AUTEUR THEORY

By Naomi Abraham

WHAT IS AUTEUR THEORY?

In film criticism, auteur theory holds that a director's film reflects the director's personal creative vision, as if they were the primary "auteur" (the French word for "author"). In spite ofand sometimes even because ofthe production of the film as part of an industrial process, the auteur's creative voice is distinct enough to shine through all kinds of studio interference and through the collective process.

WHERE DID IT ALL BEGIN?

The Auteur theory began after World War 2 ended. The embargo on American Films was lifted, which allowed other films released in the US during the war into previously forbidden areas. The German minister of propaganda Josef Goebbels controlled the French industry during the occupation , which prevented the importation of any films that might provoke any acts of resistance against the occupying forces, new styles, genres and filmmakers from the Unites States and elsewhere made the rounds in the film circuits throughout France.

FAMOUS AUTEURS
Alfred Hitchcock

Tim Burton
Steven Spielberg Woody Allen Quintin Tarantino David Lynch Ting Ling Martin Scorcesse

TIM BURTON
Timothy Walter "Tim" Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American film director, film producer, writer, artist and animator. He is famous for his dark, gothic, macabre and quirky take on horror and fantasy style movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands , The Nightmare Before Christmas , Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow , Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street , Dark Shadows and Frankenweenie , and for blockbusters such as Pee-wees Big Adventure , Batman, its first sequel Batman Returns , Planet of the Apes , Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland . Burton is known for using recurring collaborators on his works; among them are Johnny Depp, who has become a close friend of Burton since their first film together; musician Danny Elfman, who has composed scores for all but five of the films Burto n has directed and/or produced; and domestic partner Helena Bonham Carter. He also wrote and illustrated the poetry book The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories , published in 1997, and a compilation of his drawings, sketches and other artwork, entitled The Art of Tim Burton , was released in 2009. Burton has directed 16 films and produced 12, as of 2012. His latest films are an adaptation of the soap opera Dark Shadows, released on May 10, 2012, and a remake of his 1984 short, Frankenweenie , released on October 5, 2012. In most of Tim Burtons films, Johnny Depp is used as the main character. Most of Tims films have a gothic theme to them. To show that his films are dark and gothic he uses crooked trees, crescent moons, dark alleyways, dark and light reflecting shadows etc. Tim burton uses many techniques that have become types of signatures in his filmmaking. One of his most famous techniques is the stop motion animation. He has used this in the iconic The Nightmare before Christmas. This film made this technique forever famous for burton. Tim enjoys adding point of view shots in his films. The stop motion technique is demonstrates well in the film Edward Scissorhands there are several shots where the camera is clearly seeing something from the point of view of a specific character.

TIM BURTON FILMS