Stuck for something to write, I decided to open Tumblr and think of a topic based on the first image that I saw. How apropos that this image appeared first. Although it would make more sense to have posted it as the header picture for this post... I really, really hate feet. However, it did give me something fantastic to discuss.
For those of you who don't have an education in film, "auteur" is the term coined by La Nouvelle Vague (or French New Wave) film movement that describes a film-maker with an oeuvre (or "body of work") in which they have the defining creative input. The Nouvelle Vague were a group of film critics who wrote for the Cahiers du Cinéma and began their own film movement. It included directors such as Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. (YouTubers have them to thank for the invention of the jump-cut!) It's also interesting to note that they attacked the literary style of French cinema at the time - something that is prevalent in cinema today that I've recently discussed.
Lessons in film history aside, the auteur theory has always interested me, and when I first began studying film I was always keen to examine a director's body of work. A true auteur puts his or her stamp on every film they make, and every film of theirs you see will scream their name to you. Some of the best contemporary examples of this are Quentin Tarantino, Pedro Almodóvar, Michel Gondry, Wim Wenders, Allison Anders (incidentally, herself a huge fan of Wenders), and Sophia Coppola. A similar thing happens with, for example, Disney and Pixar. This is because an overall aesthetic is defined, there's that "something", that stamp, that makes it a product of that studio. It's something that I love because it shows a great dedication and artistry; real pride in one's work.
While I'm wary of getting into the realm of Pixar yet again... Well, I can't help it. I recently attended the Screen journal convention on animation, and I overheard one of the assistants speaking to the guest speaker, Vivian Sobchak, about Wall-E. He said that he didn't like it because, "it wasn't Pixar, Pixar is Toy Story, and Wall-E wasn't it". At the surface that might appear to be true, but let's delve a little deeper. John Lassater was the director on both Toy Story films, so his overall director's aesthetic certainly influenced the outcome of the films. It was the first commercial output from the company, and their first feature film, which did a lot to define the company in the eyes of the public. Wall-E was directed by Andrew Stanton, but still has that indefinable Pixar magic.
At the same time, though, despite there being two different directors (and countless different animators, storyboard artists, etc.), there are certain aspects of Wall-E that are in line with Toy Story and Pixar films in general. We're drawn in to loving this entity that toes the line between animate and inanimate. While he's mobile, he's carrying out instructions pre-programmed by humans. Although he seems to have human sensibilities, he is still mechanical. This blurred boundary between the real and the artificial is exactly the same motif that made Toy Story such a wonderful film. As humans, we have granted life upon these objects, and when we are not looking, they feel and act the way we would imagine them to feel and act. It's a strange dichotomy (if you can even call it that), and it's fascinating. To me, that is what Pixar is all about. They could take a black bin bag and give it emotions, a personality, and friends; make us believe that it's alive. And that is precisely why he was wrong.
Motifs are amazing because they contribute a lot to the way we can think about an auteur or an author. Haruki Murakami is one of my favourite authors, and after a few books you begin to realise that whenever a cat appears, something unusual is about to happen, and that his female characters are never attainable and always mysterious. Using a similar metaphor or storytelling device to symbolise different things in different stories can be central to auteurism, whether it's expressed through narrative, visual aesthetics, or aural cues.
Who are your favourite directors and authors? What is it about their style that draws you in?
Until tomorrow!
Nicola x
No comments:
Post a Comment