The term auteur emanates from France and it means author, which in film theory implies that a film by a director mirrors their artistic and ingenious vision. In accordance to Pearson and Simpson (2001), an auteur is delineated as a film director that generates a distinguishing and unique way to film creation by means of visual autograph and thematic and storyline constancy. The auteur theory was instigated in the 1950s in France by directors such as Francis Truffaut who promoted an emphasis on the input made by directors with respect to their style and type of film. The conception of auteurs came about as a way of connecting films together by the precise director that made them, pointing out the various repetitive techniques employed and the stylistic manipulations in different film projects as a representation of the persona and impact that the director has in such film projects (Nelmes, 2012). The purpose of this paper is to analyze the practicality of the auteur theory as a methodology for studying screen texts. It will also delve into the strong suits and shortcomings of auteur theory, making direct references to the film works of Quentin Tarantino. The paper will consider the different techniques and styles used by Tarantino to determine whether he can be deemed a film auteur.

Auteur Theory as a Methodology

Subsequently, Andrew Sarris made a greater expansion on the auteur theory, and established more distinctive principles and measures of what it takes to be considered an auteur. Sarris recommended not just the unique personality and individuality of the director as a key criterion of being an auteur, but also the decisive meaning exuded from the content. In particular, Sarris (1968) makes the argument that regardless of the various hindrances set upon directors such as relinquishing control, the capacity of some directors to get through such hindrances is proof that in actual sense, the director is an auteur. As a result, this implies that the director, irrespective of other external factors, continues to be the fundamental and ingenious vehicle that drives the film.

In particular, Sarris presents three criteria that a director has to meet in order to be considered an auteur. The first criterion takes into account the technical competence of a director. In accordance to the auteur theory, if a director lacks technical competence and no elementary talent for the cinema then he or she is not deemed an auteur (Caughie, 2013). A second criterion encompasses the discernible personality of the director. In this case, with respect to a number of films, a director has to demonstrate particular recurring features of style, which function as his signature. The manner in which a film appears and moves ought to have a kind of association to the manner in which a director contemplates and feels. The third and eventual criterion of the auteur theory takes into account interior connotation, the decisive glory of the cinema as an art. According to Sarris, interior meaning is deduced from the tension between the character and material of the director (Sarris, 1968).

Technical Competence

The initial criteria of analysis from Sarris' standpoint is assessing... To begin with, without doubt, Tarantino is one of the most successful and renowned film directors in his era and in the film world as a whole. It is imperative to note that a director cannot be deemed successful if he or she does not possess technical competence. More so, technical competence can be perceived in the incessant use of certain techniques in his films. From a technical standpoint, his initial works on film are considerably basic and simple and his general selection of shots, angles, and cuts as well as composition is not complex. For instance, in the film Pulp Fiction, it can be perceived that Tarantino employs the basic use of two shots, close-ups, shot reverse shot, over the shoulder, medium shots, basic pans and high and low angles. These are classical exemplary production methods and for the most part realist (Joyce, 2015).
Another aspect takes into account the fact that Tarantino incessantly employs parallel camera angles and film shots, for instance the use of doorways. In addition, he has a proclivity of shooting his characters, especially the protagonists in the film, from behind, an approach that is atypical in style. In addition, Tarantino largely employs shots that are zoomed in on to lay emphasis on important scenes in the film as a way of gaining attention of the audience. For instance, he zooms in on the facial reactions and expressions of the protagonists as another character speaks. Despite the fact that on numerous occasions there has been disparaging of Tarantino's films, owing to his style of borrowing from other films, it can be perceived that he does this in a way that exudes technical competence and ultimately this has come to be his signature (Joyce, 2015).

As aforementioned, for a director to become an auteur, it is imperative to come up with and maintain a distinctive, reckonable, and identifiable signature all the way through their career in film. In assessing some of the celebrated and renowned films directed by Tarantino such as Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill 1 and Kill Bill 2, it can be perceived that there are identical themes and stylistics affinities (Smith, 2016). It is because of these themes in the aforementioned films that many have come to see Tarantino's signature. One of the characteristics of this director's style includes his incessant utilization of intertextuality. Tarantino's work has indicated that he is impacted by a great deal of understanding of motion pictures from various genres, ranging from French and Horror Films to Martial Arts. Time and again imitating and referencing other films, characters and aesthetic preferences of those flicks, Tarantino consistently combines these features in new and credulous ways, making the audience cognizant of what they are accustomed to being relatively unfamiliar. These recurrent insinuations, whether elusive or flamboyant, are common to Tarantino's films and for that reason have come to be a stylistic feature time and again linked to him (Caughie, 2013).

Another aspect concerning Tarantino's signature encompasses how he employs violence prevalently in…