Se7en

Director: David Fincher

DOP: Darius Khondji

The film Se7en for me was a hidden gem, I'm glad I had seen when I had because a couple of years back I might not have appreciated as much as I would and do now.

So onto analysing the film, one reason I think the film is so good is that there are so many ways to read the ending and so much for discussion. Who wins in the end? Mills for ending John Doe's life or was it Doe for escaping consequences and ruining numeous lives?

The film really does make you question your own morals, especially the ending, would you kill Doe? It is probably the most tense ending to a film I've seen for a while, yet you knew as soon as the lawayer was dictating terems that this was the beginning of the end for someone.

Onot the cinematography in the film: The theme of contrast is one that runs throughout the entirety of the film, and in most of finchers films. For example there are numerous scenes in buildings and apartments with boarded up windows, no lighting in the rooms but maybe for a torch or a crack of light through a window, making a contrasted image. Maybe the contrast in the imagery in the film is the line thin between how far people will go for what they belive in.  

Physically, the use of low lighting in these situations is to create tension and a sense of unease, which provides a brilliant base for the plot of . Also the use of heavy rain is common throughout the film, this doesn't mean anything by itself but with the other images with the film, its a metaphor of the downbeat atmosphere of life in the city in those times. 

Going into the cinematography in depth, on numerous occasions there are some brilliant uses of shallow depth of field, for example when Mills is holding the gun towards John Doe in the end scene and also ironically when John Doe holds the gun to Mills head earlier on. 

This is a tool used by Darius to control the audience, their focus and emotions. The shallow depth of field attracts the audience to what is in focus and draws the eye and engages them within the film. A point to add however the use of shallow depth of field is also a narative technique becasue without the shallow depth of field in the scene where John Doe lets Mills live, we would have seen his face ruining the suspense for the rest of the film.

You could easily go as far to say that David Fincher is an auteur, he has his own visual style, and this is clear within many of his films, Se7en, Fight Club and even in his adverts, like the Nike one.

Overall the cinematography from Khondji, painting the darkness and the vision of Fincher are coupled well and it is no suprise this film was so widely loved.