the man behind the movie camera

Things I gathered about David Fincher after attending a Lincoln Film Center Q&A this past Sunday evening with the director after a screening of his latest odd opus, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button":
1. Things he loves: Pushing technology in film, Gisele Bundchen, and "Chinatown" ("It's a perfect film.")
2. It's pronounced Cate Blan-chit, not Blan-chette
3. "I would be less interested in that than I would in having cigarettes put out in my eyes."--his feelings when an obvious fan boy asked if he would ever make a sequel to "Se7en"

Fincher came across as a no bullshit, vastly creative, non-artiste (the anti-thesis of those directors who bask in their own fleeting, lauded glow) who only seems to be scratching at the surface of the kinds of stories he really wants to tell. He admitted he's constantly living in his own shadows in terms of critical, audiences, and studios expectations. On the surface, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" might be an about face for Fincher, whose prior work consisted of mainly dark, gruesome action thrillers or complex, meticulous dramas. In fact, "Benjamin Button" fits neatly into Fincher's brief and still evolving oeuvre. It's a film about the passage of time, the effect that death has on us, and never finding the answers to the questions we're constantly looking to be answered. All of his films have pieces and parts of that curiosity (no pun intended) that distinguishes Fincher as such a visionary and never dull voice in contemporary cinema. Unfortunately the audience didn't ask many engaging questions, instead preferring to shower him in obsessive fan praise. One audience member declared he'd seen "Se7en" five times in the fifth grade and then proceeded to ask something inane about what's like being the greatest director in the world. Fincher, being the gentleman that he is, took it in stride and thankfully didn't indulge in a self-aggrandizing response, only offering the apology that at the tender age of eleven someone sat through "Se7en" five times. It all ended too briefly and I was interested to know what about Brad Pitt inspires him (this is their third film together and each character, genre, and performance is wildly varied), why he seems to have chosen digital filmmaking almost exclusively as his preferred mode to tell his stories, and what he really thinks of all those heinously off the mark comparisons between "Forrest Gump" and "Benjamin Button." However, Fincher has remained elusive until recently with the promotion of his last two films and in the Q&A he seemed reticent to give us all the answers about the magic of "Benjamin Button." I guess he's a true artist in the sense that he leaves his work and image up to interpretation. An artist with a thing for Brazilian supermodels to be precise.