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What does the term ‘auteur’ mean?
Auteur means a film director who has a strong influence on the style of the films that he/she makes.
2. What characteristics do you expect to see in a body of work that can be used to describe that work as by an ‘auteur’?
They have a unique style, which is easily recognisable. They achieve this by using the same themes, characteristics, filming techniques, lighting, actors and overall styles in all their films.
3.Which film directors are considered ‘auteur’ today?
The film directors that are considered auteur today are Pedro Almodovar, Stanley Kubrick, Jean-Luc Godard, John Ford, Howard Hawks, Ernst Lubitsch, Preston Sturges, frank miller and Tim Burton.
Your chosen film director
4. Give reasons for your choice of director
Tim Burton is a master auteur that has been one of the most talented filmmakers for more than two decades. In his films he uses an almost magical cinematic world narrative which often represents an ‘outsider’, misunderstood, lonely and rejected character. By using these characters he explores themes of the individual feeling outside but expresses sadness and understanding whilst cherishing these characters. The themes and creation of Tim Burton films consist of strange gothic horror, science fiction and comedy. With all these things it portrays a depressing setting for young audiences, which shows the mood and effect of his films. Due to the fact that Burton’s choice of films are scary and mysterious he uses a certain type of lighting to make characters, settings and many other things seem frightening and spooky. The characteristics that I expect to see in Tim Burtons films are dark themes, Halloween style costumes, themes about death or afterlife, gothic horror, wondrous cinematic characters, elements of drama, fantasy (e.g. with a focus on the supernatural), comedy, misunderstood lonely characters and outsiders (E.g. a character that doesn’t fit in with the others but are beautiful and cherished in Burton’s eyes).
5. Explain why you do consider them to be an auteur.
I consider Tim Burton to be an auteur because he uses a unique style which is easily recognisable e.g. in his films uses the same themes, characteristics, filming techniques, lighting, actors and overall styles in all their film.
Look closely at least 3 of the following elements, which could contribute to a distinctive style.
Narrative structure – The narrative structure for Tim Burton’s films are very dark with gloom and death characters which can be found in many of his films. He use a strong narrative structure which pulls together our emotional world into a fantasy world making us feel like we’re in the characters shoes. In the scene from the movie ”the dark shadow” it shows a flash back from the part in which the girl talks about her parent sending her away to a cell prison thinking that she’s crazy and in the movie from the scene in ” Alice in wonderland” it shows a flash back of Alice from when Alice was a child where she visited wonderland for the first time.
In Tim Burton’s films it contents flashbacks allowing the character to bring back remember from a particular scene in there life’s in which something happened.
Use of actor- Mostly in Tim Burton’s films he uses professional common actors for different roles and mostly work with the same actors like Johnny Depp and his wife Helena Burton. For his work, he’s known for creating dark themes to each of his movie which can also be seen in his characters. While creating his films he like to use professional known actors so that it will attract the public, audience and movie lovers but using non known and non professional actors who have no experience wouldn’t really bring audience to excitement to watch or attract them in a way about the film.
Similar themes in the director’s work- As a child Burton use to be very attracted to watching Horror and science fiction film. As he grew became fascinated by these characters that he also wanted to create his own version of them and films which contents the theme horror, dark, science fiction, gothic and death after life. By creating these he began to fall in love with his own creation and feels like he’s in the character’s shoes. With these characters created he feels the love and unwanted ness of them like he felt when he was a child at a very young age.
Jessie Boo 