Film criticism - directors film reflects the directors personal creative vision. Auteur is the French word for 'Author'. First recommended by François Truffaut back in 1954 and was first used for the French film 'Cashiers du cinéma'. Later, it was used in the USA for 'The Village Voice' by critic Andrew Sarris which he defines Auteur theory as avery serious work through the study of respected directors and their films. Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, and Jean Renior are all known as 'Auteurs'. Truffaut recognised that movie-making was an industrial process and encouraged directors to use miss-en-scene to show his or her vision on the work. Debate for the definition of Auteur has been argued since 1940s. Some believe that it is the director who brings life to the films through his thoughts and feelings. Auteur can use lighting, camerawork, staging and editing to add to their vision.
In music videos, this theory explores the concept of 3 circles. The technician area includes technical features, camera angles and editing. The stylist area entails the personal design of the film such as costumes. And, the auteur area looks into the interior e.g. happy endings.
For example, Michel Gondry has a style which flows through every music video he produces.
Repetition is used :
The audience has to watch the full video in order to understand the concept of the narrative.
AUTEUR THEORY Case Study
Chris Cunningham has directed videos for many artist such as Madonna and Aphex Twin. His videos are dark with a focus on surrealism and tend to have a challenging narrative.
In Aphex Twin's 'Windowlicker', the video has a strong focus on the narrative, which is longer than the song itself. It starts in the way that a typical video of the rap/RnB genre might, but then he starts experimenting. Characters within the video challenge gender stereotypes and a variety of camerawork techniques including lots of different shot types which are used throughout. The overall effect in the video is unsettling.
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