Auteurship

This week you were to watch three movies by a particular director and to write a 500 word essay discussing how the three works you chose exhibit the common themes or other elements that are the attributes of that director as an auteur (or, alternatively, you could argue they are not an auteur or that the term "auteur" should not be applied in the critical discussion of film. See the syllabus for the list of directors

I chose to watch the films of Sally Potter this week. The films of hers that I was able to get a copy of and watch were The Man Who Cried, Orlando, and Yes.

I always have a hard time categorizing a director in a category like an "auteur" simply because I've always thought of cinema as a collaboration. Making a film like these one for instance, you can't accomplish making them on your own. Making a film can never really be a solo medium of the arts in the same way that writing a novel can be. Although, if you think about it, even writing is not a solo one either if you have an editor, publishers, or you can even take into consideration the people who taught the author what they know. No one really works alone or without some sort of influence from another individual or individuals.

Sally Potter behind the scenes on Orlando

The only way I think I'd be comfortable with maybe categorizing a film director is because they are ultimately responsible for steering the direction and having final say over the piece. I would have to say that being an "auteur" doesn't mean that you're working alone and the credit is all yours, but rather that you're the one who takes responsibility for the work, the vision if you will. It's the director's vision that all the other people working on the production are contributing their work to. Even if the director comes onto a project where there's already a finished script, they still can "put their own stamp" on the piece and make drastic changes if that's the way they see the film. This can be done with simple things like where they place a camera in a scene, the music and sound, the locations where things are shot, or even shaping an actor's performance. These decisions can be an invisible sort of auteurship.

Orlando (1992) - Orlando, a young nobleman, is ordered by Queen Elizabeth I to stay alive forever. He miraculously does just that and experiences centuries of British history.

The Man Who Cried (2000) - A young Russian refugee traveling to America in search of her missing father, falls in love with a gypsy horseman.

Yes (2004) - Story about a passionate love affair between an American woman and a Middle-Eastern man, and the conflicts that rise between them both religious, political, and sexual.

In the case of Sally Potter's films, after watching all three I can see how her vision for the films "outshines" the other aspects, the stories that she tells are definitely not traditional in the sense of the word. My favorite was Orlando simply because it has the most intriguing story idea about a man that's ordered by his Queen to live forever, and he does somehow. The Man Who Cried seemed to be the piece most like auteurship to me though.The entire film centered around Christina Ricci's character as the female lead/heroine. The entire film was about longing and loss, with Ricci's character being personified as loneliness.

Medium is the Massage

Lolita: Writing for Atonement

I took a slightly different approach when I read this piece and looked at the novel as an actual written account from Humbert Humbert (H.H.) since he is a literary scholar. I viewed Lolita as being a piece written by Humbert instead of Nabokov, and that he wrote it to atone for his "evil." There also seems to be this sort of logic to his repentance, kind of like the 12-step programs but with less steps.

Humbert creates this work embedded with morality without actually enforcing any morals. But the question is, how does a monster with morals repent for the evils/sins that he has committed?  Humbert's attraction to the young girls is not a moral choice on his part because he did not act on his urges until Dolores. In the beginning his interest in girls wasn't physical, not that he didn't have physical desires, but rather that he was not yet ruled by them. By the time he meets Lolita the "superhuman self-control" he prides himself on has vanished and he now cannot stop. There are these flashes of clarity for H.H. in the novel that you can almost miss, but reveal in his musings that he understands that Lolita is suffering and that it devastates him. He feels like he has stole her life from her, and that he needs to write his accounts of his time with Lolita to restore her to that life he took. In this sense he is admitting that he has a "problems," or rather he has recognized/realized what he has done. Yet, like I said, he still cannot stop (or help) himself.

It isn't actually until the very end, when he finally losses Lolita that he feels a sense of remorse for what he has done; it's not an apology by any means because he never says, "I'm sorry" to her. I'm pretty glad that he never plain old says he's sorry because simple apologies like that don't hold any power anymore and almost always don't seem genuine. Humbert is very open throughout the novel about what he does and how it makes him feel, especially right after his time with Lolita and "an ashen sense of awfulness" creeps over him. Yet I find it odd that in the beginning he doesn't try to excuse his behavior, but rather tries to justify or dismiss it.


H.H. eventually seems to be "reformed," although it's important for me to note that there isn't a way that he can be cured based on the reading. Anyway, he has finally given up his "evil ways," and even goes as far as to mention his relationship with Rita (who was twice Lolita's age by-the-way). Something he would not have done were he still so fixated on young girls.

