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Title: Se7en (BFI Modern Classics) by Richard Dyer ISBN: 0-85170-723-8 Publisher: British Film Inst Pub. Date: 01 July, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: First-rate study of a second-rate film.
Comment: If, as I have suggested, the most successful in the BFI Classics and Modern Classics series are those written by critics and academics, than the very best are those by teachers. I would recommend Richard Dyer's brilliant monograph not just to admirers of David Fincher's celebrated film, but to anyone interested in getting the most out of their film-viewing. With facility and clarity, Dyer describes the mechanics of film-making - editing, sound-design and music, script, casting choices and performance style, camera movements and narrative pace, cinematography, mise-en-scene and imagery, location - and shows how they are all used to create meaning in 'Se7en'.
Dyer calls 'Se7en' 'a landscape of despair, a symphony of sin', a film 'extraordinarily un-American in its pessimism'. Appropriately dividing his study into 7 sibilantly-titled chapters, he examines it from an exhaustive number of angles. 'Se7en' is an archetypal serial killer movie that focuses on white male alienation in contemporary urban society, but is also a denial of the genre, refusing to demonise the murderer, suggesting he is simply an over-enthusiastic law-enforcer with the same attitude to the corruption of modern urban life as the policemen. Dyer shows how, through dialogue, script-structure and editing, the killer is connected to both detectives pursuing him. He shows how Andrew Kevin Walker's brilliantly constructed script both imposes order on unmanagable violence and despair, and denies it (I can't say how just in case you haven't seen the film). He examines the notion of 'sin' in a post-modern, post-religious world, with the minimal possibilities of salvation - religion, culture, human goodness - offered. He is particularly good on his own areas of expertise - star personae, race and sexuality.
Dyer thinks 'Se7en' is a Great Movie that does what Art should, exagerrating or heightening negative feelings about the world we live in that we suppress daily to survive. He treats 'Se7en' so seriously he even includes a 'map' to the narrative like those you get with Dante's 'Divine Comedy', and compares its climactic power to 'King Lear'. But for all his tireless analysis of the film, Dyer simply reinforces what it says on the surface. There is no subtext - every element, from script to theme to technical cinematic realisation simply reflects what we see, the direction dutifully and literally realising the script. Surely a classic film is one open to alternative interpretations, one that can be read against the grain, opening up a space for different kinds of viewing or viewers, one that on each re-viewing will reveal something new, deepening or complicating our first impressions? Nothing Dyer writes with such eloquence or enthusiasm convinces me that 'Se7en' is such a film.
Rating: 4
Summary: an indepth analysis of this excellent film!
Comment: the author has some truly fascinating observations about this movie (ie. 7 motif that appears throughout) and goes into great depth about many aspects of this film (ie. the editing of certain scenes and the effect of a specific technique). he also mentions several anecdotal bits of info that are interesting. for example, the studio wanted to soften and Hollywood-ize the ending but Brad Pitt had it in his contract that they could not change the original ending. this is a really good read if you're a fan of the film and also a solid sourcebook if your a film student. it also doesn't hurt that the author has since contributed to several of the audio commentaries on the special edition DVD of the film!
Rating: 4
Summary: Great Companion to the Movie
Comment: For any fan of the film "Seven" this book is a great companion piece that discusses different aspects and ideas about the movie, which stood out among the action/horror genre as outstanding. Though sometimes long-winded the book is very interesting in anaylizing the movie and features great color photos.
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Title: Dark Eye: The Films of David Fincher by James Swallow ISBN: 1903111528 Publisher: Reynolds & Hearn Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.99 |
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Title: Blade Runner (Bfi Modern Classics) by Scott Bukatman ISBN: 0851706231 Publisher: British Film Institute Pub. Date: 01 February, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Pulp Fiction (Bfi Modern Classics Distributed for the British Film Institute) by Dana B. Polan, Dana Polan ISBN: 0851708080 Publisher: BFI Publishing Pub. Date: 01 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Silence of the Lambs (BFI Modern Classics) by Yvonne Tasker ISBN: 0851708714 Publisher: British Film Institute Pub. Date: 01 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Chinatown (B.F.I. Film Classics) by Michael Eaton ISBN: 0851705324 Publisher: British Film Institute Pub. Date: 01 March, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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