Woody Allen as a film Autuer - Essay Example

Woody Allen as a film Autuer A film auteur, or simply put, a film is directly responsible for the writing and directing of films, incorporating all the creative aspects of artistic vision, culminating to the creation of a unique and personal style of films. The term “auteur” has French origins, and it refers to the theoretical approach to filmmaking, where the director is the central creative force in motion pictures (Menne 36); this concept has persisted over the years, and the term film auteur describing film directors that write and direct films through which they express their personal artistic vision. In as much as there is no clear evidence between “regular directors” and “film auteurs”, the distinction between the two does become codified, elucidated, and isolated with time with regards to the art, artist, and the particular categories to which they belong. The film auteur does not only express a cinematic vision, they are prolific in what they do by taking direct roles in relation to the medium and craft of filmmaking; the creative influence of a director on a film must be so profound for them to be considered the film auteur. According to the auteur theory in film criticism, a film reflects its director’s personal, creative vision, and the directors stand out as the original auteur; the list of strong distinctive film directors who qualify the title “film auteur” is very short. This paper will explore the world of Woody Allen, as a distinguished and highly talented film auteur, as seen in the movies Midnight in Paris 1978, Annie Hall 2005, and Manhattan 1979, in which he creates a unique world that no one else could bring to life except himself. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1935, and raised in a Jewish family that had a strong comedy culture, Woody Allen found his niche in comedy, and later in filmmaking when he first directed What’s Up, Tiger Lily in 1996. Since then, Woody Allen has a library of films to his name including his most acclaimed Annie Hall 1977, Manhattan 1978, and Midnight in Paris, where his one of a kind neurotic, unconfident, and flamboyant cinematic vision emerges. An auteur approach to filmmaking is evident in all his films particularly because Allen uses themes and styles that make him distinguishable and unique from the pack as a film maverick (Quicke 95); for instance, a dominant theme in most of his films is the struggling artist as in the films Manhattan 1978 and Annie Hall 1977. In all these films, the backgrounds to the protagonists, the cinematography, and lighting elucidates auteur style in filmmaking, distinct and unique, unlike other regular directors. In Manhattan 1978, Allen explores the woes of a struggling television writer who is dating a high school girl but still develops feelings for his best friend’s mistress; Isaac, the main protagonist, is uncomfortable in his job and on top of it all, he cannot establish a solid intimate relationship with a woman his age. Isaac is a very frustrated artist, who feels confined in his current position yet his possibility for success seems obscured by his present situations, thereby further heightening his anxiety and unhappiness; his internal and external struggles are captured vividly to present a picture of the struggling artist, as is often the case in Allen’s masterpieces. In the film Annie Hall 1977, Allen still explores the theme of the struggling artist through the protagonist Alvy Singer, a Neurotic comedian from New York, who falls in love with a woman named Annie Hall and becomes embattled with relationship issues in Manhattan (Knight 214). Allen brings a part of his own persona into the film by reveling a suffering in Alvy and himself by connection, in finding someone who truly understands him and appreciates his presence. This masterpiece reveals many struggles in Alvy, the whining comic persona; through Alvy’s decision to do an unconventional film that entails him talking straight to the camera concerning his problems, Alvy reenacts his life as a struggling artist and by extension, Allen’s own personal style also comes to fore. In these two films, Allen exploits the lens of the camera through the angles of the shot, and the designs of the set to enhance the theme of the struggling artist, and the cinematography in Manhattan in particular underscores the sub-themes of distortion and deception that keep re-emerging. Insofar as lighting is concerned, Allen uses a very dark bleak and dark lighting to reflect Isaac’s state of mind or disposition, and position among other suffering characters. Allen uses a Sepia tone of Grey-ochre in his film-within-film simulated reality, instead of the common black and white film-within-film world, and the figure of the skeleton standing parallel to Isaac in Manhattan represents death and distress. Similarly, the scattered medium of long shots of Alvy and Annie in Annie Hall paints a grim picture that represents not only the long physical separation and mental separation between the lovers, but also the many trials and struggles in their relationship. Midnight in Paris 2005, is Allen’s highest grossing film in many years and in it he reawakens