Auteur theory is familiar to anyone who is a fan of the French cinema because the word originated as a description of a certain type of French film. Basically, it was a style that was directly connected to the director of the film, usually because he was both the involved in both writing the screenplay and directing the film. In the movies eek End by Jean-Luc Godard and The 400 Blows by Francois Truffaut, the director was involved in the writing also. Both directors were also proponents of the idea of auteur cinema, so their films would have had a flair that was similar to some elements of themselves. It can be said that the Truffaut film is the best representation of the style between the two because he was using scenes from his own life and that of his friends. Just as Tom Sawyer was a mix of the…...
mlaWorks Cited
Bazin, Andre. What is Cinema, Vol. II. Trans. Hugh Gray. Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 1972. Print.
Sarris, Andrew. The American Cinema. Chicago: Da Capo Press, 1996. Print.
Sontag, Susan. "Godard." Post-War Cinema and Modernity: A Film Reader. Eds. John Orr and Olga Taxidou. New York: NYU Press, 2001. Print.
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).…...
Gotham is a dark place, which manifests evil in the character of the Joker (Jack Nicholson). Bruce Wayne, Batman, is the force with which evil must reckon. Batman, however, has his own dark side, which is manifest in his costume, his gothic style mansion, and the technology he employs to combat the Joker and other criminal elements.
In this film, Burton needed only a few big name and talented actors -- Jack Nicholson (the Joker), Michael Keaton (Bruce Wayne aka Batman), Billy Dee Williams (Harvey Bent), and Kim Bassinger (Vicky Vale) to attract that audience that might otherwise have opted out of a comic book to film production. Yet the actors in this instance by virtue of their talent need minimal direction, and that allows Burton to focus on the structure of the film. The film is not structured around the actors, but the actors fill the structure of the…...
mlaReference List
Dudley, Andrew (1984). Concepts in Film Theory, Oxford University Press.
Caughie, John (1982). Theories of Authorship: A Reader, Routledge, New York, New
York.
Valicha, Kishore (1988). The Moving Image: A Study of Indian Cinema, Orient
Assignment : TarantinoAuteur theory suggests that directors place a personal stamp, imparting a unique signature style and voice to each film they make. There are several filmmakers that support auteur theory, such as Hitchcock and Spielberg. Tarantino is another filmmaker whose style is unique, and whose films are almost instantly recognizable because of their unique approach to filmmaking. In some cases, a film is characterized by its director in a way that all a person would have to say is that they are seeing a Tarantino film and it would not matter what it was about. Knowing the director is enough to brand the film, which is why auteur theory is linked to the way films are marketed (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014). Tarantino is an auteur because of the way his films contain humorous violence, and the ways the scripts tend to be about revenge. The combination of violence and…...
mlaReferencesGoodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.) [Electronic version]. Retrieved from ? https://content.ashford.edu/
" (p. 78)
This leads us to the very question that the achowskis struggle with in their work, casting figures such as Neo and Trinity, or Violet and Corky, into a struggle for individualism against a culture defined by demands for uniformity and male-driven values of violence and domination. here Bound relies on highly grounded visual effects to express this idea, the Matrix explores the very same themes using innovative and ground-breaking special effects. It is in this way that in the Matrix, as we become more aware of the fake things that once were presented as reality, that ripples begin to appear on the screen. hen Neo-is 'located' in the Matrix, the scene begins with his being absorbed into a mirror. The mirror ripples unnaturally and in a way that jars with the physical rules of the real world. This is a visual effect that is repeated throughout the film,…...
mlaWorks Cited:
Bordwell, D. (2002). Intensified Continuity: Visual Style in Contemporary Hollywood
Film. Film Quarterly.
Bordwell, D. & Thomp, L. son. (1996). Film Art: An Introduction. McGraw-Hill
Companies; 5th edition (August 5, 1996).
French New Wave/Auteur Theory and Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino: An Auteur
French New Wave cinema is a cinematic movement of the 1950s and 1960s established by French filmmakers and film critics who founded the Cahiers du Cinema that felt cinema had become too commercialized, formulaic, and unoriginal. This critical contention eventually led to the development of the auteur theory. Throughout various essays and critiques, Cahiers du Cinema critics sought to revolutionize cinema and analyze the function of writer in relationship to director. Cahiers du Cinema critics further argued that directors should be the driving vehicle behind a film and not writers. The criterion for an auteur, as defined by film critics in France and the United States, is still evident to this day. Through his unique writing and directing style, and through the use of mise-en-scene in his most recent film Inglourious asterds,[footnoteRef:1] Quentin Tarantino has demonstrated he is a contemporary auteur and…...
mlaBibliography
Astruc, Alexandre. "The Birth of a New Avant-Garde: Le Camera-Stylo." L'Ecran Francais, No.
144, (March 30, 1948). transl. In "The New Wave: Critical Landmarks," by Peter Graham (Secker & Waurburg, 1968). pp. 17-23.
"Creator: Quentin Tarantino." TV Tropes.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/QuentinTarantino?from=Main.QuentinTarantino .
