- he suggested that film be used as a means for expressing the directors intentions
- He suggested that this means the director should be regarded as an auteur
- He stated that there are no good or only bad movies only good and bad directors
- It suggests that the director can use film apparatus like a writer uses pen to paper
- It is the medium for personal artistic expression of the director
- Auteur theory suggests that the best films will bear their makers signature
- Alfred Hitchcock plays up this idea by making sure he appears onscreen in a brief cameo
Alfred Hitchcock
- He is one of the most well known names in world cinema
- His style has established him among the elite class of directors known as auteurs
- This is because his style is so distinctive it can be recognised through his filmography
- He often collaborated with many of the same people when making his films to keep consistency
- His films are all very psychological in nature
- he explores the deepest psyches of character
- He is often known for casting beautiful blonds as leading ladies
- Some critics have often associated this as a freudian response to his own mother
- Hitchcocks psychological connection with his films allows audiences to psychologically connect as well
- Five films: Psycho, North by Northwest, The Birds, Vertigo, Rear Window
- He was often known as the master of suspense
- the editing of the scenes create immense suspense if someone else had done it it would not have been as suspenseful
- He doesn't do things unintentionally if he makes you feel an emotion it is on purpose
- Instead of creating suspense in regular ways he plays on different means of suspense
- It therefore manipulates audiences emotional response to the films
- This is a staple in hatchecks works
- He played on why people are the way they are
- His films have classic innovative shots
- His ability to create suspense is also central to his style
- He was the first director to use 3D creatively instead of just gimmicky
- He used 3D to create depth within the shots
- Seeing double is another theme in Hitchcock films
- He often used attractive blonds
What influences have his work had on popular culture?
- Has it been made funny
- Has it been referenced
- Has it been turned around or made funny
- The theme music for Lady Gaga's born this way is sampled from Vertigo
- The Simpsons have paid homage to Alfred Hitchcock many times
- Pretty Little Liars have paid homage to hitcock many times
- One example is a bell tower death paying homage to Vertigo
- Psycho was the first slasher flick
- Julie Andrews worked with him in a film called Rope
- The women he worked with were blond and often the most beautiful women in Hollywood
- He never worked with James Stewart after Vertigo, it was a commercial failure though it is a historical success, he blamed James Stewart, Hitchcock didn't blame himself
- Critics said James Stewart was getting old
- Hitchcock would have worked with Grace Kelly again but she got married and became the princess of Monaco, although she loved working with Hitchcock as a director
- Rear window is an interesting film it is about a man who looks out his rear window every night and one day he thinks he see's a murder. This messes with him
- the work of Hitchcock would have influenced other directors of that genre
- he used optical effects
Hitchcocks signature elements
- The blocking he created wasn't just for the actors
- He blocked every single camera movement in sync with the actors movements
- He would indicate different things to the audience with blocking
- He was a fan of pure cinema which involved telling a story by using strong visuals as apposed to lengthy dialogue
- He emphasised the visuals of a scene
- all his films had a strong thematic connection
- They all feature varying degrees of intrigue, suspense, murder, romance, sexuality and dark humour
- They also often centre around a wrongly accused man
- many deal with patriotism or internal espionage
- Most tell stories of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances
- many of his films feature excessive chases where the protagonist has to go to great lengths to avoid capture, the important elements in these chases are the running, the encounter and the avoidance
- Its never why it isn't explained
- He used smooth called the mcguffin, something that everyone is after but is not explained
- Its a nonsensical device
- he often made the films so visually compelling that no one cared what the mcguffin was
- Location as an important part of the story
- Location isn't a background but an integral part of the story
- he didn't leave anything to chance and every shot was purposeful
- Another thing he does is his actors only show their emotions on their faces
- It is a signature
- People argue that his actors are props too as he uses them for reaction shots only and makes them sudden and brief
- In his films we can often see countless shifting eyes to represent suspicion
In Vertigo Hitchcock uses a beautiful motif for the characters
- When certain characters come on everything reflects their motif colour
- Hitchcock started the slasher movie trend with Psycho
- Hitchcock pushes the boundaries with the Shower scene in Psycho
Wess Anderson
- Wess may be considered a contemporary Auteur
- He has a distinctive visual style
- Every shot is perfectly staged and arranged
- the periphery of the frame is just as important as the centre
- Anderson asks us to look at the edges as much s the middle because that is where the real drama might be occurring
- His visual style is self reflective it draws attention to the very act of looking
- he is renowned for using perfectly entered shots
- His work becomes a meditation on perception on films relationship to analogue film and to paint
- He also makes use of replete primary coloured palettes
- there is also an aspect of nostalgia to his "sunflower" aesthetic
- Anderson populates his films with off beat outsider characters who are either struggling to come to terms with adulthood or trapped in a liminal space where they can't or won't fit
- His stories are absurdist meditations on modern life
Tim Burton
- Almost all of his films are dark and quirky
- Time Burton uses recurring collaborators like Johnny Depp and his wife Helena Bonham Carter
- Tim Burton is actually best friends with Johnny Depp
- Burton likes to make dark movies with humour
- He also uses Danny Elfman as soundtracks
- he often uses saxophones, chimes bells and women choirs to add a creepy sense
- He usually has protagonist characters who are outsiders and against the norm
- He likes to usually have a witch character: This is normally a women with dark hair who is mysterious and often misunderstood
- If these films are not very gothic they are very weird
- Some say he isn't an auteur because he has some films that some consider not dark or gothic enough
- the witch character often creates a atmosphere of intimidation
- He also usually bases the whole story around a very skittish main character
Quentin Tarrentino
- He has his own distinctive style
- In his films he does not just use in genre and theme, he often takes a whole bunch of different genre and themes
- Most of his films are classified "Spaghetti Western"
- He has a film that has come out this year called the hateful eight
- He has a few signature shots such as the Gods eye shot
- blood and guts is common for his film, he uses hand cannons
- People get hacked into pieces there are fountains of blood
- Its called a spaghetti western because a lot of Westerns were made in Italy where they eat lots of spaghetti
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