Auteur

[What happened to good TV?]

Ok, I know there are some people who study film/media or related areas, or people who have a strong interest in the topic and I'm needing some help!

What is an Auteur!? Help me out! today I got told what my coursework is for A2 film studies and boy am I confused. I thought it was a directors signiture on a film, eg Tarentinos over the top bloody violence scenes. But today I get pages and pages on auteur theory and told that it doesnt have to be the director whos an auteur, it can be an actor, or someone else! So and actors signiture on a film would be...playing the same character each time? (I'm confuzzled)

Anyone who can dumb this down would be helping me alot. the teachers leaving and wasnt really up for explaing it to little old me, so I was left in the dark. Also he laughed when I said Tarentino as an auteur! thats the only one i could think of!

Also for the actual coursework I have to do a presentation proving or disproving someone as an autuer. Again with the confuzledom, but what I really need help with is examples of Auteurs. Recent ones would be better for me as my knowldge of older films is limited!

Thanks!

 

[Buffy Summers]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auteur 🙂

 

[goldenboy]

I wanna take a shot at a non-Wiki response, heh.

An auteur is someone with a very clear, comprehensive vision. They tend to want to control everything: the look, the sound, the word, the feel of a thing. Everything. They often strive for something very basic, primal, emotional. It's not even that they're actively striving to rebel. They just don't care what others think. They tend to be very inward-looking, possibly introverted in the way they think about things. Particular themes, moods will recur and often become obsessions for them.

They end up producing a very distinct, often unique style cos they keep building on, elaborating upon, refining what they've done.

David Lynch, Tim Burton, Robert De Niro (if actors actually have enough control to be auteurs), Vincent Van Gogh, Kurt Cobain...I'd say they all have those traits to varying degrees.

 

[Buffy Summers]

Capra, Hitchcock...

 

[goldenboy]

Orson Welles!! The ultimate auteur (visionary control freak, heh)
Charlie Chaplain

Sean Penn, Nicholas Cage may have auteur-like tendencies as actors. Bringing a distinct, concentrated, inward focus to a role...

 

[goldenboy]

Another thing about auteurs. They often seem to have very close collaborators that they rely on, use again and again which helps to refine a style. For scoring, Tim Burton uses Danny Elfman; David Lynch uses Angelo Badalamenti...