David Fincher : Mind Games Book Review

Posted By yonghow on March 8th, 2022

I gotta admit I had some pre-conceived ideas about what this book would be like before I actually got my hands on it; a hardcover coffee-table book filled with delicious, hi-quality behind the scenes and on-set production stills from David Fincher’s amazing repetoire of films, peppered with some fairly light writing for context. This is not so much the case as it turns out – the photographs, art work and images included are far fewer than I had expected, and are mostly reproduced as small, thumbnail sized pictures.

The writing is in pretty small font size and printed with a somewhat awkward and unsettling layout, tight kerning that pushes uncomfortably close to the edges of the pages and images, making it a little hard to read. Content wise, I do like the “influences” page after the coverage for each of the films that gives us some additional insight into Fincher’s creative influences.

Book synopsis – David Fincher: Mind Games is the definitive critical and visual survey of the Academy Award– and Golden Globe–nominated works of director David Fincher. From feature films Alien 3, Se7en, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl, and Mank through his MTV clips for Madonna and the Rolling Stones and the Netflix series House of Cards and Mindhunter, each chapter weaves production history with original critical analysis, as well as with behind the scenes photography, still-frames, and original illustrations from Little White Lies’ international team of artists and graphic designers. Mind Games also features interviews with Fincher’s frequent collaborators, including Jeff Cronenweth, Angus Wall, Laray Mayfield, Holt McCallany, Howard Shore and Erik Messerschmidt.

Grouping Fincher’s work around themes of procedure, imprisonment, paranoia, prestige and relationship dynamics, Mind Games is styled as an investigation into a filmmaker obsessed with investigation, and the design will shift to echo case files within a larger psychological profile.

As a full disclaimer, I did not finish reading the prose in it’s entirely and my thoughts on the book are purely based on the visual aspects, the quality/quantity of the stills and the layout. If you’re in the market for a big coffee-table book filled with beautiful, glossy pictures of the director’s cinematic work, this is not it. I am sure however that the writing and the essays will be an interesting read, and I hope I’ll have the time to do so in the near future.

“David Fincher : Mind Games” details :

– Dimensions – 9.65 x 1.35 x 11.15 inches
– Hardcover, 304 pages
– Full color