Auteur as a French Word Meaning Author - Essay Example

Introduction Auteur is a French word meaning author. In the development of movies this word is used to mean that a film could have a single person who is its visionary creator the same way it happens in a musical score, painting or novel. In auteur theory film critics attempted to identify the person who acted as the director of a film. In any film the author always turns out to be the director. However there has not been found any definitive meaning of the auteur theory. The auteur theory has it that the director assumes a central role in the creation of the film and undertakes to do all things. However this view has turned out to be controversial since an auteur collaborates with other people in order to complete a movie. The theory was promoted during the 1950s by French movie critics such as Francois Truffaut. There are a number of film directors that have been given the auteur status because of the role they have played in film making. One such director is Alfred Hitchcock. This paper carries a discussion of the contributions that a director makes to the patterns of meaning and style in a group of films. In this discussion the director Alfred Hitchcock is used as a classic example of an auteur. The group of films to be used includes Notorious, Blackmail, The thirty Nine Stripes, North by Northwest and the Lodger. Contribution of the auteur director In the auteur theory the director who takes the form of an auteur is the one with the responsibility of doing all the major activities in the production of any movie. The director takes the leadership role in the film and could emerge as the owner of that film. The role of an auteur director is to change written work into visual transcription. A word and image narrative does not just correspond so that a director just films what has been written. Cinema has syntax, method and visual logic which are different from that of writing Spotto (1992). The director transforms chaos to bring about some order. The strata which comes from these transformations does exhibit certain common characteristics and traits which could form the structure and the rules that are used in the making of films. For example D. W. Griffith used cross cutting for building suspense among the viewers as a technique. The technique has turned out as a standard that is obligatory in making films although the role of the director may have transformed the chaos into a different technique or rule. The work done by a single director could have basic themes, motifs and techniques which are normally tied to the contribution of the director. The director could assume a major role or minor role depending on his preferences. Hitchcock and the auteur director theory According to Spotto (2001) Alfred Hitch one of the best movie directors has been believed to be an auteur by some people even though others dispute this fact. The idea of an auteur director in the movies directed by Hitchcock is disputed since in some of these films he was assisted in doing some of the things. It is not therefore acceptable to claim that Hitchcock took control of everything in the films. The concept of the auteur theory gives a description of what the film director does in terms of stylistic or thematic consistencies, personal aesthetic vision, established technique, recurring themes, a view of the world that is well defined and a certain level of control on production. The work done by an auteur director is stamped by the unique artistic vision and personality that its creator has. The works are distinctive and recognizable just like the creator in any other work of art. In an auteur film the directors is responsible for controlling the artistic statement, attracts the audience and the credit for the film goes to him. During the development of auteur theory, Hitchcock was always acknowledged as being the consummate exemplar. The mention of his name brings expectations on techniques and themes. Being the master of suspense and mystery, Hitchcock’s films play with the nerves of the audience. Areas that are sexually or tabooed take implicit or central places in his films Francois (1967). As a director classified as an auteur the touch that Hitchcock had was very much evident in the group of films mentioned earlier on. His contribution could be seen through the content and structure of screenplay, plot, theme and image development, selection of setting and cast, style of placement and lighting and camera movements, moods developed, in the wit and economy of narratives, in pacing and the film’s last cutting rhythms. Hitchcock had complete control on every element in his films. Hitchcock has a unique style belonging to him alone. Hitchcock believed that the rest of the people contributing to a film apart from the director were not very significant. This is the reason why he would seek to control all his films believing that he knew a lot of what he wanted to accomplish for himself. A director like him would oversee every significant part of a film and contribute to the style, themes, meaning, select the characters, and technology among other things. When the studio system died during the 1950s there was created more freedom for one personality to control and turn the film into a personal thing with some level of consistence. Hitchcock was described as a consummate craftsman who had the ability to plan every shot beforehand. He was involved in every part of physical production and did the guidance of his work from the beginning to the end. Before any film came into being he did the planning of the details thoroughly beforehand by use of pictorial outlines and storyboards. This changed the way his films came out eventually. Because he planned each shot with a lot of care there was no need for filming superfluous material. His producers did not get the opportunity to alter or re-cut anything in the film. In the film North by North west directed by Hitchcock he went out to make what he called pure cinema. In his films every sound and sight, every movement of the camera and shot worked together so that the viewer does not just remain a passive spectator but could become an active participant. In this way Hitchcock came up with his own brand of suspense pictures Spotto (2001). Over the years Alfred Hitchcock in his films made a recognizable and distinctive directorial style. He was the one who pioneered the processing of using a camera that mimics the gaze of a person as it moves. This forced the people viewing to engage in some voyeurism. In his directorial role he framed shots in order to maximize fear, empathy or anxiety and made use of innovative film editing. Many films done by Hitchcock had thrilling plots and twist endings that