Panic Room

Moram priznati, moje divljenje Davidu Fincheru se sporo razvijalo. Nakon Alien 3, nazivao sam ga "neki David Fincher". Nakon sto sam vidio Seven, nisam mogao zaspati nekoliko sati. No nakon Fight Club, postao sam dozivotni obozavatelj. Evo sada i Panic Room, za koji sam prije nekoliko mjeseci gledao forspan i jednostavno znao da ce film biti pravi Fincher - u zavadi je sa rasvjetljivacem, ali su mu likovi uvijek u najcudnije situacije, a onda se on samo skloni i posmatra, sa kamerom pri ruci.

Kadrovi u Panic Room redefinisu pojam "rucna kamera". Jedan od njih je izrezan u razne forspane, ali pocinje na cetvrtom spratu, silazi niz stepeniste do prizemlja, u kuhinju kroz rucku od aparata za kafu (!), preko pulta, sve do vrata gdje Forest Whitaker pokusava da provali mrdajuci kvake. Ali i nekoliko drugih kadrova su jednako efektivni, kao sto je onaj gdje tinejdzerska ruka udara crveno dugme na zidu sobe za paniku, dugme koje pokrene klizanje debelih celicna vrata, dok taj isti Forest Whitaker trci da dodje do vrata prije nego se zalupe. O, a onda je tu i odlicna uvodna spica, pa kadar gdje plavo svjetlo plese po plafonu, pa onda... Spisak se nastavlja.

Velicina Davida Finchera je u cinjenici da on koristi te kadrove kao osnovu za svoj film, koji je jednostavna prica o likovima. Kroz cijeli film, stalno saznajemo podatke o glavnim likovima, stvari koje nas mogu iznenaditi, ne zato sto su malo vjerovatne, vec zbog toga sto ih jednostavno nismo znali, nismo ih trebali znati. Fincher nam daje nagovjestaje, ali je previse zauzet pokazivanjem onoga sto se desava sada da bi trosio vrijeme na ono sto ce se desiti kasnije. Prica, i lakoca kojom je vodi, je ono sto se pamti duze od zgodnih kadrova.

Meg Altman (Jodie Foster), svjeze razvedena samica majka Sarah, trazi kucu po New Yorku. Njena brzopotezna agentica sa procentima na umu pokazuje joj kucu koja je nama objasnjena kao mjesavina "townhome" i "brownstone", pa se zove "townstone". Kuca je ogromna, cetiri sprata, milion soba, cak i lift, i njima dvjema bas i ne treba toliki prostor. No, cinjenica da kuca ima "sobu za paniku" uvjerava opreznu i naizgled nesigurnu Meg da kucu kupi. To je soba dizajnirana da drzi ljude van, ojacna svakojakim celikom, sa vlastitim sistemima za osmatranje i ventilaciju i zasebnu telefonsku liniju. Po sreci, trebace im vec prve veceri - tri provalnika upadnu u kucu, trazeci nesto sto je skriveno bas u toj sobi. Kao sto vec rekoh, Meg i Sarah se sakriju u tu sobu i partija saha pocinje - provalnici zele da ih istjeraju iz sobe, a njih dvije zele da istjeraju njih trojicu iz kuce.

Situacija ce evoluirati nekoliko puta, i svaku promjenu ce obje strane nastojati rijesiti metodom probe i greske. Film ima nekoliko vrlo napetih scena, koje nema potrebe pominjati detaljno, osim mozda one u kojoj potpuno odsustvo zvuka podvlaci tu napetost do te mjere da ce neko u vasoj publici zasigurno proizvesti neki znak, mozda cak i krik. Ne zato sto se nesto desava iznenada, vec naprotiv, zato sto se desava nepodnosljivo sporo. Panic Room je odlican primjer kako mastovit reditelj stvara atmosferu u kojoj kontrolise sve i svakoga, ukljucujuci i damu koja vristi u vasoj kino-dvorani. To je uzbudljiv, stilisticki gotovo savrsen film i logican nastavak zvjezdane karijere koja se tek zahuktava. A to je strasna stvar.

I have to admit, my admiration for David Fincher took a while to develop. After Alien 3, I referred to him in a magazine article as "some David Fincher". After seeing Seven, I wasn’t able to sleep for a few hours. But after Fight Club, I was a lifetime fan. Enter Panic Room, a trailer for which I saw a few months ago and just knew the movie was going to be a classic Fincher – he can’t light a set to save his life, but he can put his characters in the weirdest situations, and then he just steps back and watches, with a camera handy.

And the shots in Panic Room redefine the term "handicam". One of them was spliced into different trailers, but it starts on a fourth floor, falls down the stairway to the ground floor, into the kitchen, through the coffee-maker handle (!), over the counter and to the door where the handles are rattled by an intruding Forest Whitaker. But a few other shots were equally as effective, like the one where a teenage hand slaps the red button on the wall of the panic room, the button that sets thick steel door in a sliding motion, while that same Forest Whitaker is trying to get to the door before they slam shut. Oh, and the excellent opening credits, and the shot with the dancing blue light at the ceiling, and the one... The list continues.

The greatness of David Fincher is in the fact that he uses those shots as a set-up for his movie, which is a simple character study. Throughout the movie, we keep learning things about the main characters, things that may surprise us, not because they are a stretch, but because we just didn’t know them, we didn’t need to know them. Fincher leaves clues for us, but he’s too busy showing us what happens now to hint what would happen later. The story, and the ease with which he guides it, is what is remembered longer than the fancy camerawork.

Meg Altman (Jodie Foster) is freshly divorced single mom of Sarah, looking for a place in New York City. Her fast-pace, commission-driven real-estate agent shows her this house, explained to us as a cross between a townhome and a brownstone, therefore "townstone". The house is gigantic, four stories, million bedrooms, even an elevator, and they don’t really need all that space. But the fact that the house has a "panic room" convinces cautious and seemingly insecure Meg, to go for it. It’s a room designed to keep people out of it, reinforced in all kinds of steel, with its own surveillance and ventillation systems, and a separate phone line. And as luck would have it, they will need it the very first night – three burglars break in, looking for something hidden in that very room. As mentioned above, Meg and Sarah hide in that room, and the chess game begins – intruders want them out of the room, they want the intruders out of the house.

The situation will evolve several times, and each modification is dealt with on both sides on a trial-and-error method. There are some very tense scenes, which don’t need to be mentioned in detail, except maybe for one in which a total absence of sound emphasizes that tension to the point that someone in audience in your theatre will make some sound, if not even a cry. Not because something happens suddenly, but, on the contrary, because it happens excruciatingly slow. Panic Room is a great example how an imaginative director creates an atmosphere where he controls everything and everybody, including the lady screaming in your theatre. It’s a rush, stylistically almost perfect movie, and a logical continuation of a stellar career that’s just getting started. And that’s a scary thing.