David Fincher's film Fight Club effectively demonstrates auteur theory through Fincher's signature directorial style. Fincher uses consistent elements like muted color palettes, deliberate camera shots that guide the audience's gaze, and unconventional character introductions. The film also reflects Fincher's artistic vision through its unreliable first-person narration and fractured narrative structure. Analyzing Fight Club through the lens of auteur theory highlights how Fincher exerts authorial control over his work and influences audiences through his distinctive cinematic techniques.

1. How is Auteur Theory relevant when analysing David Fincher’s film
Fight Club?
I researched Auteur Theory for David Fincher’s film ‘Fight Club’. For this I plan to discuss how the
theory is presented in his work, and specifically in this film, and what effects it has on his audience. I
plan to also explain the main topics discussed about Auteur Theory and the opinions people have on
Fincher’s work, which make him an auteur. I will do this by analysing certain scenes in his film Fight
Club and will discuss what small details he uses to influence the scene and to bring the scene
together to make it stand out from other directors’ work.
Auteur theory is a theory in which shows that the director is the “major creative force” in their piece
of work, and not the actors. Auteur theory argues that “a film reflects the director’s artistic vision”,
which means that in many of their films they will have a recurring theme, for example the colour
scheme, camera angles, actors, etc. the criticism of the theory is that the director is the “author” of
their own work. Theorists claim that this is “what makes the directors pieces of work creative” and
more effective to the audience, opposed to directors who are not in full control of their final
product.
David Fincher is an American film director who has worked on feature films, television series, and music
videos. Fincher’s trajectory speaks for itself; a former visual effects producer who made a name for
himself in music videos and commercials before helming a perfect string of cultural tentpoles in the
90’s. He’s stayed ahead of the curve ever since, whether it is by perfectly capturing the zeitgeist with
his films or, more recently, by paving the way for the streaming revolution with marquee television
series. Fincher has created many different films with some having very similar repetitive themes, like
his colour palettes, they seem to be very muted and dreary creating a very melancholy and heavy
feeling towards his pieces of work it's especially obvious in man-made industrial or commercial
settings such as this but more importantly than the missile scene is the meson shot the way he
shoots a scene his style is incredibly deliberate unlike some filmmakers who prefer the fluidity of
shooting film from the shoulder. He's very prescriptive with what he wants the audience to look at in
a shot and uses his actors to steer our attention, he also “Identifies the films aesthetic. This is the
visual style of the film including the lighting, set design, costume and how the camera shoots them”.
Auteur theory is a concept that lives on today and is now really kind of used as a marketing tool by
film companies consider films that are marketed for their director rather than their stars this can
surely be a way to maximize box office takings, and this is what is shown in a lot of Fincher’s work. A
lot of people do still question if his work is good due to his directing, or if the actors are the reason
to it being good, and they also question if it is good because of how it is written, but it is very clear
that it is Fincher’s directing that makes it good, which is shown in all his work. “Troffo said that
authors should also have a consistent theme to their work something that reflects their life their
personality in the films that they choose to make.” This is something that Fincher is consistent with
when it comes to his work, it is shown by his colour palette, shots, actors and genre of film which is
why many people enjoy his products.
The use of his shots compliments the story line, for example in the final scene where jack shoots
himself, and Tyler falls to the floor, Fincher quickly changes his shot to show that Tyler was a figment
of jack’s imagination and that he had finally gone because he died. His scenes are very creative by
just the use of his shots, some of his scenes only contain one line of speech but using shots, colours
and effects it is very creative. Fincher Doesn’t use over the shoulder shots, Fincher favours precise
static shots and subtle movements that are almost invisible. Very prescriptive with what he wants
the audience to see and look at in his shots. He uses dark and unsettling music in certain scenes to
match with the dark colour base of his shots, but when the mood of the main character changes, so

