Auteur Theory and the Evolution of the Language of Cinema - Essay Example

?Sir Alfred Hitchcock Strangers on a Train Auteur Theory and the Evolution of the Language of Cinema Strangers on a Train The film plot involves a seemingly chance meeting of two strangers on a train. The protagonist, Guy, plays professional tennis and enjoys some fame. His home life consists of a messy public divorce and an affair with a US Senator’s daughter. The antagonist, Bruno, offers a deal in which the two men trade murders. Bruno will kill Guy’s wife if Guy will murder Bruno’s father, allowing Bruno to inherit a fortune. Guy does not accept the deal, but Bruno kills the wife anyway; and he stalks Guy for payback. Auteur Theory The auteur theory of film criticism views the director as the master story teller. Each film is compared within a body of work as well as on its own merits. The two main distinctions are the director is either structuring the film to interpret a theme or to present a style, a performance. “The purpose of criticism thus becomes to uncover behind the superficial contrasts of subject and treatment a hard core of basic and often recondite motifs. The pattern formed by these motifs… is what gives an authors work its particular structure, both defining it internally and distinguishing one body of work from another.” Nowell-Smith quoted (Wollen, 532) The underlying doubt regarding the validity of this theory questions the level of control the director has over the film. Certainly screenwriters, producers, actors and cameramen (Wollen, 540) have some degree of input in the creative process. This collaboration of talent suggests the director can more easily structure the film through motif and patterns of motif than present a styled performance. In other words, the director is not simply a shepherd leading actors through a script; he is an artist bringing context to the film using his signature style. “In feature films, the director is God; in documentary films, God is the director.” Sir Alfred Hitchcock The most obvious example of Hitchcock’s quote involves the director’s shot of Bruno choking Guy’s wife to death. Bruno begins to choke her, knocking off her glasses. The shot then changes and the audience observes her death through her own lenses. The glasses were so thick and prominent, they defined her view. A more subtle, but major, example occurred when Guy had a tennis match the day Bruno was to return to the scene of the crime and plant Guy’s lighter as evidence. Bruno delayed his departure to coincide with nightfall; Hitchcock views evil as operating in the dark. Guy honors his commitment to play the tournament; he changes his style to win early. This strategy backfires and the match goes five sets, losing valuable time for Guy. But because he is the protagonist and a good person, Guy takes time to shake hands with his opponent and thank the chair umpire before a hurried departure. While Guy uses his best effort to win, he could have lost quickly, but he is honorable. Bruno drops the lighter down a sewer grate. The race to recover the lighter more quickly than Guy can win his match ensues. Neither contestant knows the competition exists, but the director plays God with their lives. As Guy tries nobly to win quickly and graciously, Bruno fishes his hand in a storm sewer for his talisman of control. The merry-go-round (carousel) scene allows Hitchcock to turn an icon of childhood pleasure into a menacing deathtrap. Guy and Bruno fight for control of the lighter. The operator is shot and falls on the speed control lever sending the carousel spinning much too fast. Bruno shoves a child off a horse and Guy takes time to save the boy. Bruno knocks Guy down and they wrestle under the horses’ galloping hooves. A maintenance man crawls under the deck to get to the controls, but stops the machine too fast. Bruno is trapped in the wreckage, lighter in hand. Guy tries to persuade Bruno to confess, but Bruno stays evil to his death. In these scenes, Hitchcock demonstrates his theme of good is polite and brave, evil is manipulative, rude and a bully. He shows he is in control of the trials the cast endures and the outcomes they receive. He gives his audience a glimpse into his powers of observation and control. Hitchcock’s motifs dominate the film and its structure. The Evolution of the Language of Cinema The Bazin hypothesis states that the language of film has reduced the use of metaphor and symbol with a more fictional illusion that the audience is the “invisible guest” to recorded events. Earlier films would montage symbols and metaphors to engender feelings in their audience. Modern films use montage to manipulate time and space to move the story, not to manipulate the audience emotionally. “The sound film nevertheless did preserve the essentials of montage, namely discontinuous