"Fight Club": the single study case study film for FM4

Choose three-four scenes for micro and macro analysis. Scenes should be no less than five minutes and no more than 10 minutes long.

Good choices would be:

•  the last six minutes of the film
• a scene from the fight scenes in the middle of the film
• the film's opening

As a class we can look at the critical reception of the film and discuss your engagement with it in the light possible critical approaches to the film. For instance, consider your preferred way of reading  and interpreting the film:

1. Through David Fincher as an auteur - his visual style
2. Through its star performers and the meaning that they bring to the scenes and film
3. Through its genre(s) and how it conforms or subverts expected conventions.

Of course, the social context and reception of the film is important, too. The film was made in the 90s, a period which threw up a myriad of texts in which men's masculinity and their roles in a consumer and materialistic society was considered to be going through a crises. Another issue which is a key issue for postmodern films was identity, particularly fractured identity.

We will post some of our notes and discussions on this blog next week for further discussion and written analysis next week.