Analysis of the Film Mean Street and the Auteur Theory - Essay Example

Scorsese as an Auteur: through his film Mean Street The auteur theory is was that holds the director's films reflect the particular director's personal creative vision, as though he or she were the sole auteur of the work. The French word for author, many film producers have notably been credited for having auteur like influences on film projects. It has also had a major impact on film criticism, since it was erected by film director and critic Francois Truffaut in 1954. This is partly why Auteurism is most immediately connected with French New Wave. This of course, was a connection made most commonly in the mid 1950's to 60's before American filmmakers embodied the theory. Today, no contemporary American director more deserves the title of auteur than Martin Scorsese Martin Scorsese is the perfect example of an auteur because he uses the same thematic consistencies throughout all of his work. These entail Catholicism, virgin/whore conflict, redemption, ethnic pride, and of course crime culture. On top of this, he supports all of his plots with very eclectic soundtracks. The cinematography he uses is very similar in all of his films. He utilizes the fluid motion of the camera with each shot, while making the mis-en-scene of each frame valuable to the plot of the story. He is also know for using some of the same actors in his films, specifically Robert Deniro, Joe Pesci, and Harvey Keitel. Of his large body of work, Mean Street symbolizes the blue print to the archetype that has become his unique style. Scorsese has a visual style that relies on the city of New York. Mean Street embodies the culture that comes with this location. In the film, the audience is subjected to getting to know characters who spend their time womanizing, hustling, fighting, and drinking. Centered on the struggles of four men in their mid-20's and all residents of Little Italy, who are working their way up the rungs of gangster culture, some are loan sharks, and some are just plain hoods. Tony (David Proval) is a big friendly guy who runs the neighborhood bar; Michael (Richard Romanus) is a small-time loan shark who tends to rip off Brooklyn adolescents. Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro) is an irresponsible hood who borrows money from loan sharks that he never intends to pay back, and Charlie (Harvey Keitel) is the nephew of the mafia boss Giovani (Cesar Danova). Charlie's only aspiration is to run his own restaurant. Mean Street is authentically based on specific events Scorsese saw almost regularly while he was brought up in Little Italy. The screenplay for the film initially started out as a continuation of Who's That Knocking. Scorsese changed the title from Season of the Witch to Mean Street. The film is arguably Scorsese's most religious film, even more so than his film The Last Temptation of Christ. This is in part due to the fact that the original draft of Mean Street centered on the religious conflict inside of Charlie and how it was affecting his world view. Charlie sees saving Johnny Boy as a way to find redemption. His aspirations for sainthood are played out through his behavior on the streets, as opposed to going to church. This is one of the implied meanings in the film. The implied meaning that comes with an auteur directed film is all present in Mean Street. In his article Senses of Cinema, Marc Raymond points out many of the film's intricacies. He argues that there is an implied homoeroticism between Johnny Boy and Charlie. He points this out when he says: The couple of the film is clearly Charlie (Harvey Keitel) and Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro) rather than Charlie and his girlfriend Theresa (Amy Robinson). This can be seen in one particular sequence in which Charlie and Johnny Boy stay out all night and sleep in the same bed together. Charlie gets out of bed and goes to the window, where he sees Theresa dressing. The next scene cuts to Charlie and Theresa making love in a hotel room. (Raymond, Pg1) Raymond argues that Johnny boy plays the part of the Femme Fatale and that this is a very destructive and liberating aspect of the film. The popular music of the era is used to bring the characters together very similar to the way it is done in musicals. It also supports scenes of visual excitement like the pool fight, Charlie's drunk scene, or when Johnny Boy runs through the city. These scenes make heavy use of non-diegetic music and they are very similar to Hollywood musicals. In his article, Martin Scorsese: The Vicar of Cinema A.O. Scott assesses the significance of Scorsese's work. To look, indeed, at almost any Scorsese film--is to be reminded that film can touch us urgently and deeply. Scorsese is never on autopilot, never panders, never sells out, always goes for broke; to watch his films is to see a man risking his talent, not simply exercising it. He makes movies as well as they can be made. (Scott, Pg1) A highly influential film director and producer, Martin Scorsese's film techniques have been modeled by many filmmakers in the suspense thriller genre. Over a career lasting almost six decades, he has directed more than 35 feature films. Today, he is still considered one of the most influential directors in Hollywood. Scorsese's films rely on fear and fantasy and are most noted for their cynical sense of humor. This is a type of humor that is characterized by a dry wit and draws laughs from ironic and vulgar behavior or speech. Scorsese uses many film techniques that to this day are copied to enhance the culturally thrilling nature of film. His most recognizable ability is to engage the mind of his audience, by toying with their senses. Everything in his films is designed for the reaction of the audience. He frames each scene for the emotion he wishes to draw from the audience. A wide shot has less emotion than close-up. As his career developed, Scorsese formed the ability to play with the audience's emotions by just structuring his frames a