Mars 2020, URL : https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/empire-30-david-fincher-answers-your-questions/