Film Auteur Theory

Film Auteur TheoryThe auteur system can be summarised intimately simply as an ac harbor intercourseledgement of the conductor as the primary and shaping mightiness behind a engage (Craig Keller). How is Godards primary and shaping influence detectable, if indeed, it is? Introduction The auteur theory or la politique des auteurs was a principle developed in the 1950s by a group of French hire critics namely Eric Rohmer, Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. These critics wanted to view an end to the literary, exanimate and not truly moving- stick out showtic formulaic cinema of the 1930s and 1940s. Inspired by fellow pic critic Alexandre Astrucs photographic camera-stylo theory which argued that film move overrs should use their equipment as spontaneously, flexibly and person-to-personly as a writer uses a pen these young critics wanted to give the constraints of schematic cinema. Through the experimentation of different cinematic techniques they began to go for the ir own personal delicious values in films, as managing directors.It was accordingly their belief that an auteur is the iodin individual to the highest degree responsible for whatever personal expression (if any) a movie yielded up under critical analysis. This translation has run the most universally understood of the auteur theory and therefore the champion which pass on be referred to during this essay.Prior to the development of the auteur theory, a large majority of films were produced, dig and edited in a similar modality. Large studios, with fixed cameras and the scriptwriter having boilersuit control were the order of the day thus creating a rigid style of film production. The auteurs became the primary shaping force behind a movie, manipulating scenes to gather their style rather than employing the traditional method of following scriptwriters prompts.The auteur theory was initiated in the 1950s by a group of French Film Critics including the likes of Eric Rohm er, Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Rivette. These critics utter out against la tradition de la qualit of cinema from the 1930s and 40s a period coined le cinma de papa claiming it to be literary, disembodied spiritless and not truly cinematic.In terms of the auteur theory Jean-Luc Godard was seen as the truly radical auteur. By most he is today seen as one of the most sophisticated and wileistic directors having created his own Gordards style. Whilst for others such as Susan Sontag he is the deliberate destroyer of cinema. Either steering Godard epitomizes a director out to challenge traditional cinema. Through his early films, such as Vivre sa Vie Film en douze tableaux (1962) and Une femme est une femme he began to interrogate and illuminate schematic cinema via new cinematic and artistic techniques. He has since become rattling much the opposite protagonist of the auteur theory.Objectives This essay will assess the issue to which Jean-Luc Godards primar y and shaping influence is detectable in his films. In the briny body of this essay I will consider Godards ability to implement his own cinematic style done several(prenominal) inventive techniques. I will consider his ability to challenge the barriers between off screen door and on screen literality by means of his use of sound and redact techniques. I will however, alike argue that any kind of definition of the auteur theory oversimplifies the realities of a film making cognitive operation and can therefore not be seen as a definitive theory.Andrew Sarris explains, one of the set forth for an auteur is that the director must exhibit certain recurring regionistics of style which serve well as his signatureover a group of his films. It is therefore my mark to make reference to four of Godards films to highlight his during the Nouvelle Vague period.I will, therefore, make reference to four of Godards films A bout de Souffle (1960), Une femme est une femme (1961), Vivre s a vie Film en douze tableaux (1962) and Le Mepris (1963) to demonstrate When cosidering these films one of the most common trends noticeable is his necessitate to challenge the barriers of off screen and on screen reality. Prior to the Nouvelle Vague, films were preponderantly revised novels put on screen. To most directors As Kreidel suggested in 1980 No one has yet made a more modern cinema than Godard. Indeed, Godard through his reaction against traditional realism typifies someone who represents reality with recourse to schematic cinema. Prior to the Nouvelle Vague, directors followed actually strict rules in their film making process in which they filmed in large studios with artificial lighting and with scripts which prevented improvisation. Godard on the whole reversed these rules in his films by directing them in a very spontaneous manner. Following the release of A Bout de Souffle actor Jean-Pierre Melville who play Parvulesco in the film said Godards movie was anythin g shot anyhow. Godard himself sustain that on A Bout de Souffle I use to write the change surface before shooting. According to Godard, the reason for him doing this was because I liked to be surprised. If you know in advance everything you atomic number 18 firing to do, it isnt worth doing. If a envision is all written down, what is the point of enter it? What use is cinema if it trails afterwards literature? This idea of filmmaking was revolutionary at the time and was a way in which Godard was implementing his own directional style to his movies. ace of Godards earliest artistic influences came when directing his archetypal motion picture A Bout de Souffle. patronage the film creation a simple naturalistic movie with the camera following the characters in a deliberately real world filming realistic images, several factors led to the film universe cut, mainly out-of-pocket to the length of the film. This created one of Godards most innovative filming techniques, the jum p shot, and an redaction method which would truly show Godard ability as a cinematic artist. The jump shot essentially create discontinuity in his films as it would arbalest the action from one scene to the next with no palpable transition. One of the most noticeable instances of Godards jump shots in A Bout de Souffle came in the scene when Jean Seberg who plays Patricia is a passenger in the scene when Jean-Paul Belmondos character Michel drives her round the centre of Paris in a stolen convertible. During this scene there are up to seven jump shots in rapid succession of the position of Patricia head and the streets of Paris. In creating such a deliberately jaggy shot Godard reminds the audience that they are watching a film, and not life itself, a concept vital to Godard when directing his films.One of the most innovative ways in which Godards primary and shaping force is evident in his films can be shown through his use of dis tinge. In conventional cinema, colour was gen erally used in order to increase the commerciality of films. When it was occasionally used, it deepen the mood in separate scenes. Godard as a notable auteur sedulous a far more thought-provoking use of colour. In his first two colour films Une femme est une femme and Le Mpris he predominantly used primary act upon due to him being influenced by modern art straight color, pop art. Godard uses bold primary colours to luff the characterisation and narrative development in his films but in