certain way. There are many times in Mean Street, where he creates tension by starting a frame from a wide awkward angle and then abruptly zooming in for a close-up. Another habit of Scorsese is to treat the camera like it was a character in the film. By allowing the camera to search around the room aimlessly, in certain scenes, he provides the opportunity for it to discover key information pertaining to the plot; this also makes the audience feel more involved in discovering plot elements, and more informed than the main characters. In communicating information to the audience, he adopts the ideal that dialogue means nothing. And yet, the authenticity of his dialogue is the driving force of all his films. He relies more on the body language of the characters to communicate information to the audience than he does the dialogue. Point of view editing is another tactic used by Scorsese. With this method, he will do a close-up on a character's face and then show another frame to represent the subject of the character's facial expression. Scorsese believed this method could be used multiple times and the more often it was done the more tension it added to the film. Scorsese is also a firm believer of the use of the montage. This is a method in which he places multiple frames in succession of each other and uses them to tell a story. On top of this, a main ideal of the auteur was to keep all of his stories simple. Scorsese felt that if an audience could get easily lost in a film and they were required to memorize a lot of details it took away from the suspense. Corresponding with this idea, he acknowledged that all of his characters must break clichs. His criminals tended to be well very sophisticated; his police tended to be bumbling buffoons, and his heroes tended to be accused of crimes and victimized. He did this believing that the audience would deem these characters to be more believable and they would be more drawn into them. Adding on to this layer of rules, Scorsese would add to the tension by using humor. He often did this by inserting physical gags in the action of frames. Tension was a main focus of Scorsese's; he would also create confusion in a scene to enhance the tension, having things happen at once. This causes the audience to be more attentive to the conversation, and it adds suspense. The main final traits common of Scorses's method, is the twist. The twist is just Scorsese's insistent need to always surprise the audience. The insignificant goals of the characters that initiate the film into action just lead to the twist that Scorsese tends to implement in his films. An of this can be seen in the fact that throughout Mean Street, the audience is baited to believe that Johnny Boy possibly knows something Charlie doesn't, that would actually excuse his behavior. For example it could be said that the Either way, all these techniques combined make up Scorsese's main system of maintaining suspense in his films. On top of these techniques there are certain filmic rules, like all other filmmakers, have bent and abided by since the silent film era. It is this unique use of these techniques that has lead to Scorsese's title as an auteur. Auteur theory which enforces an emphasis on director influence, is an extension of film theory, which has been around since the beginning of film. The understood assessment in film theory is that the director attempts to make a point through their work. This point is further enforced by the screen writing, cinematography, and film editing and it establishes the film director's fully polished stance on a particular subject (Bordwell, 1996). Often, the films produced are structured from a theoretical or ideological interpretation of reality. This is displayed to mainstream audiences with the intent of integrating these ideals into popular understanding, or to just interrogate popular perception of their current standing in society. Filmmakers don't just tell a story, they invite the viewer to experience the story. The film editing, dialogue, music, and imagery all have an influence on audience response (Champoux, 1999). The best films combine the power of other artistic genres, from narrative literature to drama to music. But film has artistic limitations as well, from a two-dimensional rectangular screen to popular audiences' attention spans (Chatman, 1980). Bordwell calls the frame by frame use of all these elements the mis-en-scene of a film (1996). The logic backing a film's argument and often the film's theory, if done by a masterful director like Scorsese, tends to embody an awareness of multiple theoretical issues many times not always pertaining to just film. Through an extraordinary understanding of film theory, Scorsese has established himself as an auteur, and Mean Street is only the initial example of his greatness. In sum, this edgy style has become synonymous with the name Scorsese. Since Mean Street the director has endured criticisms very similar to this one, and he has achieved multiple honors. The public's consideration of Scorsese as an auteur has grown to an almost unanimous appreciation by the Hollywood community. The ultimate proof of this is can be seen in the reception Scorsese received at the 2007 Oscar awards. Recently, while being awarded an Oscar for his auteur-ship of the film The Departed, Martin Scorsese received a standing ovation from the Hollywood community. The Departed embodies all of the characteristics of the style Scorsese established with Mean Street, and only further enforces not only his title of auteur, but his success at being one. Work Cited Bordwell, D. and Thompson, K. Film Art: An Introduction (2004). London: McGraw Hill. Scott, A.O. "Martin Scorsese: The Vicar of Cinema" Assessment: Taking Stock of People and Ideas in the News. 29 Oct. 29, 1999, at 9:30 PM. Raymond, Marc. "Martin Scorsese" Senses of Cinema. May 2002 "Mean Streets." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 29 Apr 2007, 08:52 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 4 May 2007 Read More