Fight Club
Helena Bonham Carter as Marla Singer
Directed by: David Fincher
Written by: Chuck Palahnuik, Jim Uhls
Released: 15 October 1999 [USA], 12 November 1999 [UK]
Genre: Action / Drama / Thriller
More Information: Internet Movie Database
Synopsis
Fight Club is narrated by a lonely, unfulfilled young man who finds his only comfort in feigning terminal illness and attending disease support groups. Hopping from group to group, he encounters another pretender, or “tourist,” the morose Marla Singer, who immediately gets under his skin. However, while returning from a business trip, he meets a more intriguing character–the subversive Tyler Durden. They become fast friends, bonding over a mutual disgust for corporate consumer-culture hypocrisy. Eventually, the two start Fight Club, which convenes in a bar basement where angry men get to vent their frustrations in brutal, bare-knuckle bouts. Fight Club soon becomes the men’s only real priority; when the club starts a cross-country expansion, things start getting really crazy.
Images
Trivia
While Edward Norton is trying to convince Helena Bonham Carter to leave the city by bus, the crew arranged cinema signs to make references to other films the cast had been in, although only one is visible during the actual scene. Seven Years in Tibet (1997) (starring Brad Pitt) is visible, although the sign letters actually say “Seven Year In Tibe” as if the theatre didn’t have the required letters. Other marquees (in the far background, and not visible) reportedly said The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) (starring Norton) and The Wings of the Dove (1997) (starring Carter).
The original “pillow talk”-scene had Marla saying “I want to have your abortion”. When this was objected to by Fox 2000 Pictures President of Production Laura Ziskin, David Fincher said he would change it on the proviso that the new line couldn’t be cut. Ziskin agreed and Fincher wrote the replacement line, “I haven’t been fucked like that since grade school”. When Ziskin saw the new line, she was even more outraged and asked for the original line to be put back, but, as per their deal, Fincher refused.
Courtney Love and Winona Ryder were both initially considered for the role of Marla Singer, but in the end, it came down to Helena Bonham Carter and Reese Witherspoon. Director David Fincher wanted Bonham-Carter, but the studio wanted a bigger name and chose to go with Witherspoon. In the end however, the decision was taken out of their hands when Witherspoon turned down the role as being “too dark”, and Bonham-Carter was cast.
Helena Bonham Carter wore platform shoes to help close up the disparity in height between her and Edward Norton and Brad Pitt.
The sex scene between Tyler (Brad Pitt) and Marla (Helena Bonham Carter) was shot using the same ‘bullet-time’ technique used in The Matrix; stills cameras were set up in a circle around the bed, and each one would take a single shot in sequence. These single frames were then edited together and enhanced with CG, as both Pitt and Bonham Carter were fully clothed in motion capture suits during the shoot.
Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) says she goes to support groups because “It’s cheaper than a movie, and there’s free coffee”. In Margaret’s Museum (starring Helena Bonham Carter), Kate Nelligan says she goes to funerals because it’s cheaper than bingo, and there’s free food.
During the shooting of the sex scene, actors Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter posed in 10 different positions from the Kama Sutra.
Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter spent three days recording orgasmic sounds for their unseen sex scenes.
During the shooting of the film, Helena Bonham Carter insisted that her makeup artist apply all of her eye makeup with her left hand, because Bonham-Carter felt that Marla was not a person who would be particularly skilled at (or concerned with) correctly applying makeup.
According to Helena Bonham Carter, she based her performance of Marla Singer on Judy Garland in the later stages of her life. To help her get into the mindset, director David Fincher would often call her Judy on-set.
Quotes
Marla Singer: Candy-stripe a cancer ward. It’s not my problem.
Marla Singer: I’ve got a stomachful of Xanax. I took what was left of a bottle. It might have been too much.
Marla Singer: Your whacked out bald freaks hit me with a fucking broom! They almost broke my arm! They were burning their fingertips with lye, the stink was unbelievable!
Marla Singer: My God. I haven’t been fucked like that since grade school.
Marla Singer: There are things about you that I like. You’re smart, you’re funny, you’re… spectacular in bed… But you’re intolerable! You have very serious emotional problems. Deep seated problems for which you should seek professional help.
Narrator: I know, and I’m sorry…
Marla Singer: Yeah, you’re sorry, I’m sorry, everybody’s sorry, but… I can’t do this anymore. I can’t. And I won’t. I’m gone.
Marla Singer: You’re not getting this back. I consider it asshole tax.
Narrator: I’ll tell you: we’ll split up the week, okay? You take lymphoma, and tuberculosis…
Marla Singer: You take tuberculosis. My smoking doesn’t go over at all.
Narrator: Okay, good, fine. Testicular cancer should be no contest, I think.
Marla Singer: Well, technically, I have more of a right to be there than you. You still have your balls.
Narrator: You’re kidding.
Marla Singer: I don’t know… am I?
Narrator: No, no! What do you want?
Marla Singer: I’ll take the parasites.
Narrator: You can’t have both the parasites, but while you take the blood parasites…
Marla Singer: I want brain parasites.
Narrator: I’ll take the blood parasites. But I’m gonna take the organic brain dementia, okay?
Marla Singer: I want that.
Narrator: You can’t have the whole brain, that’s…
Marla Singer: So far you have four, I only have two!
Narrator: Okay. Take both the parasites. They’re yours. Now we both have three…
Marla Singer: …Condom is the glass slipper of our generation. You slip one on when you meet a stranger. You dance all night… then you throw it away. The condom, I mean, not the stranger.
Narrator: What?
Marla Singer: I got this dress at a thrift store for one dollar.
Narrator: It was worth every penny.
Marla Singer: It’s a bridesmaid’s dress. Someone loved it intensely for one day, and then tossed it. Like a Christmas tree. So special. Then, bam, it’s on the side of the road. Tinsel still clinging to it. Like a sex crime victim. Underwear inside out. Bound with electrical tape.
Narrator: Well, then it suits you.
Marla Singer: You can borrow it sometime.
Marla Singer: You’re the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.
Awards & Nominations
Won – Empire Award for Best British Actress
HP: The Deathly Hallows Pt II (2011)
Dark Shadows (2012)
Great Expectations (2012)
Les Miserables (2012)