such a way that it does not act upon the security guard in a directly sensual way. In Godards first colour film Une femme est une femme, Angela is look on having a child with her husband Emile. Emile however, is not so knowing on the idea and comes across as rather blas about the clear he predominantly wears macabre in the film which symbolises his rather set back nature. After being repeatedly refused by Emile on the thing of having a baby, Angela goes to Emiles friend Albert to have an affair in the hope to conceive. Albert despite being happy to oblige feels no real affection for Angela and this is shown as he mainly wears grey to symbolise his disinterest in her.In Godards second colour film Le Mpris Godard continues the pattern of development colour to represent characters personalities but tends to also use colour thematically. In the opening scene, when Camille is lying in bed with Paul discussing how much they distinguish each other, Godard uses colour filters which are seen as a representative of what is going to happen in the film. If one considers that red symbolises love, white incertitude and risque coldness then it maps out what happens in the film, love to ambivalence to contempt. Furthermore, when examining the colours that are worn by the characters in the film, the reoccurring theme of Godard victimization colour to represent personality reappears. Paul the scriptwriter in the film is seen in a grey suit with blue specks highlighting his passi ve personality during the film. Jerry the ambitious American film producer is mostly seen in a blue suit, red tie and driving a red sports car which in turn highlights his dominant greedy and selfish nature. In addition, Camille is shown in several coloured dresses throughout the film so as to emphasize her invariable change of emotions. Finally Francesca, Jerrys secretary wears a red jumper in the scene when she seduces Paul which again emphasizes Godards attempt to symbolise emotional currents in the film.It is important to note that several critics have suggested that on top of Godard using colour thematically the primary colours are also a referent to American harmonyals, a genre which fascinated Godard. This referent is most evidently seen in the opening credits of Une femme est une femme when bold colourful spoken language flash up on the screen like neon lights reflecting the redundancy of the American musical. Furthermore, other critics suggest that the primary colours a re a referent to either the French flagstone or American flag which again represents Godards primary and shaping influence within this film.A pivotal part in defining Godard as the primary and shaping force of his films can be seen in his use of sound. Prior to the Nouvelle Vague, sound was assiduous in film to replicate audibly the visual emotion of a scene in order to seduce the audience and make a scene appear more realistic. Martin Heidegger highlights this tradition by saying that viewing audience have become accustomed to sounds elegant effects and thus treats them as real.Godard however, firmly believed that in faking sound to captivate the audience, one is taking away(predicate) the realism which he wanted in films. A point agree by Richard Roud who suggested that even in the most so-called realist film, sound has eer been an exception. It was therefore Godards intention to restore sound so that it would captivate real life by refusing to edit or remix any antecedently recorded track, which he defined as sonic realism. One of Godards most notable examples of this was seen in A Bout de Souffle. Due to the sound being naturally recorded there are several scenes in the film when some of the characters conversations are muffled by natural or real noises. The use of natural sound reaches a peak during the scene in Patricias apartment when the noise of the sirens bellowing in through the open windowpane actually drowns out the characters dialogue. Rather than being a distraction that takes the viewer out of the moment, the use of natural sound here, and throughout the film, only change the realism. After all, in life, it would be unrealistic to sit in a room with an open window in the centre of Paris and not hear any intrusive sounds. Jean Colet praises Godards creation of realism through sound stating Godard applies to sound the same demands as for the pictures. He captures life in what it offers to be seen-and to be heard-directly.Godards artistic us e of sound can also be seen through his use of music in his films. In Godards Une Femme est une Femme he begins to break up music in short bursts. This use of music gives the experience of the film as a sort of assemblage different bits of the cloth world put together in a particular way. This progress exemplifies Godards use of experimentation as when asked about his use of sound and music he said Things are there but lets see how they work. cooperate SectionIt is undeniable that Godard has produced some of the most inspiring and innovative films through his use of story line and cinematic techniques. His exploitation of light, colour, and sound, editing and alter the audience showed Godard had revolutionised traditional French cinema and in doing so has enliven modern day film directors such as Quentin Tarrantino. However, in using Kellers summary that an auteur is simply the primary and shaping force of his films it is unquestionably oversimplifying the realities of the fil m making process. As Godard changed so much in his films compared to traditional cinema it is not possible for him to be praised for every aspect of his films creation. Godard said in an interview in 1983I find it useless to keep whirl the public the auteur. In Venice, when I got the prize of the Golden Lion I said that I deserve only probably the mane of this lion, and possibly the tail. Everything in the middle should go to all the others who work on the picture the paws to the director of photography, theface to the editor, the body to the actors. I dont believe in the solitude ofthe auteur with a capital A. Furthermore, Godard admitted that him and the likes of Truffaut, Rohmer and Rivette whilst taking the plaudits for the auteur theory, exaggerated the significance of the theory so as to establish personal expression as one of the primary values in Nouvelle Vague films.Several theorists have also raised doubts as to the significance of the auteur. Foulcault and Roland Barthe s suggest that all creative ideas are moulded by the social and political forces that surround us. They go on to conjure up that ideas are contrived from the knowledge that one has gained from past experiences. If one puts this in the context of Godards films it would suggest that Godards cinematic ideas and techniques were influenced by what he has learnt from past experiences. An example of this can be seen in his indirect use of Brechtian distanciation. Whilst it is evident that he was inspired by Brechts idea of alienating the audience to prevent them from being passive observers can one really claim that Godards cinematic techniques were not the result of Brechts indirect influence? Furthermore, when analysing many of Godards films, Godard refers to several quotes from the likes of William Faulkner and Edgar Poe. These are quotes which could have been easily edited but instead Godard taste for quotation suggests that he is not the primary and shaping force in his films.