It wasn't until years later when Humbert had resisted his desire for young girls that Lolita actually contacted him and he was able to start repairing some of the damage he had done to her. He tracked her down and gave her $4,000. While offering her money is no way to repair the damage, it's a step in the right direction for H.H.

The final step in this mini 12-Step program to atonement is a public confession, which I viewed as being the whole reason for Humbert to even write the book. The book is his public confession, and it is finally through this form of art that he is able to finally repent to Lolita by doing something that saying "I'm sorry" or even offering her money cannot do.

Day of the Locusts

Day of the Locusts by Nathaneal West

So I only got a few pages into the book by the time it was class time. It was the only time so far I haven't finished a reading on-time, and it was because I really needed to focus on my CA senior thesis that week.

I did make time to read the entire work the next week because the class discussion was interesting and made me want to read more. It's hard to read one book a week being an animation major as it is, so I couldn't really digest this book because I did do a lot of skimming. I guess it was better than nothing though. I love reading and I miss it when I'm at school because I never have the time to actually relax and enjoy a paperback.

I did have some trouble getting into this book, and I think it's partially because I was so distracted with my thesis, but also because of the writing itself. The .pdf file was in a terrible format too and made it almost impossible to read. I'm used to reading long, almost painterly descriptions of even the simplest details in an environment, but there's something that seems almost surreal about West's writing. It's almost like trying to read into a crazy person's mind at times.

What I did like about this book was the idea of the "American dream," and how the characters in the novel all go to Hollywood to try and fulfill theirs. And each character in turn is a typical Hollywood stereotype of that era. I think West thought the idea of the American dream was fake, a fraud. What I found really interesting was that his idea of these deluded, pretty desperate, people trying to catch someone's interest in Hollywood is still very apparent today. It may be even more them among us today than there was in West's day. Faye Greener, in my opinion, is very much an allegory for Hollywood itself; a shiny lure many a helpless chump looking to believe in instant celebrity status and their 15-minutes of fame.

What this novel does do very well is makes us hold a mirror up and examine all of our flaws below the make-up.

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Where am I "situated" in the history of film?

I feel like this is a great time to be going into the animation industry because right now there still seems to be a high demand despite the economy being what it is. The animation industry is growing and new studios are opening up, like Tradition Studios for Digital Domain is going to be hiring 200 people to start production on their first full-feature animated movie around the time I graduate in May.

I also think it's an even better time to be a woman in the animation field. Right now, there are very few female animators when compared to all of the men in the industry. There are more and more women finding jobs because of their drive and talent in what used to be "such a man's world." Now-a-days if you do good work you are recognized for it whether you're a man or a woman (or at least most of the time, depends on the company really).

For many years at Walt Disney animation, women were only given jobs at what they called the "nunnery," or rather, the Ink and Paint Department. I guess during the early years it was assumed that women would only work there until they found a husband and then would soon leave so they could start a family.

Even at such an animation legend studio like Pixar has now donned their first movie with a female lead character, as well as their first female director for their upcoming release Brave (so excited!!). Although Brenda Chapman is actually only co-directing, and I found that in a few news articles about the movie they left her name out as director and only mentioned Mark Andrews.


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American Film Timeline
Pre-1920s
- optical toys and visual tricks invented to show illusion of motion
- Thomas Edision and William K.L. Dickson developed cinema technologies
- silent film era

1900
- James Stuart Blackton "The Enchanting Drawing" (stop-motion/action animation)

1904
- narrative film becomes dominant

1907
- film-makers first arrive in Los Angeles, California

1908
- over 8,000 movie theaters (nickelodeons) in the U.S.
- first real horror film "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" premiered in Chicago (16 minutes)

1909
- over 9,000 movie theaters in the U.S. (typical film only 1 reel long/10-12 minutes)
- first feature-length film (in U.S.) "Les Miserables"
- NY Times coined word "stars" for leading movie actors
- 35mm recognized as international standard film

1920s
- use of sound integrated in late 1920s "The Jazz Singer"
- silent film actors found themselves out of work
- 1922: Will H. Hays formed Motion Pictures Association of America (current name)

"Golden Age of Hollywood"
- late 1920s to early 1960s
- thousands of movies released in Hollywood
- formulas: Western, slapstick comedy, musical, animated cartoon, and biographical pictures
- studios like Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., MGM formed to make a studio system

1930s
- Walt Disney's animation company
- depression era, people wanted happy films
- money in Hollywood, President Franklin Roosevelt partnered for national campaign

1940s
- studio system began to decline with the increased popularity of television
- number of movies being produced annually dropped

