Think about your favorite movie. When watching that movie, was there anything about the style of the movie that makes it your favorite? Have you ever thought about why that movie is just so darn good? The answer is because of the the Auteur. An Auteur is the artists behind the movie. They have and individual style and control over all elements of production, which make their movies exclusively unique. If you could put a finger on who the director of a movie is without even seeing the whole film, then the person that made the movie is most likely an auteur director. They have a unique stamp on each of their movies. This essay will be covering Martin Scorsese, you will soon find out that he is one of the best auteur directors in the film industry. This paper will include, but is not limited to two of his movies, Good Fellas, and The Wolf of Wall Street. We will also cover the details on what makes Martin Scorsese's movies unique, such as the common themes, recurring motifs, and filming practices found in their work. Then on …show more content…
As stated, he has a clear use for violence in his film. He likes to incorporate an anti-hero that justifies his actions through a mental imbalance. In the Wolf of Wall Street you will see that the main character has a major drug and behavioral problem, however he is looked at as a hero throughout the movie. You will notice that it seems like he likes to stick with certain characters throughout his movies. He likes Leonardo Dicaprio. This is probably because the actors fit the character that he wants well. If it isn’t broke, why fix it? Martin has a way of making the violence in his films fit into the storytelling process. It is obvious that Martin likes to explore the immoral side of us. He tries to get us to follow characters that do not conform to society. The things about having immoral characters is that the audience can sometimes relate
In the film industry, there are directors who merely take someone else’s vision and express it in their own way on film, then there are those who take their own visions and use any means necessary to express their visions on film. The latter of these two types of directors are called auteurs. Not only do auteurs write the scripts from elements that they know and love in life, but they direct, produce, and sometimes act in their films as well. Three prime examples of these auteurs are: Kevin Smith, Spike Lee and Alfred Hitchcock.
The auteur theory is a view on filmmaking that consists of three equally important premises: technical competence, interior meaning, and personal signature of the director. Auteur is a French word for author. The auteur theory was developed by Andrew Sarris, a well-known American film critic. Technical competence of the Auteur deals with how the director films the movie in their own style. Personal signature includes recurring themes that are present within the director’s line of work with characteristics of style, which serve as a signature. The third and ultimate premise of the Auteur theory is the interior meaning which is basically the main theme behind the film.
Film Noir, as Paul Schrader integrates in his essay ‘Notes on Film Noir,’ reflects a marked phase in the history of films denoting a peculiar style observed during that period. More specifically, Film Noir is defined by intricate qualities like tone and mood, rather than generic compositions, settings and presentation. Just as ‘genre’ categorizes films on the basis of common occurrences of iconographic elements in a certain way, ‘style’ acts as the paradox that exemplifies the generality and singularity at the same time, in Film Noir, through the notion of morality. In other words, Film Noir is a genre that exquisitely entwines theme and style, and henceforth sheds light on individual difference in perception of a common phenomenon. Pertaining
Aside from its acting, the other major influence which Mean Streets had upon American film-makers was through it's use of a rock n' roll soundtrack (almost perfectly integrated with the images), and in its depiction of a new kind of screen violence. Unexpected, volatile, explosive and wholly senseless, yet, for all that, undeniably cinematic violence. The way in which Scorsese blends these two - the rock and roll and the violence - shows that he understood instinctively, better than anyone else until then, that cinema (or at least this kind of cinema, the kinetic, visceral kind) and rock n' roll are both expressions of revolutionary instincts, and that they are as inherently destructive as they are creative. This simple device - brutal outbreaks of violence combined with an upbeat soundtrack - has been taken up by both the mainstream cinema at large and by many individual `auteurs', all of whom are in Scorsese's debt - Stone and Tarantino coming at once to mind.
This year in film studies, we studied many directors, such as Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock and others, along with elements of film such as colour, shots and dialogue. Director Orson Welles, who is mostly known for his film Citizen Kane, is commonly known for his films being in non chronological order which creates a riddle for the viewer as they piece together what happens. Orson Welles is also known for his compression of time, which aids in creating the riddle of the story and allows the characters to possibly move on from something, which could in turn, help them develop. We also studied elements of film like the use of colour and black and white. The colours of a film can easily set a tone. Bright, warm colours will create a feeling
One of the most prominent and influential directors in New Hollywood was Italian-American Martin Scorsese. His first major critical success, and what is often considered his “breakthrough” film, was 1973’s Mean Streets. This film helped to establish Scorsese’s signature style in regards to narrative and thematics as well as aesthetically. Scorsese developed a unique and distinct directorial flair to his films, with reoccurring themes, settings, cinematography, and editing techniques, among other elements. This led a number of film critics to declare Scorsese an “auteur,” similar to Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, and other auteur directors of the French New Wave.