depicted violence, crime and murder. The films borrow a lot of their themes from psychoanalysis and again they have strong sexual undertones. He loved narration through which he could withheld important information from the audience and his characters and engage audience emotion very strongly. Films directed by Hitchcock are characterized by excellent use of cinematic technique that can be seen through the use of elaborate editing, camera view points and sound track for suspense building. For example in Notorious there is a zoom in from a high shot to a big close up to a major plot detail and the building of suspense which intercuts the final scene. The same film has themes such as drinking, trust and patriotism. In a certain scene in Blackmail for example Albert Hitchcock employs the use of a complex pattern of dialogue and sound which is based around ‘knife’ as a word to bring feelings of guilt. In the thirty nine steps there is used a cut from the scream of a woman to a similar sound to that of a train whistle. Hitchcock’s personal stamp is seen when he uses a light bulb in creating the effect of a glowing, ominous glass of milk in suspicion. In vertigo he makes use of a camera technique which was created by Roberts Irmin in which an image looks like it is stretching. In this technique the camera is moved in the opposite direction to its own zoom. Hitchcock’s hallmark is observed in the way he attributes symbolic power. He uses a bread knife in Blackmail and a Key in Notorious. Greater focus is also placed on creating set pieces in places where he can put his talent in practice for suspense and detail. Suspense turned out to be his greatest technique since he used it in many if not all of his films. Hitchcock’s vision of the world comes out through the themes predominating in his films. The specific psychology which is evident within the films like fascination with unjust accusation and imprisonment is an important part of Hitchcock’s signature. An example of a basic theme is the one of mistaken identity where a wrong man is accused and he is forced to find the guilty person to show that he is truly innocent. This can be found in the North by Northwest, the Lodger and the Thirty Nine Steps among others. Hitchcock also made visual expression for the themes he used in recurrent motifs which express the vision he had for the world. In strangers on a train, Psycho and Vertigo there are staircases, chasms are used in North by Northwest and Vertigo and the national landmarks like Rushmore and the United Nations Building seen in North by Northwest Russel (1978). In Notorious there are important examples of major themes by Hitchcock such as a woman complicitous is forced to transform into a different individual which is completed in Vertigo. There is the mother figure which appears deadly and loving as well which is seen in many forms in Psycho and in Strangers on a Train. There is also the MacGuffin and the Marnie which is a devise for narration that was once defined by Hitchcock as that thing which motivates character actions but is not of major significance to the audience. The MacGuffin in Notorious is Uranium ore that is hidden in bottles meant for wine in the basement of Sebastian. Wood (2002), notes that Hitchcock used some of the most refined and renowned actors and actresses in his films. He preferred to use ladies and therefore he had some of the best of Hollywood in his masterpieces. In the film Notorious for example he had Ingrid Bergman playing Alicia Huberman. In Psycho there is the memorable appearance of Janet Leigh playing the part of Marion Crane and in Marnie there is Tippi Hedren playing Marnie. In his films Hitchcock had various ways of story telling which he employed especially in the opening scenes of the group of movies selected. Each of the stories has the person narrating them and the audience is the one the story is told to. In the opening scenes Hitchcock used to establish setting and tone from an objective point to the subjective. He flirted with the boundaries between private space and public space as he painted a world of satire full of a tapestry of caricatures. He emphasized about the shifting of tones in a film and that for suspense to be achieved there is need for a comic opening. In his films Hitchcock wanted to achieve suspense by balancing tensions and laughs through humor. He had certain directorial wit which could not be matched. He picked on quirky characters, whimsical settings, ironical, ironic situations and deliberate gags. When he produced Blackmail in 1929 he discovered new methods of manipulating the sound track so that he could put new dimensions to the flat movie screens. He applied various techniques of mixing sound in this movie for the first time which he also came to use later in other movies Marshall (1986). The meaning and the style of the films Notorious, the Lodger, Blackmail, North by North West, and the Thirty Nine Stripes was developed by Hitchcock himself. With some help from other people he could decide on the direction the film was going to take and what the whole narrative implied to the viewers. Conclusion In conclusion, the paper has examined the role that a director plays in film production with the use of Hitchcock as an example. An auteur director such as Hitchcock assumes the control of every activity being undertaken in the production of a film. The meaning of the film, the themes, characters, technology, setting, plot and other things are done with the oversight of the director. It has been found that even in the auteur theory the director must have other people making their contributions in the movie since it is impossible to accomplish everything alone. The Hitchcock films used in this discussion were Notorious, Blackmail, The thirty Nine Stripes, North by Northwest and the Lodger. In his films Hitchcock employed the use of various cinematic technical apparatus, characters, and themes, story telling and recurrent preoccupations. He assumed complete control in his directorial activities earning himself the title of auteur. References Francois T: Hitchcock (1967) Spotto D; 2001: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock: The collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and John Michael Hayes Faber & Faber. Russel T.J 1978: The Authorised Biography, Abacus. Wood, R.2002: Hitchcock's Films Revisited. Columbia University Press (2nd edition) Truffaut, F. 1985: Hitchcock. Simon and Schuster; A series of interviews of Hitchcock by the influential French director Rohmer, E.; Chabrol, Claude. Hitchcock, the first forty-four films Spoto, D. 1992: The Art of Alfred Hitchcock. Anchor Books Marshall, D. 1986 Poague, Leland (ed.): A Hitchcock Reader. Iowa State University Press. Read More