descriptions and the damatic analysis of action. What it turned its back on was metaphor and symbol in exchange for the illusion of objective presentation” (Bazen, 7) Hitchcock uses the “invisible guest” process in Stranger on a Train when Guy hears the news of the death of his wife in the Senator’s drawing room. The audience knows he is aware of her death, but the family does not. This scene erases audience discontent with Guy for being married and having a very public affair. His future family stands by him and obviously knows all the details of this arrangement. They accept him, the audience accepts him. Guy transforms into a sympathetic protagonist. One use of symbol, metaphor and montage is the scene where Guy sees Bruno stalking him at a tennis match. The audience all wear white and heads turn with the volley; except for Bruno who is wearing a dark suit and stares directly at Guy. The black wardrobe is a time honored traditional symbol for villains. Guy feels safe among the tennis crowd in his milieu, but unsafe when he spies Bruno. The montage shows this change in emotion. Guy smiling and greeting people, the spectators heads turning, Guy smiling, one head not turning, Guy concerned. Hitchcock uses the tennis match montage frequently in this movie. Hitchcock further uses metaphor and symbols in this work. Guy’s lighter becomes a talisman for guilt. If Bruno is found with the lighter, he alone is guilty. If the lighter is planted at the crime scene, Guy becomes guilty by association. The tennis match is an ingenious metaphor. As Guy tries to win quickly and beat Bruno to the park, Bruno waits for nightfall. As the match drags on, Bruno leaves for the park. The tennis match goes to game five. Bruno drops the lighter. Guy strains to win; Bruno stretches for the lighter down the sewer. Guy loses a point; Bruno knocks the lighter down another level. Guy recommits to win; Bruno stretches even farther to get the lighter. This montage tennis match occurs in different time and space, but the metaphor is strong. The interesting use of montage, besides the metaphor of the tennis match, involves time warping. A close tennis game takes as much time as reaching down a sewer for a lighter. The audience can easily dismiss this illogic because they emotionally desire Guy to win, both on and off the court. Going back to the opening sequence, the shoes walk purposefully to the train. The montage has the tennis match signature, two sets of shoes from different directions onto the train platform and onto the train. The shoes choose seats facing one another. The shoes represent two people, the knee down shots would suggest randomness in route, no facial expressions, just get on the train. At the end of the film, the viewer must wonder when this tennis match began. Did Bruno choose Guy for his proposition and stalk him to the train, or did Bruno seize the opportunity fate provided? Given the tennis match metaphor and Bruno’s manipulations, they may not have been mutual “Strangers on a Train”. Sir Alfred Hitchcock Psycho Auteur Theory and Film Genres and the Genre Film Psycho Marian Crane, a woman desperate to begin a new life, steals $40,000 from her boss’ client and leaves town. Marian stops for the night at the Bates Motel. After some rest and consideration of her situation, she decides to return the money and make amends. Norman Bates, the proprietor, however, has an unusual relationship with his mother and Marian is murdered in her shower. Since Norman’s mother is deceased, Norman dresses and acts out for his mother. Auteur Theory “What the auteur theory demonstrates is that the director is not simply in command of a performance of a pre-existing text; he is not, or need not be, only a metteur en scene.” (Wollen, 541) The auteur theory proposes the critic better understands the director through monitoring an entire body of work rather than just one film; however, the themes and values important to the director can be found in each film. The critic must ignore the effects of the collaborative team, such as producers and actors. The critic can review the director from either a structure viewpoint or a more broad view of the film reflecting the directors values, referred to as motifs. The motifs are presented in a pattern, giving the film a more universal perspective. Psycho Hitchcock’s style built suspense through the viewers’ emotions and the films motion. He was never a believer in witty dialog; many of his thoughts regarded dialog as very secondary. “If it’s a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on.” “Dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds. Just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms.” Alfred Hitchcock Psycho demonstrates these feelings in a very interesting way. The first hour of the movie has very little dialog. Marian has a noontime