Auteur Theory Continues to be an Important Part of...

Auteur Theory Continues to be an Important Part of Filmmaking The auteur theory is an idea or principle, which states that the film is a reflection of a director’s creative personal vision, as if to say the he or she is the primary author (which in French, means â€Å"auteur†). This theory first came to be in 1954, by a French film director named Francois Truffaut. The auteur theory’s birth was through the French New Wave, which was a group of new French filmmakers during the 1950’s and 1960’s. In the beginning, the theory received positive and negative responses. And to this day, it will create a heated debate. Many have questioned the theory, because there are usually multiple people involved in the development of a film. Ultimately, a film†¦show more content†¦One was fiction and the other non-fiction, but they both was a piece of art displayed by Spike Lee. When we view these two films from an auteur theory point of view, we are able to capture Spike Lee’s voice. One of the biggest traits you will witness in Spike Lee’s films is the ability to zoom in on a character and talk to the viewer. In Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X, Spike Lee would focus on a particular character, as if to zone out everyone else within the film. In doing so, he was able to get his point across because the viewer had no choice but to take in what was being said and the image remained in the back of our minds. I know for a fact that more than 20 years later, the close-up of those films are still present in mind. This was a unique, personal, and creative vision of Spike Lee. At the same time, Spike Lee had a way of focusing on specific areas or backgrounds within the film. A great example is a scene in Do the Right Thing, where Spike Lee, himself was walking down the sidewalk, delivering a pizza. The point of him delivering the pizza didn’t really mean much. What stood out about the scene is when Spike Lee left the scene and the camera remained. Those seconds of footage displayed a sidewalk with an image, written by kids with chalk. Another great display of Spike Lee’s vision is how he could change scenes in the middle of conversation. A character could be talking to someone, turn away from the person, look in the other direction, and whatShow MoreRelated The Death of the Auteur Essay2920 Words   |  12 Pagesâ€Å"The Death of the Auteur† 2 The concept of ‘author’ is originally derived from the Latin word for authority. From the theoretician’s standpoint, the author carries power over the text only to the extent that the ideas and scenarios within it are originally those of the author. French literary theorist Roland Barthes argues that the function of an author is to provide the semblance of originality and meaning in The Death of the Author. â€Å"Writing is the destruction of every voice, of every originRead MoreThe Studio System Essay14396 Words   |  58 PagesWorld War. A new way to run Hollywood was required. Beginning in 1962, Lew Wasserman of Universal Studios emerged as the key innovator in creating a second studio system. He realized that creating a global media conglomerate was more important than simply being vertically integrated. Gomerys history tells the story of a tale of two systems using primary materials from a score of archives across the United States as well as a close reading of both the business and tradeRead MoreRace Film : The Great And Only Essay10250 Words   |  41 Pagesthe history of Black performance was when stereotypical images went from derisive drawings to photographs (after the mid-1890s) into film footage. The footage consisted of Black people engaged in the perennially American performance of Blackness in part for a White audience but also, as well, for a Black audience (486). In the early 1900s, the only film images of Blacks were degrading depictions that featured White actors in Blackface (such as Mammies, Coons, and White actors speaking in a plantation