Dominik's Killing Them Softly
Andrew Dominik's 2012 American film Killing Them Softly is a screen-adaptation of George Higgins' 1974 crime novel Cogan's Trade. Dominik's screenplay sets the action in modern America during the 2008 election campaign, which serves as a backdrop to the action of the film and allows both director/screenwriter Dominik and his cast of characters to ironically and wittily juxtapose their own agendas, ends and pursuits with those of the political world. Indeed, the film's subtext or undertone is really as pronounced as the main drama, paralleling the narrative in the final race to the showdown: the execution of the robbers of the card game and the election of a new ring leader (aka President of the United States). This paper will show how Dominik uses the underground world of organized crime to parallel and criticize the state of American politics and economics.
Storytelling, Editing, Style and Directing
The storytelling…...
mlaReference List
Bradshaw, P. (2012). Killing Them Softly -- review. Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/sep/20/killing-them-softly-review
Ebert, R. (2012). Killing Them Softly. Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved from http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121128/REVIEWS/121129985
Kirk, J. (2012). Review: Dominik's 'Killing Them Softly' Drives Message Hard and Well. First Showing. Retrieved from http://www.firstshowing.net/2012/review-dominiks-killing-them-softly-drives-message-hard-and-well/
Pezzotta, E. (2010). Film Analysis: A Comparison Among Criticism, Interpretation,
Howard Hawks, Auteur
Giving Howard Hawks the label of film auteur was a bit of revisionist history initiated by the New ave Cinema of France during the late 1940s into the 50s. Championed by directors Jean Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, the French directors were seeking to justify their own individualism as an answer to the lifting of the quota on American Films after orld ar II, which led to a flood of big budget Hollywood films into French movie houses. The French directors unable to compete with the flash and panache of Hollywood, pointed out that individualism made their films stronger. The French anointed John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock and Hawks as the patron saints of the auteurs. Said Godard,
The great filmmakers always tie themselves down by complying with the rules of the game. I have not done so because I am just a minor filmmaker. Take, for example, the films…...
mlaWorks Cited
Cohan, Steven. Masked Men: Masculinity and the Movies in the Fifties. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997.
Gehring, Wes D., ed. Handbook of American Film Genres. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988.
Gehring and Largent. American Dark Comedy: Beyond Satire. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996.
Jasto (2002). "Howard Hawks "Online at Books and Writers. Available:
This is an apt title because of the gender inequality that the mid-1960s can be associated with, especially the depiction of either sex in films.
Madeleine and her friends are depicted as socially unaware conformists who only live in the moment and don't care for the deeper meaning of life and so embrace popular culture. In contrast, Paul and obert are seen as the opposite: nationalists, idealists, philosophers. However, as Elsa, be it in a rather uninformed way, related from her experience in the U.S., the women over there were making it to the front lines. The freedom to have an abortion was also treated as a scandalous matter in France, which Madeleine accepted and chose as a follower of the popular culture.
A scene in the film has obert discussing with Paul how the word 'masculin' is made up of 'masque' (mask) and 'cul' (ass) and when Paul asks what…...
mlaReferences
AsgerJorn quoted by Graham Birtwistle: Living Art / Jorn's Theory (1946-1949): Reflex, 1986, p36.
Bordwell, David. The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice. University of California Press, 1979.
Daix, Pierre. Les LettresFrancaises, 1966.
Francois, Truffaut. A Certain Tendency ofthe French Cinema. Classic Auteur Theory, 1954.
Orson elles' Film Citizen Kane (1941) on Expression in Film; the Film Industry; and on the Theory of Director as "Auteur"
The expressive meaning of the cinematic masterpiece Citizen Kane, directed by Orson elles in 1941, cannot be summed up succinctly. ithin Citizen Kane, everything is significant; not a single frame is wasted or extraneous. Each separate portion of the film contributes to its overall impact as one of the greatest cinematic achievements, if not the greatest, ever. The film is, quite simply, a tour de force of film directing; cinematography; mise-en-scene; editing; sound (it is considered the best sound film ever made (Mast and Kawin; Giannetti); acting; "aesthetic realism" (Bazin, p. 43) and an amazing (even to this day) synthesis of all these elements and more. Therefore, analyzing one line, or one key scene, or even a long series of scenes from Citizen Kane and declaring any of these…...
mlaWorks Cited
Bazin, Andre. What is Cinema, Vol. II. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California:
University of California Press, 1971. 40-45.
Giannetti, Louis. Understanding Movies. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall,
1993. 445-480.
French New Wave cinema was established by film critics, who founded the Cahiers du Cinema, whom felt cinema had become too commercialized, formulaic, and unoriginal. This group of critics would come to identify two major characteristics of the New Wave movement, which included the manner in which mise-en-scene was utilized in the film and how their auteur theory could be applied to work of art created. A contemporary film that incorporates French New Wave cinema elements into its production and design is the 2009 film District 9.
