For David Fincher, seeing “Se7en” in 4K was an experience he can only describe as harrowing. That or a high school reunion.
“There are definitely moments that you go, ‘What was I thinking?’ Or ‘Why did I let this person have that hairdo’?” Fincher said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
He’s OK with the film being a product of its time in most respects. But some things just could not stand in high-definition resolution.
“It was a little decrepit, to be honest,” said Fincher. “We needed to resuscitate it. There are things you can see in 4K HDR that you cannot see on a film print.”
Ever the perfectionist, he and a team got to work on a new restoration of the film for its 30th anniversary re-release. This weekend the restored “Se7en” will play on IMAX screens for the first time in the U.S. and Canada, and on Jan. 7, the 4K UHD home video version will be available as well.
The dark crime thriller written by Andrew Kevin Walker and starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman as a pair of detectives looking for a serial killer was somewhat of a career-reviver for Fincher, whose directorial debut “Alien 3” had not gone well. “Se7en” was not a sure thing: It was made for only $34 million (and only got that when Fincher managed to persuade studio execs to give up $3 million more). But it went on to earn more than $327 million, not accounting for inflation, and continues to influence the genre.
Fincher has over the years overseen several restorations of the film (including one for laser disc) but decided this needed to be the last. It’s why he insisted on an 8K scan that they could derive the 4K from. He wanted to ensure that it wouldn’t have to be repeated when screens get more advanced.
“I don’t want to do this again,” Fincher said. “What we’ve essentially gotten to with this is that this is the new negative. This will be the new archival storage element.”
For casual viewers, the tweaks should not be terribly noticeable. Fincher didn’t go in and add characters or give Gwyneth Paltrow a happy ending.
“I’m very against the idea of changing any of the content,” Fincher said. “There’s literally zero opportunity for toys in ‘Se7en’ so we won’t be introducing any of that.”
But take the opening scene where Pitt’s character selects a pre-tied tie and looks out a window. In the original version, Fincher used a tried and true filmmaking technique where you bounce soft light off a white card outside the window to give the appearance of depth and natural light coming in. He called them the “Being There” windows, referring to what cinematographer Caleb Deschanel did on that film.
“There’s no expectation by the audience that you see the buildings beyond the window. They’re just overexposed. The inside is dark enough that your eyes don’t adjust. And so outside it’s very bright,” he explained. “In 4K, it’s no good. You could see the sheen of the white card.”
The fix was to add a cityscape and some rain drizzle.
“We’re not showing off that now you can see the city,” he said. “We’re just finally kind of bringing the bottom end of the expectation up a little bit so that it feels like it was intended to because now we have the ability to resolve that stuff.”
There were some exposure issues, some cinch marks, some places where the splices came loose or where the perforations of the print changed the properties. Fincher also removed some of the camera jiggles at the end of the film, explaining that because it was an omniscient camera it was distracting. But he didn’t want to do too much and have it lose its essence.
“It’s a document of its time and I believe that movies should be that,” Fincher said. “For all the primitive nonsense of the equipment that went into making ‘The French Connection,’ it informs that movie. There is a kind of rugged primitivism in it. And I didn’t want that baked out.”
