A filmaker, usually the director, who puts their personal stamp on films is an auter.
Examples are: Alfred Hitchcock, Jean-Luc Goddard and Stanley Kubrick.
Auteur - french for author
Politique des autuers - manifesto made in 1950s by french film directors and critics to celebrate filmakers.
Auteurs are seen
like artists
creative control
original work
personal film language
often start the conventions of genre
Sarris (1962) notes on Auteur theory -
The technical competence of the director
The directors distinguishable personality
Interior meaning
Alfred Hitchcock
Long career beginning in early years of film industry
Work in Europe and America
Innovation in filmaking
Known as master of suspense and audience reception
Influential in later genres such as pyschological thriller, the America slasher and Italian Giallo.
Inspired by avant-garde expressionism and surrealism.
Technical Competence of Director
Story telling visually in silent era
Expressionist lighting
Use of subjective camera
Dolly zoom
Clever use of montage - uses it cleverly to portray nudity and violence without showing it
Around 1920 he joined the film industry
Started working at Gainsborough studios
Went to Germany and met Murnau
Filmed The Lodge (1927)
Experiments with subjective camera shots - seeing what character sees/peering through holes
Vertigo - uses dolly zoom. Seen as his masterpiece.
'What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out'.
His Distinguishable Style
Expressionism - form evokes emotion
Cameo appearances of himself
Narrative is often visual rather than told through dialogue
Continious actors - Doris Day, Cary Grant, James Stewart
Uses blondes - 'blondes make the best victims'
Suspense is generated when the audience can see danger his characters cannot see.
'There's no terror in the bang of the gun, only the anticipation of it.'
Expressionism
He is interested in story telling
He does not care for naturalism or realism
He's interested in mind, trauma and madness
In 1938 he leaves Gainsborough studios to work in America
David O Selznick introduces him to pyscho-analysis
Collaborated with Salvador Dali
Birds are a prominent motif in his films, and they are symbolic of doom and gloom.
Revisited Themes
Sexual themes
Espionage
Murder and Madness
Macabre Humour
Mistaken Identity
Human Mind
Ordinary people in extraordinary situation
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