-- Francois Truffaut
Whether you're making films or thinking critically about them, a theory foundational to thinking about film is the auteur theory. Though many have tried to reject this theory, it persists, mostly because it's one of the first ways in which to analyse a film.
In essence, the idea behind auteur theory is this; that a director can use the commercial apparatus of filmmaking in the same way that a writer uses a pen or a painter uses paint and a paintbrush. It is a medium for the personal artistic expression of the director. It's really a tool for analysing how strong a director's voice is in their films. While Truffaut and company were talking about this idea as a means of defending Hollywood cinema and director Alfred Hitchcock in particular, the theory is a means of exploring recurring themes within works directed by the same person.
While modern theorists will suggest it's basically bollocks and directors like Michael Winterbottom actively reject the idea, it's hard to ignore directors with a particular style or approach, or a concern that is developed throughout several films. And if this theory is one of the first concepts taught to young filmmakers and critics alike, what better place to look for auteurs than film students?
I was lucky to do a student exchange at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2009 and work with the filmmakers featured below. It's a program that to me really represents the ideal way to explore filmmaking; the perfect combination of theory and practice.
The following films are perfect examples of the kind of work that you can produce as a student (I never did, but that's a story for another time), and these filmmakers reveal another dimension to Andre Bazin's thesis that the auteur theory was a way of choosing the personal factor in artistic creation as a standard of referencce, and then assuming that it continues and even progresses from one film to the next.
Lift Him Up (Hayley Stuart, 2011)
This beautifully photographed film is the story of a young man trapped by family obligation. His father is a minister who preaches from their home, and his sister seems a devoted follower. At the film's end, escape is possibly only symbolically; he frees a horse tied up in a local paddock. The neutral, wintry colour palette reveals a subdued and heartbreaking picture of adolescence and the seemingly impossible notion of freedom. Shots often reveal the protagonist, Joe, moving toward the edges of the frame; when he is in the centre of the frame he is at his most uncomfortable, the yearning for freedom evident in the very mise-en-scene. The film's title, the name of a hymn, harks back to the theme of religion, used here to subvert the notion of religious devotion as an uplifting experience. The protagonist is the opposite, weighed down by the oppressive religion his father practises. The film ends with the release of the horse, and the audience is left to speculate on whether Joe will free himself as well. The story and themes are perfectly executed at the visual, performative and aural level – a flawless exploration of religion, freedom, family pressure, and adolescence.
The film is powerful, moving and emotionally engaging, and its themes of family obligation and shifting dynamics can be seen in Hayley's other work at MMU. In films like He Rains On My Insides (2009), she explores family relationships and the factors that complicate them. Using a non-linear approach, the film reveals the reversal of roles between a father and daughter whose relationship is affected by alcoholism. In Of Education (2010), family obligation is explored through a young boy and his friendship with an elderly lady. Their relationship is strenghthened through music, which the boy then uses to connect with his mother. All of these films are full of stunning shots and a minimalistic approach to dialogue. Hayley also emphasises her protagonists' feeling of alienation and disconnection, often placing them directly in the middle of a vast landscape; Joe freeing his horse but not himself in Lift Him Up, the young boy in Of Education lying flat in the middle of a deserted stretch of road waiting for a change, Charlotte pushing her bike through the park she used to ride in with her father in He Rains On My Insides. With all of Hayley's films is a definite sense that every single shot, line of dialogue, movement, costume, every sound serves only the narrative; this is what every filmmaker must strive for in order to truly engage with the audience.
You can watch all of Hayley's amazing student films here
Things Beyond The Sun (Claire Molloy, 2011)
This film opens on a vast landscape, and just visible in the distance is a little girl who believes this is a place of magic and wonder. On one level, Things Beyond The Sun is a tale of friendship: a little girl barges into an old man's house looking for treasure and between the two of them they discover that meeting someone new can lead to new possibilities. But this film is about light and dark, childhood innocence and the loneliness of old age. Drawing on influences such as Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth (2006), Claire uses the contrast of the sunny landscape that belongs to the world of the little girl and the dark, depressing, almost dangerous interior of the old man's world to reveal a perspective on life often lost in the transition to adulthood. POV shots of the little girl reveal glimpses into her world, along with abstract sound editing and design, and the use of surreal close-ups that serve the juxtaposition of image and sound, fantasy and reality, youth and old age. By the film's end, the old man has literally entered her world through a secret door. He may not have gone very far, but he may now see things the way the little girl can.
Claire's work reveals an interest in childhood, exploring the notions of childhood innocence and growing up through use of the fantasy genre rather than using realism. In A Summer Long Since Passed (2010), the transition from childhood to adulthood is presented as a dark fairytale about the painful yet necessary process of growing up. References to dark fairytales such as Snow White are evident in Claire's use of white, black and red, and the use of the apple – the symbolic loss of childhood (and feminine) innocence. Shots from within the little girl's bedroom in the framing story recall Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides (1999), an exploration of youth, femininity and innocence lost. She also seems to take inspiration from Peter Weir, with the landscape of the fairytale recalling the dreamlike scenes of femininity and nature from Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975).
