10 Outstandingly Beautiful Cinematic Single Frames

Though known for his steel and rubble colour palette, David Fincher can nonetheless stage, frame, light and film a beautiful shot with the best of them (thanks in no small part to his frequent DP, Jeff Cronenweth).

This centred image of Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter), smoking a cigarette in a support group, gives as much dramatic heft to the smoke itself as it does the actress. The 35mm grain brings out a brilliant texture and grit that fits not just with this frame's aesthetics, but with Fight Club as a whole.

As the film is tremendously self-aware, it's hard not to imagine that Fincher intended this image to be a dark mirror of Breakfast At Tiffany's, evoking Audrey Hepburn in its mise-en-scène (fancy French term for staging and setup of shot and scene).

And as an extra thematic nod, the shot has two clear sides to Marla - the light and the dark (produced by the imbalance of the background, the tilt of her hat, the elevation of her hand) - which represent the two aspects of the man she is soon to be caught between: the Narrator and Tyler Durden.