affair, she leaves the hotel unhappy, but wanting her man. Marian returns to work, but the client treats her poorly, and he’s been drinking. The client remits $40,000 in her care, and the boss asks her to get it to the bank. Marian steals the money and flees to find her boyfriend. She sleeps along the roadside. A police officer suspects her and follows her. Marian decides to buy another car to help her hide. She leaves again and drives into a dark and stormy night. She stops at the Bates Motel, meets Norman and registers for a room. She has time to consider her troubles and decides to return the money. Facial reactions and motion tell the story to this point. Some off-screen dialog between Norman and his mother set a dramatic conflict. Norman and mom have a strained relationship. Marian is an unwelcome guest of mom’s, and Marian is murdered in her hotel shower. Lila Crane, Marian’s sister, seeks Marian and so does her boss; he retains a private detective. These two characters follow Marian’s trail to the Bates Motel. The detective is killed by Bates. Bates corners Lila in the house cellar. Bates is subdued and captured before harming Lila. All of this action occurs with very little dialog, and the sound could be turned off and the viewer miss very little. The second part of the movie is almost exclusively a monologue. The psychiatrist explains to the viewer, through the assembled cast, Norman Bates’ pathology as a killer. The scene is long and tedious, and the viewer would be lost without the sound. The story ended when Bates was foiled and captured. The movie did not end for another twenty minutes or so. Hitchcock may have been giving the critics a lesson in this movie how dialog does not move the story. Action drives the story is a Hitchcock signature. Film Genres and the Genre Film This chapter identifies the characteristics of genre films and differentiates between film genre and genre films. The characteristics of genre films are predictability in plot, setting and character. The plot requires the community or setting to be understood, the conflict begins, intensifies and resolves so that the community returns to its stability. The film genre dictates some of these characteristics like westerns are time and place appropriate. The conflict is timeless and universal. The audience relates to the conflict regardless of genre. “Thus, we may consider a genre film not only as some filmmaker’s artistic expression, but further as the cooperation between artist and audience in celebrating their collective values and ideals”. (Chap 2) Hitchcock defines “master of suspense”. In Psycho, the setting is a modern city. The lead character is an assistant in a real estate company unhappy with her life, a lover she cannot marry and financial problems. The audience can relate and understand. The plot begins with her decision to steal money from her job to try a new beginning. The suspense is built, not by her getting caught, but by anticipating she will get caught. Her guilt is transferred to the audience as fear that she will be found. Hitchcock builds his suspense through his belief that each audience member feels guilt about something or has something they would prefer not to reveal. Marian is awakened by a policeman as she sleeps on the side of the road. She thinks he is looking for her because of the theft, he wants to assure her safety. When she acts guilty, he begins to change attitudes about her. She drives to the next town and watches him follow. Thinking she has lost the policeman, she pulls onto a used car lot to switch cars. The policeman drives up. She is nervous. The car dealer senses this and asks if she is in trouble. She says no, pays too much for a car, and leaves hastily. That evening, not wanting to repeat her error, she goes to the Bates Motel. She checks in under an assumed name. After rest and time to consider her actions, she decides to go back and make amends. The audience can now fully appreciate the character. She is desperate, flawed, guilt ridden by her misguided actions to better her situation, and repentant and remorseful, willing to atone. Hitchcock does not choose a super spy, ready to deal with any situation, or a remorseless criminal; he chooses an everyday person with a flaw under pressure. These are characteristics of the suspense genre. Everyday people with a problem out of their expertise trying to return to normal. Her conflict is defined by her actions, the possible resolutions are meeting her lover or capture. The suspense involves which will occur first. The unanticipated occurs; she is murdered by a psycho. The conflict is transferred to the race between the sister and the detective. Who will discover Marian or her fate first? Lila, out of her expertise and uncomfortable with the facts of her search, becomes the object of suspense. Read More