1950s
- Hollywood movie studios no longer owned movie theaters

1960s
- 1968: film rating system put into effect
- "New Hollywood": storytelling methods changing (e.g. "twist endings," and Hitchcock's Psycho)

1970s
- "blockbuster" rise (e.g. The Exorcist, Jaws, Star Wars): studio only focuses on a handful of films each year, emphasize spectacle, star power, and high production values
- studio focus on producing enormous hits
- HBO (Home Box Office) success/profitability in mid-1970s spurs cable TV growth, then satellite TV

1980-90s
- home video market rises
- premium movie channels develop: HBO, Cinemax, Disney Channel, American Movie Classics, PPV
- films failing in theaters successful in video market (e.g. The Secret of NIMH and The Shawshank Redemption)
- Quentin Tarantino and other directors able to view thousands of films to influence their own work
- independent film-making/low-cost

- Busiest Hollywood actors 1990s: Samuel L. Jackson (36 films), Whoopi Goldberg (29 films)

2000s
- highest grossing actress for 2000s: Emma Watson for HP films (2001-2009) earned $1.7 billion (domestic) and $5.4 billion (worldwide)
- explosion of 3D and IMAX films caused theater conversions to 3D format as well as ticket sales increases

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8 1/2

I wasn't as excited to watch this film, but I ended up really enjoying it because the content really strikes home with me. This is a movie that every artist can relate to because the creative process is something we all go, and sometimes struggle, through. In the art industry we're hired to create something, be it an animated scene or an oil painting, and have to keep it within the scope of what the person who hired us wanted. Sometimes it's difficult because you have your own personal style, and it's simply not what the client wants and you have to chose to let the project go and conform to their wants.

Genre List

Children's
- Young Adult
Adventure
- Epic
- Coming-of-Age
Comic Books/Graphic Novels
Historical Fiction
- Historical Romance
- Holocaust
- Prehistoric
Romance
- Paranormal Romance
Science-Fiction
- Steampunk
- Romance
Comedy
- Parody
- Satire
- Romantic Comedy
Fantasy
Suspense
- Crime Fiction
- Mystery Fiction
Musicals
Westerns
Neo-Noir/Film-Noir
Pulp Fiction
Horror
- Paranormal
- Slasher
- Psychological Thrillers
Non-Fiction
- Autobiographies
- Semi-Autobiographies
- Biographies

DIrector's Notes Assignment

Heavenly Creatures

Themes
- Friendship gone wrong
- Young age leads to obsession (to the extreme)
- Escape from reality


Director
Guillermo del Toro

I absolutely love his films, as well as all of the unique trade marks that he leaves on his work. Some of which I've listed:
- insects (could include the butterflies they chase in the 4th world)
- religious artifacts
- dominant color: amber
- protagonists influenced strongly by father figures

del Toro has this ability to take the horrific and make it beautiful yet charming and scary at the same time. He also makes changes to his scripts to make them more personal and is not afraid of R-ratings. Most of his R-rated films are not because of the gore or brutality but rather the intensity of the movie.
Of course my favorite part of his movies are the unique creature/character designs that he makes; they're just beautiful.

I also think this WOULD be something he'd do, especially since he is so close with Peter Jackson. Their styles mesh well together and I can't wait to see del Toro's influence on the upcoming Hobbit films.


Cast
I would really want to try and cast actors that are really sixteen-years-old because I'm really sick of Hollywood taking people that are in their late-twenties and trying to convince us that they're still in high school, it's ridiculous.

In the script it describes Pauline as being 16, dark-haired, and shorter and stockier than Juliet. Juliet also being 16, but tall, blonde, and willowy. 

Right away I thought of Cloe Moretz for the role even though she's only 13-years-old. She's most well known for her role in Kick-Ass, but I thought she was absolutely fantastic in the American remake Let Me In.

I think Cloe would be good for the role of Pauline if you have her darker, shorter hair for the role.

For Pauline I actually have two actresses in mind, both of which are a little too old, but I couldn't find anyone else I thought would fit the role. First there's Emma Watson. I know it's hard to imagine her in a role other than Hermoine Granger, but I think she has more natural talent than a lot of her younger co-stars from the Harry Potter series. Plus, I read a bit ago that she's going to be doing a Beauty and the Beast film with del Toro in the future, which I'm soooo excited for!

The other person in mind is Mia Wasikowska who played Alice for Tim Burton a few years back.

Costumes
Much like I see the style of the piece, the real world clothes would seem dull. The school girl uniforms they start out wearing would be very conservative and oppressive to them, and even when they change out of them their regular clothes aren't much better. I see them wearing luxurious gowns in outrageous colors in the 4th World scenes. As the film progresses I could see their costumes in the real world slowly having parts attached to them that were obviously sewn on by the girls, which are very colorful and stand out. It sets them apart from everyone else and hints at their madness slowly creeping into their everyday lives.