his trademark creative vision by returning to the autobiographical stride and mystical match of humor and philosophy that was characteristic of Annie Hall (Keyser 646). This movie captures a beautiful, humorous, and sad human nostalgia, and through it, Allen exhibits all his strengths without restraint once again through this cross-cultural comedy revolving around a burned out Hollywood screenwriter, Gil. As a film auteur, Allen has an exclusive thorough or absolute influence on the creative aspects of all his films, from choice of music, casting, and even editing, and he works within an environment of trust; through his career as a film auteur, Allen has established a strong ensemble of camera operators, designers, actors, as well as technicians. These professionals often return to Allen’s productions, thereby acting as tools or instruments through which Allen consistently influences his films according to his artistic vision. Allen has stamped his position as one of the most significant comedy auteurs in American film history by writing, directing, and starring in exceptional films for over thirty years now; his comedy is largely influenced by character, particularly his own small person personality. Allen often portrays the struggling artist theme through little men attempting to transcend the trappings of a civilization that they cannot match; he demonstrates his insecurities, physical, sexual, and emotional, through his protagonists in monumental proportions. His style has led him to staging changes in the contemporary culture with nothing short of humor and pity (Philaretou 133), unlike other regular directors, thereby serving audiences on comic insights into love and death, show-business nostalgia, and the intricate entrapping of the human heart. Allen’s own personal and comic perspective to his films seems to stem from his mysterious impulsive pull towards the genre that first kick-started his filmmaking career; that explains why in most of his films, things are filtered through a black comic vision (Morris 175). He explains that his perspectives in writing often are often biased towards humor, even in grim situations, which apparently are a thing of his liking as expressed through his fascination with death and the creation of death-haunted men characters in his films. Alvy in Annie Hall and Isaac in Manhattan have a near-paralyzing fear of death, which has also been with Allen for a long time, visions which entail vivid feelings of inevitable emptiness, finality, and irrevocability of death. Allen occasionally projects these imaginations and visions in the dark on the movie screen, and the comic touch that ensues in his movies inadvertently tends to relieve some of the built up anxiety that accompanies his death-obsession movies. The fact that Allen draws from his obsessions so often and so consistently inevitably blurs the lines between his life and art, thereby implicating his films as autobiographical; however, this is simply a reflection of Allen’s profound creative influence on his films. Ultimately, Woody Allen stands out as one of the most prolific and most significant film auteurs in the American film history, particularly because of his strong personalized style of filmmaking that is unmatched in the industry. Allen has mastered his craft in mysteriously distinct and unique ways that cannot be replicated, by using signature cinematography, design of the set, and lighting techniques that are characteristic of his creative vision, thereby creating unique worlds that no other director can, except himself. Allen’s visually impressive cinematography and set designs as used in Manhattan, Midnight in Paris, as well as, Annie Hall, reveals Allen’s vision of an authentic world that matches the narrative along with a wardrobe that highlights the protagonists backstory. Long take camera shots, extreme close-ups, and point of view shots, along with the struggling artist theme, which is common in Allen’s films as illuminated in the character of Alvy Singer in Annie Hall, and Isaac in Manhattan, are signature traits that set Allen apart as a film auteur. Allen’s style of filmmaking has influenced a great proportion of present-day Hollywood directors’ styles as seen in present day movies and television shows; in this regards, Woody Allen is a remarkable film auteur whose novelty has not only served audiences laughter, but also contributed unique and distinctive creative styles and techniques to the filmmaking industry. Works Cited Keyser, Catherine. The letters of sylvia beach. Modernism/Modernity, 18(3), (2011). 646-648.  Knight, Christopher J. "Woody Allen's Annie Hall: Galatea's Triumph Over Pygmalion." Literature/Film Quarterly 32.3 (2004): 213-21.  Menne, Jeff. "The Cinema of Defection: Auteur Theory and Institutional Life." Representations.114 (2011): 36-0_4.  Morris, William C. Woody allen's comic irony. Literature/Film Quarterly, 15(3), (1987). 175-180.  Philaretou, Andreas G. "Learning and Laughing about Gender and Sexuality through Humor: The Woody Allen Case."Journal of Men's Studies 14.2 (2006): 133-44.  Quicke, Andrew. (1998). Woody: Movies from manhattan. Journal of Popular Film & Television, 26(2), 95-96. Read More