Among the major elements used in French New Wave film are loose story plots; improvised dialogue; erratic character behavior; unique use of jump cuts; and the use of natural lighting, location, and direct sound recording. District 9's unique documentary style and editing allows Neill Blomkamp to successfully incorporate these elements into the film's narrative while maintaining a cohesive feel.
Additionally, District 9 is a commentary…...
Alphaville
Analysis of Godard's Alphaville
French New ave cinema emerged during the 1950s and was inspired by the criticism of Andre Bazin and Jacques Donial-Valcroze who helped to found Cahiers du Cinema. The Cahiers du Cinema helped to establish two filmmaking philosophies that would help to guide New ave auteurs in the creation of their films. Additionally, New ave directors would also establish a set of guidelines that would help to classify their films as part of the New ave movement. Among the founders of the New ave movement was Jean-Luc Godard whose films not only adhere to the guidelines of the movement, but also push the boundaries and allow him to use his films to explore politics, genres, and cinematic styles. Alphaville, released in 1965, not only follows the guidelines that were established by the New ave movement, but also brings together the genres of film noir and science fiction…...
mlaWorks Cited
Alphaville. Dir. Jean-Luc Godard. France: Athos Films, 1965. Motion Picture.
Phillips, Craig. "French New Wave." Green Cine. 2005. Web. Accessed 8 April 2012.
"Retrofuturism." 25 March 2007. Web. Accessed 8 April 2012.
Spicer, Andrew. Film Noir. New York: Pearson Education, 2002. Print.
Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ
For most of its duration, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ lingers horrifyingly on a mostly-naked male body in pain; as a result, the rest of the film seems exceptionally anxious otherwise about the issue of homoeroticism. Gibson claimed in interviews that the principal source for the film's screenplay (credited to Gibson and Benedict Fitzgerald) besides the New Testament came in the recorded vision of a Roman Catholic mystic, the Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich. Yet The Passion of the Christ offers inadvertent proof of the auteur theory of cinema, because Gibson's role as director entails a host of interpretive decisions. I hope by examining the ways in which The Passion of the Christ variously depicts Judas, Satan and Herod in ways that seem to nervously invoke issues of homoeroticism or androgyny, suggesting that the film's original source material may be the Gospels, but…...
mlaWorks Cited
Gibson, Mel. The Passion of the Christ. With James Caviezel, Monica Bellucci. Icon Productions: 2004.
Gibson, Mel. Braveheart. With Mel Gibson, Brian Cox. Icon Productions: 1995.
Jason Reitman's 2007 film Juno addresses a difficult and potentially controversial topic: unwanted pregnancy and the challenges of deciding whether to terminate the pregnancy or carry it to term. Braha and Bryne describe Juno as a "comedy-drama," but it is also a young adult film because its protagonist is a teenager and because it frankly addresses coming-of-age issues linked to uniquely adolescent sexuality and gender identity. The film focuses on titular character Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) and her decision to carry the pregnancy to term and give up the baby for adoption. Focusing on Juno empowers the protagonist and shows that Reitman deliberately sets out to make a film that is as much about the politics of sexuality and gender as it is about the specific issues related to decisions related to abortion. Juno remains fully in control of her decisions about whether or not to stay with Paulie and…...
French New Wave
French cinema, by the time the second world war ended, was faced with a crisis fittingly summarized by posters that advertised Mundus-Film (distributors for First National, Goldwyn, and Selig). These posters implied that the cannon operated by America's infantrymen launched film after film targeted at the French. La Cinematographie francaise (soon to become the leading French trade journal) claimed that every week 25,000 meters of film imported mainly from America were presented in France for each 5000 meters of local French films. French-made films often constituted as little as 10% of the films screened in Parisian cinemas. Henri Diamant-erger, publisher of French magazine 'Le Film', bluntly stated that France could be in jeopardy of turning into a 'cinematographic colony' of America (Nowell-Smith).
"French New Wave" is one of the film movements shaping the history of French cinema. Rejuvenating the prestigious French cinema, the New Wave that emerged in…...
mlaBibliography
Darke, Chris. "The French New Wave." n.d. Retrieved from: http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415582599/data/The%20French%20New%20Wave%20-%20Chris%20Darke%20(4th%20ed).pdf
Neupert, Richard. A History of the French New Wave Cinema. Madison: Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2007. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com.pk/books?id=OIp7bDHNDs8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=french+new+wave+cinema&hl=en&sa=X&ei=J8E8VZjvM9GxacHFgJgO&ved=0CBsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=french%20new%20wave%20cinema&f=false
Nochimson, Martha P. World on Film: An Introduction. New York City: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com.pk/books?id=c3Kn7dsGGA0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Nochimson,+Martha+P.,+World+on+Film&hl=en&sa=X&ei=X8k8VdTbBNXgar3RgMAD&ved=0CBsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Nochimson%2C%20Martha%20P.%2C%20World%20on%20Film&f=false
Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey. The Oxford History of World Cinema. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/The_Oxford_History_Of_World_Cinema.PDF
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