Style
The style of the film seems to be divided between two extremes with the real world, and the imaginary 4th World that the girls create. The scenes in the real world will obviously seem more dull with less saturated colors in the cool color spectrum like blues and greens. Their 4th World will be brightly exaggerated colors.

Overall, I see this film with an edgier more modern feel. I can definitely see this being done as psychological thriller, along with some Tim Burton-esk fantasy worlds. The cinematography I can see being done similar to The Black Swan. The deeper and deeper into their madness the girls get, the more oppressive and claustrophobic the camera shots should feel in the real world to reflect the pressure from their families.

Pulp Fiction

Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

It was the Greeks who first associated the word genre with literature and the arts. Genres have traditionally been created by conventions, which tend to change over time while new ones are created. It is not uncommon for works to fit into more than one genre if they follow said genre's conventions.

The American book The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy is often categorized into the Neo-noir Crime Fiction genre. I've never really taken the time to read a crime novel before, which was surprising when I realized that because I love movies and television series that delve into criminal investigations.

Neo-noir is French for "black film." The typical time period of this genre takes place between the 1940s and up to the early 1960s. In this case the novel begins in 1943 and continues through 1949 with the Black Dahlia being found in 1947.

One of the male leads, which is a characteristic of neo-noir, is Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert: LAPD and former boxer, who ends up saving the life of the other male lead Officer Lee Blanchard. There is a small amount of romance in the book between Bucky and Lee's roommate Kay Lake, who end up married towards the end of the book. Bucky and Lee end up partners, and later discover the body of Elizabeth Short while on a stakeout.

Another characteristic seems to be this sense of identity crisis where the characters tend to be trapped in difficult situations where they become desperate and conflicted. Bucky in particular fits this because he is dragged onto the case against his will, but soon goes down this dark downward spiral. Solving this murder, and then when Lee goes missing, the two mysteries become his obsession that cause him to further and further self-destruct. Lee himself is instantly obsessed with the case from the beginning who becomes more emotionally detached until his disappearance.

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Crime fiction is a genre that fictionalizes crimes, investigations, criminals, and their motives. Crime fiction is a pretty big genre in itself, and has been sub categorized. Out of all of the sub genres, I would have to say that Black Dahlia fits the best into would probably be Detective fiction. It is also sort of a historical whodunnit sub genre since the book revolved around a historical murder case.

The book is based on one of Hollywood's most notorious murder cases; Elizabeth Short. I did some digging into the history of Elizabeth Short, who was murdered in January 1947. It was during this time that the newspapers tended to nickname crimes that were particularly... colorful. Elizabeth Short became known as "The Black Dahlia." She was found in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California with her body cut in half at the waist, completely nude and drained of all blood. Her face was slashed from the corners of her mouth towards the ears, in Glasgow smile fashion, much like the Joker in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight.

The murder is still unsolved to this day. The killer actually even rang up the newspaper and sent items to the station. Because the case was so famous there have been over fifty instances of people calling in to confess that they were the killer, especially whenever the case surfaces again with a novel or movie release. Many people blame the reporters of the time for trampling evidence at the scene and not passing information to police for the still unsolved crime.

I found that the book seems to also have some horror fiction elements. Crime and horror often go hand-in-hand with one another but there is a distinction between the two. Both seem to delve into human depravity, but while crime generally approaches it more matter-of-fact with violence, horror wants to overwhelm you with imagery. The intent is different. If the novel tends to be more concerned with the procedural aspects of hunting down criminals then the horror aspect of the genre is usually dropped.

I got to page 258, right after Bucky and Kay's wedding, I wasn't sure what the rest of the book was going to be about since I was pretty satisfied with it ending there. The rest of the book actually brings the crime to a false ending since the actual murder was never solved; it's sort of a double ending. I wonder if Ellroy chose to do that because The Black Dahlia is the first in the series, or because he wanted to follow some sort of convention. One thought I had was maybe that last section of the book wasn't reality but rather Bucky's fantasy. He has been so obsessed throughout the novel in solving this murder, that because he couldn't solve it in his real life, he chose to write a narrative relating to his life to compensate for the unsolved murder.

One of the things I liked most about the novel is Ellroy's writing because you can just tell that he writes for himself, not the reader. Part of this may stem from the fact that Ellroy's own mother's murder is unsolved, and that The Black Dahlia can be seen as Ellroy's own wish-fulfillment to find his mother's killer.