Connelly, Marie. "The films of Martin Scorsese: A critical study." Diss. Case Western Reserve University, 1991. Web. 07 Apr 2014.
Ref. The cinema book 2nd edition p100 "Tarantinos films mix violence with intertextual homage. He wants an audience to notice the way his films relate to a history of earlier film, fiction, t.v., thus combining movie fiction and movie criticism by playfully referring to movie history and mini history contained in his stars. " I think Tarantinos style is evolving now he has the money to support his wishes but his storytelling and directing technique is still difinitively Tarantinos own.
Audience involvement in a film is fundamental to successful filmmaking. A well-made film leads the audience to find themselves being "in the story" and get emotionally as well as mentally involved by identifying with the main characters. As such, filmmakers get the audience to connect with the story by using narrative techniques. In this paper, I will be discussing how Orson Welles uses narrative techniques together with stylistic techniques which can bring about narrative details in the film, Citizen Kane.
What does it mean to give yourself completely to your vocation or life? We find in a fictional story from Wes Anderson, his eighth feature presentation, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” What it means to be completely giving of oneself. Even though Wes’s movie is fictional, we find many deep and underlying themes, tones, and values. these are values are applications that anyone male or female that one can implicate in ones life to any situation. The main values we can find in the movie are simple, but can improve life ten-fold. Three easy steps to improving ones life are as stated: gratitude, positivity, and you must contribute yourself 100% of the time no matter how hard the road in front of you is going to
This New Wave aesthetic solidified film as a mainstream artform, stressing that film was carefully crafted similarly to literature. Individual directors, or auteurs, were expected to “author” their films in much the same way that an author would write a novel. This auteur theory and its accompanying aesthetic became the backbone of the French New Wave and was what drove innovation. Breaking free from the screenwriter, producer, and studio driven systems of the past, and putting the creative power back in the hands of the director was seen as a crucial step in solving Cahiers’ perceived problems with French cinema before the movement.
It is no doubt that Martin Scorsese has heavily influenced the emulating of American film making from European influences. He is a prime example of a ‘New Hollywood Cinema’ director, not only from his ethnicity and background, but from his sheer interest in this form
This thesis assignment will highlight and discuss certain areas of the works created by auteur filmmaker Terrence Malick. He is undoubtedly one of the most brilliant writer-directors of our time, if not of all time, and his genius manifests itself in the style and themes of his films. Malick’s academic background and pre-filmmaking studies can be said to have informed his films. Therefore, this essay will firstly explore the nature and content of his studies, which will be drawn from to provide evidence for later discussions. Secondly, this paper will dissect two of his films, namely The Thin Red Line (1998) and The New World (2005), in order to identify said style and themes and to find common threads in Malick’s characters, messages and filmmaking techniques across these films.
“Entertainment has to come hand in hand with a little bit of medicine, some people go to the movies to be reminded that everything’s okay. I don’t make those kinds of movies. That, to me, is a lie. Everything’s not okay.” - David Fincher. David Fincher is the director that I am choosing to homage for a number of reasons. I personally find his movies to be some of the deepest, most well made, and beautiful films in recent memory. However it is Fincher’s take on story telling and filmmaking in general that causes me to admire his films so much. This quote exemplifies that, and is something that I whole-heartedly agree with. I am and have always been extremely opinionated and open about my views on the world and I believe that artists have a responsibility to do what they can with their art to help improve the culture that they are helping to create. In this paper I will try to outline exactly how Fincher creates the masterpieces that he does and what I can take from that and apply to my films.
Short films are the ideal medium for exploring ideas and confronting universal issues. Unheeded by the conventional restrictions of full length feature films, short films encourage the director to experiment with unconventional techniques which best presents their intended idea. These personal choices are endless and span anywhere from non-diegetic sounds to eye-catching visual effects. Without the need of a complex plot or excessive dialogue as found in full length feature films, the message from the director is not concealed, but instead showcased in a clear and precise manner. The short films, L’Homme Sans Tete by Juan Solanas and Borrowed Time by Pixar demonstrates the personal choices made by the directors, which are apparent when comparing