I’ve just left the House of Cards premiere. They showed us the first two episodes and there was a short Q&A afterwards with the producers, writer, Kate Mara, Robin Wright, Kevin Spacey and David Fincher. I waited outside for a while then in the distance saw a car drive up and I could see it was Fincher getting out. So I fast-walked over to him and just walked straight up and
asked for a picture. I don’t think I said anything else to him, just thanks and then he walked onto the red carpet. The cool thing was, I just walked on literally straight behind him, onto the red carpet and then walked casually past the press and inside. The premiere was in aid of the OldVic theatre, Kevin Spacey is the artistic leader there, so tickets were available to the public. Once inside Spacey gave a cool introduction. He is very cool, charismatic, he’s a proper film star, smiling, laughing, witty jokes. Then they screened the first two episodes.
House of Cards is everything I wanted it to be and more. Of course it’s a perfectly crafted, beautifully shot and phenomenally acted political thriller. Spacey is deliciously evil, a manipulative bastard you love to love as he addresses the camera, winks at you and gives you inside information. Kate Mara is fantastic - I’m sure more will happen as the series progresses, at the moment she is literally like the nicer American reporter sister of Lisbeth Salander from TGWTDT - a reporter but one who isn’t afraid to be in the ‘morally grey area,’ meeting Spacey in the shadows “a deep-throat moment”, and fucking politicians careers with her articles.
There are unexpected, great moments of humour - but it feels suitably dirty, corrupt, yellow: perfect Fincher territory. Lots of his usuals in the credits. Fincher has directed the first two episodes but from the Q&A afterwards it seems his ‘stamp’ is felt throughout - him being an exec producer as well. It’s still settling. It certainly feels like Dragon Tattoo. The fast talking political spew reminds me of West Wing. Spacey’s pieces to camera make me think of Ferris Bueller. But it works, and I really love it.
The Q&A - although relatively short - had some great moments. Fincher talked about how if he didn’t get Spacey he wouldn’t have done it, and how he has turned down TV offers in the past. Everyone in the cast was his first choice. He talked about how films don’t really allow characters to be more than one thing. In TV you can have characters that are four things, with space for them to develop, and that was what was interesting to him. Spacey was brilliant - I’m paraphrasing - “when I talk to people I ask them what they did over the weekend, they say I watched 3 seasons of Breaking Bad, 2 seasons of Game of Thrones. Netflix allows the film industry to do what the music industry didn’t, to give the audience the content they want when they want it, at a good price and legally.” He also said the word motherfucker at some point and explained how on Se7en he only shot for 14 days or so days, so to actually work with Fincher was great. They have been talking about House of Cards since The Social Network. Kate Mara talked about how Spacey would draw penises and stick them by the lens of the camera to help her feel less daunted by acting with a very experienced cast.
More may come back to me later. My brief encounter with Fincher, what was not more than fifteen seconds and a couple of words, hasn’t really sunk in just yet. He made Zodiac. He made Fight Club. He is one of the reasons I love and make films. Okay, so he didn’t hire me, but it’s an overwhelming surge of inspiration to be so close to him and his work.
