- Theories and film analyse
Auteur Theory – a film demonstrate the director’s personal creative version
Auteur theory originated with French critics of Cahiers du Cinema, who believed that the director is the “author” of a film. It focused on how a director’s personal vision shapes the final product. The director plays an important role in film, even in collaborative media like film industry. Their choices in style, theme, and character development give the film its authorship.
Film can be very personal and artistic, not just entertaining.
Film can be very personal and artistic, not just entertaining.
The Iconic Shower Scene | Psycho (1960) – by Alfred Hitchcock:
Then another close-up of the shower shot, the water and showerhead connect the whole shot. Later, the camera turned to the ground, the lady was bleeding into the drain, the camera gradually zooms down the water mouth. Finally, it switches to her eye, which is long shot connected by circular elements.
A strong visual style is created from the showerhead to the water to the eyes. These elements smoothly transition from calm – shower to violence – assault. The water flows down the drain, followed by a close-up of the eyes. The camera pulls in close to her lifeless eyes, shows that her life like the water, has run out.
The showerhead is a metaphor for her vulnerable situation. She is enclosed in the shower and the circular elements around her trap her in this vulnerable state. Hitchcock’s camera focuses on the circular shower head and moves downward toward her.
Andrew Sarris’ Three Circles of Auteurism Modle in 1962
– influenced by Auteur Theory
- Technique: The technical skill that director shows in the film.
- Personal Style: A director’s recurrent themes and visual style, and the specific thinking ways across different films.
- Interior Meaning: The core, deeper, symbolic things behind the film.
Sarris argued that a true auteur must align with all three areas. While a director might be technically skilled, they may lack a personal style or deeper meaning. The combination of these 3 elements creates an auteur.
These three circles are interrelated. Directors must have technical skills (outer circle) in order to successfully express their personal style (middle circle) and through that personal style convey deeper inner meanings (inner circle).
Pauline Kael’s Critique of Auteur Theory
Pauline Kael criticizes Sarris’s interpretation of the theory of authorship in her essay Circles and Squares. She argues that focusing too much on a director’s personal style tends to overlook other key aspects of filmmaking.
She argues that technical skill and originality should be given over a director’s recurring style.
Her critique is in opposition to Sarris’, focusing on the importance of continuous innovation. She argues that a director’s growth and evolution is more important than simply repeating his or her personal style.
Paul Wells’ Auteurism in Animation
Paul Wells challenged the director-cantered theory of Auteur Theory. He applied these ideas to animation production, demonstrating that even in large-scale collaborative productions, like Disney, autochthony can still emerge through strong creative leadership.
Studio Auteurism:
- In some cases, a studio itself can be seen as the auteur, especially when it has a strong creative identity that shapes its output.Studios such as Studio Ghibli, Disney, and Pixar have unique aesthetics, recurring themes, and narrative approaches that extend beyond individual films or directors. Welles’ ideas about collective homemaking resonate with the idea that these studios operate like self-made individuals, even though there are many individual contributions to each project.
In – class question: what is that makes Hayao Miyazai an auteur?
I prefer to discuss this question with the film: The Boy and the Heron (2023).
This movie is in view of a young boy who has lost his mother, and tells the story of his strange adventure in his mother’s old house during the war. This was Hayao Miyazaki’s last work and explores the growth and choices young people make.
Grief and Healing: The protagonist, Mahito, is a young boy who loses his mother in a fire.
A few years later, his father marries his mother’s sister and her stepmother was pregnant. He feels deeply saddened because everyone else was moving forward, and his father won’t staying in the past due to his mother’s death.
As a result of the war, they move to his mother’s former house, Being from a wealthy family, his appearance was different from the other children in the village, making it difficult for him to fit into the new group. He faces the dilemmas that everyone faces when growing up.
And by chance, he discovers a heron and magical towers. In that fantastical world, Mahito is forced to confront the issues he has been avoiding, such as deciding what kind of person he wants to become, accepting his stepmother and her child, coming to terms with the loss of his mother, and repairing the relationship between himself and his father.
Style and characters:
His movie style is still 2D, although the main characters in the films are usually teenagers or young girls, they have more sincere feelings and delicate hearts than adults, and they grow up during the adventures.
And the roles of adults in movies are usually very stereotypical or even fixed. They are just a collection of some key words that plays in specific roles in plot.
For example. The parents in Spirited Away turn into pigs because they are greedy and eat the food of the gods. The protagonist, on the other hand, is wary and advises the parents to leave quickly.
Children, as natural individuals, possess more sensitivity and are more malleable than adults. This is also why the protagonists in Hayao Miyazaki’s films are almost always boys and girls.
Moreover, he has a unique style of dedicating extensive scenes to seemingly insignificant actions. One scene that left a deep impression on me is when Mahito, completely exhausted, lies down on a soft bed. Every movement, including the bed’s deformation, is drawn in detail. Typically, other directors might skip these details to save time, using a near-static shot to convey the moment. However, this sequence of actions plays an important role. Mahito has just arrived at his stepmother’s house, so he is being cautious in every aspect, feeling like he doesn’t belong. Even when lying down, he keeps his body half-curled, rather than stretching out fully and relaxing. These detailed actions portray the protagonist as a sensitive and introspective person, conveying more powerfully than an internal monologue could.
So, I think the emphasis on actions over monologues and dialogue is an important style in Miyazaki’s films.
Themes and ideology:
Growth: Like many of Hayao Miyazaki’s films, this one tells the story of a protagonist on the verge of maturity, grappling with the challenges of growing up. In fact, I personally think the Japanese and Chinese translations of the film’s title better reflect the theme: “What kind of life do you want to live?” This question, posed by the uncle to the protagonist in the film, is also a question for us. Everyone must navigate the troubles brought by family, relationships, and the social environment during their growth. In the film, each door represents a different time and space, corresponding to a different choice. In the fantasy world, Mahito encounters his mother, who is still a young girl. Even though she knows that becoming Mahito’s mother will lead to her death in the fire, she still chooses that path.
Themes and ideology:
Growth:
Like many of Hayao Miyazaki’s films, this one tells the story of a protagonist on the verge of maturity, grappling with the challenges of growing up.
In fact, I personally think the Japanese and Chinese translations of the film’s title better reflect the theme:
“What kind of life do you want to live?”
This question, posed by the uncle to the protagonist in the film, is also a question for us.
Everyone must navigate the troubles brought by family, relationships, and the social environment during their growth.
In the film, each door represents a different time and space, corresponding to a different choice.
In the fantasy world, Mahito encounters his mother, who is still a young girl. Even though she knows that becoming Mahito’s mother will lead to her death in the fire, she still chooses that path.
The door on the left stands with his stepmother, representing the present family issues he is facing.
The door in the middle is his mother, symbolizing the pain of the past.
The door on the right leads to the creator of the magical world, who is also the one posing the question, representing future challenges. It asks, “What kind of person do you want to become in the future?”