2. How is Auteur Theory relevant when analysing David Fincher’s film
Fight Club?
does the tone of the music. In the scene “I Felt Like Destroying Something Beautiful” at the very
beginning the audio used is slowed down to make it seem like the character is in his own world, or
lost in his own imagination, that quickly speeds up along with the scene as the main character gets
hit in the face forcing himself into reality to save himself, and to snap back into the real world
instead of his “dream world” which consists of imaginary people and scenarios. Fincher's style of film
is well known in the film community, using signature methods of cinematography, lighting, plot
structure, and music. His films always include low lighting, tracking shots, multiple plot twists, and
emotionally visceral film scores. In the opening dialogue, the sound design clues us in about our
location. There are deep echoes and reverberation to everything. The dialogue, the click of the gun
against the Narrator's teeth, the creak of the chair. There is also a room tone, a low hum that we
associate with empty spaces which is shown throughout the film. As the camera leaves a character,
it takes on an omniscient and rapid tour of the situation. We descend into the parking structure
below the building. The camera's motion is paired with a whooshing sound as it passes through the
ground and concrete walls. It is a short scene, lasting just over a minute — just enough time to meet
our characters and understand that they end up in a terrible situation. The images tell us a lot about
this scenario, but the emphatic sound design seals the deal.
Fincher includes auteur theory into his film ‘Fight Club’ using camera techniques, lighting, colours,
and placement of both actors and props. He has a consistent theme throughout all his films, whether
it be the same use of colours, actors, locations, etc. He can create a whole scene just using a few
pieces of speech and the whole scene will be made up by his placement of characters and objects,
but also the atmosphere he creates between the characters by using a certain colour scheme and
lighting to create a dreary and melancholy heavy feeling. Not only is this created in some scenes, but
throughout the film, showing that he is able to take full control of his piece of work and make it
successful by doing things differently to other directors instead of it being successful because of the
way the actors are during the scene, or the way they produce their lines of speech. Tyler Durden
appears in "Fight Club" six times before he and Norton's character meet officially meet, flashing on
the screen in several moments like here, when the narrator is mindlessly making copies at work. If
playback doesn't begin shortly, try restarting your device. This is a good technique as it is a different
way of introducing characters that not many directors would use in their pieces of work as they
would just introduce a character in a scene where they are fully shown to the audience, instead of
having a quick and short shot of them halfway through one, where they are not relevant to the
scene. Fincher did this a lot throughout the film especially towards the end of the film, this made
people rewatch the film multiple times to understand the plot of the film, but to also see the hidden
pieces of footage hidden between different scenes. Fight Club is told from the first-person view of
the narrator. All conversations and events are told through his eyes from his recollection of events.
This is a fractured narrative, however, and the narrator is unreliable, as he is secretly both himself
and Tyler Durden. Not many films use this format, but in fight club these works very well as it shows
both characters very well, even though it is only told by one character and the other is just a figment
of the narrator’s imagination.
With this theory I could add this to my final project by either filming the same person that will be in
other pieces of work, such as my factual project, and as they will be similar topics it will be a lot
easier to incorporate that person into my projects. I would also be using similar lighting and colours
in both projects, it will have a similar theme throughout both, and a similar layout, but just a
different story line. This will clearly incorporate auteur theory into my work as it will be using similar
themes in different pieces of work, and they will be shown to work successfully in all products I
create.

3. How is Auteur Theory relevant when analysing David Fincher’s film
Fight Club?
In conclusion, auteur theory is relevant when analysing Fincher’s production of Fight Club as it is
used widely throughout the whole film, but is also shown in many ways, such as his use of actors,
lighting, colour, speech, etc. His work is successful down to the way he places actors and objects in a
scene and how he creates the scene to work even with little speech and action between his actors.
This works well as he can create a whole scene with not much going on, but it can also be one of the
best scenes throughout the film, for example the ending scene where it just shows the buildings
blowing up, this works well because of the way he places the characters in the scene and the props
he uses. This is how auteur theory is relevant and successful in David Fincher’s film Fight Club.
Bibliography
1. ANON. (2017). Auteur Theory. [Online]. Britannica. Last Updated: December
27th, 2017. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/art/auteur-
theory/additional-info#history [Accessed 9 November 2022].
2. ANON. (2022). What Is Auteur Theory? [Online]. Indie Film Hustle. Last
Updated: May 20th, 2022. Available at: https://indiefilmhustle.com/auteur-
theroy/ [Accessed 9 November 2022].
3. Fight Club. (1999). [Film]. Los Angeles: Fox 2000 Pictures.
4. Movie Clips. (2015). Fight Club (1/5) Movie CLIP - I Want You to Hit Me
(1999) HD. [Online]. YouTube. Last Updated: 7th December 2015. Available
at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR5Jp_ag2M8 [Accessed 7 December
2022].
5. Omar Hesham. (2011). Fight club Tyler’s End. [Online]. YouTube. Last
Updated: 7th December 2011. Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQrpaP-1r5I&t=9s [Accessed 7 December
2022].
6. The Media Insider. (2020). What Is Auteur? [Online]. YouTube. Last Updated:
December 2020. Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MXv41Ja3h4 [Accessed 7 December
2022].