While not related to childhood, but very much still an interest in the darker edges of fantasy, All My Colours (2009) represents another way in which Claire's work challenges the conventions of realism. All My Colours presents a lover's quarrel and takes it to very dark conclusions. An argument is repeated from three different perspectives and takes three different paths. Claire uses stylised dialogue and editing, giving the film a noir-ish edge. She also saturates the film in different washes; red, green, blue, and white, the title becoming a cue to the visual expression of the conflicting emotions within each lover.
You can watch Claire's challenging and whimsical student films here
Pace (Sioned Page, 2011)
Michelle Strozykowski defines Social Realism as “representative of real life, with all its difficulties. The stories and people portrayed are everyday characters, usually from working class backgrounds. Typically, films within the social realist canon are gritty, urban dramas about the struggle to survive the daily grind.” Social Realism in British Film: Where Did the Kitchen Sink Drama Emerge From? | Suite101.com http://www.suite101.com/content/social-realism-in-british-film-a39973#ixzz1TrIUTfKq
Sioned's film Pace represents a more modern approach to the genre, an approach that reflects a personal stake in the story presented onscreen. If Social Realism is characterised by its gritty representatation of real life, Sioned uses vivid cinematography to emphasise that social realism need not resort to a subdued visual manifestation of the subdued subject matter. Pace is a family drama about a family dealing with their mother's terminal illness. Through the use of colour, sparing use of dialogue, subtle humour, and a focus on the experience of the children, Sioned is able to capture the nature of family grief and tragedy that is more realistic, and more personal, than mainstream depictions of family tragedy.
In this film and others such as I, Personally (2009), an experimental film about motherhood, Sioned reveals an interest in exploring family dynamics, particularly what it means to be a daughter and what it means to be a mother. Her skill as an editor and cinematographer is particularly strong in this film, using the natural environment as her colour palette. It's a skill that translates beautifully to Pace, creating a link between the natural cycles of life and death and connecting it to a human undershttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giftanding of them. Her work reveals a developing, sophisticated and intelligent interest in exploring family, grief and identity.
You can watch Sioned's beautiful student films here
Far From Home (Sophie Broadgate, 2011)
The science fiction genre is generally considered as a site rich for critical analysis of contemporary society. Modern genre films often seek to actively adhere to long-established conventions or fuse them with another set of generic conventions, allowing for a deeper exploration of genre. Sophie's film reflects the blending of science fiction with Social Realism but also reveals a trend in modern science fiction, one that reveals the future as a barren wasteland. From films like Ridley Scott's Alien in 1979 to last year's sci-fi teen drama Tomorrow, When the War Began, modern science fiction reveals a concern that humanity's actions today are leading to future apocalypse. In Sophie's film, alien life has all but destroyed human life, and caught within this wasteland are two small boys. What is most impressive in this film is Sophie's incredibly effective use of special effects, her controlled use of sound and her ability to effectively handle the difficult task of portraying an exploration of the concept of home with all the longing associated with it in a family drama set in a post-apocalyptic landscape. Not only this, but these complex dimensions to this film are brought to life in such an economic way. Relying almost solely on visual cues, Sophie presents two children in the midst of a loss of innocence. Whether they will ever get back to the life they once had seems impossible. The last image reminds us that the concept of home may be imaginary, making for uncomfortable yet powerful viewing.
Sophie's interest seems to lie in exploring the stark reality and dark side of humanity, seen in her film Domino Effect (2010), and the possibility of endless worlds beyond dreary modern life in The Way Forward (2009), a beautifully photographed film about a man who discovers a portal to a vast landscape in a bathroom cubicle. Far From Home seems to be the perfect combination of the two; the harsh struggles we face in our modern life and the possibility that it's not the only one we have.
You can watch Sophie's impressive student films here
Barthes said the death of the author is the birth of the reader, which many seem to think means that thinking critically about art necessarily means banishing the search for the author's voice, or that we must reject any personal input the author may have in the work. But Foucault argues, and I think I agree (unless I've gravely mistaken his writing), that this is not the case. The search for a critical understanding of the text can start from an analysis of the context in which it was made, and thinking about the author's particular slant on their society and the way in which they choose to express it through their chosen medium seems to me absolutely vital.
Not only that, but those who reject auteur theory reject the idea that a sole vision or voice can be maintained through not one but multiple films. In the case of the filmmakers mentioned above, the voice is unmistakeably that of the director. Not only because of a strong sense of the language and possibilities of the cinema and the narrative they are exploring, but because by neccessity a student film involves taking multiple roles. Hayley, Claire, Sioned, and Sophie are allowed a level of control not always available to filmmakers; they are writers, editors, producers, and directors of photography. They all have strong, clear, loud voices as filmmakers and I cannot wait to see the work they'll go on to produce. And hey, maybe I can involved. I'll make the tea.
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