Lesson 07:
Film Authorship
Professor Aaron Baker
Previous Lecture
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Film Genre
The Gangster Film
Goodfellas (1990)
Corrected Genre Film:
-Entertainment and Social Critique
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Today’s Lecture
• Approaches to Film
Authorship
• Steven
Soderbergh’s Film
Traffic (2000)
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Part I: Approaches to
Authorship
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Auteurism
• Auteur = Author
• Post WW II French
Cultural Formation:
-Magazines, Festivals,
Cinemateque, Cine Clubs
• Existentialism
-Absurd World
-Individual Recreates It
HENRI LANGLOIS, CO-FOUNDER
OF CINEMATHEQUE
FRANÇAISE in Paris in 1936, the
world’s first film archive.
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Film is Art
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Alexander Astruc
French Director, Critic
Camera Stylo (Pen)
Filmmaker Like Writer
Films Like Novels,
Poems, Plays
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Parisian Critics
• Andre Bazin,
Francois Truffaut,
Jean Luc Godard
• Reject French
Cinema of Quality
• Too Literary, Elitist
• Prefer Hollywood
Energy, Lack of
Pretention
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Style
• Reveals
“Personality” (View
of World)
• Metteurs
(Conventional)
vs.
• Auteurs
(Innovative)
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Auteurism
Combines:
• Idea of Romantic Artist (Individual,
Outsider)
• Modernist Focus on Form, Style
• Post Modern Celebration of Popular
Culture
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French Auteurist Critics
Ambivalence Toward
Hollywood:
-Like Hollywood Energy,
Lack Pretention
-Dislike Obsession with
Profits Over Art,
Society
On the set of Le Mepris (1963)
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American Critic Andrew Sarris
• Brought French
Auteurism to U.S.
• Notes on The Auteur
Theory (1962)
• U.S. Films Best in World
• Great Hollywood
Directors Transcend
Studio System
• Pantheon
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Andrew Bazin:
“The individual
transcends society,
but society is also . . .
within him. So there
can be no criticism of
genius or talent which
does not take into
consideration the
social determinism.”
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Genius
Peter Lehman and William Luhr write:
“The concept of an author as a genius
outside history, who possesses profound,
universal insights, . . .is now . . .
outdated” (Thinking About Movies, p. 77).
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Talent and Context
It’s most useful to recognize:
• A director’s individual talent
• The cultural and social
environments in which s/he works.
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Style and Race
• Spike Lee has
made films with a
distinctive
viewpoint and
formal style
• They have been
influenced by
ideas of race in
the movie
industry and
within American
society.
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John Ford
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Stagecoach (1939)
Native Americans as “Savages”
Cheyenne Autumn (1964)
New Ideas of Race in American Society
Shows Abuse of Native Americans by
Whites
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Collaboration
While films often involve the contributions
of many people, a skilled director can
have the greatest input in shaping and
organizing what a film becomes.
Themes and Style
Analysis of film
authorship starts
with:
• The thematic
concerns
and
• Formal style
of the moviemaker
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Style in Steven Spielberg’s
Films
His films often
combine special
effects portrayal of
the fantastic . . .
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Thematic Patterns
“With family dramas
of divorce, singleparent homes, and
the precarious
formation of
romantic couples.”
(Lehman and Luhr,
p. 80).
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
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Part II: Steven Soderbergh
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Steven Soderbergh
Tells stories about:
• Social problems
• Outsider characters
• Through allusions to
other films
• Discontinuity editing
• Handheld camera
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Scene from Traffic (2000)
-Mexican cop (Benicio
Del Toro) goes outside
law to stop drug cartel.
-Corrupt General killed.
-Handheld Camera
-Discontinuity Editing
-Please view the clip.
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Continuity and Change
Analysis of a director’s films can show:
• Thematic and formal Continuity
Or
• Change over the period of her/his
career
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Alfred Hitchcock
Went from tasteful
suspense in North
By Northwest (1959)
to. . .
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Graphic Horror
In Psycho the
following year,
1960.
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Soderbergh
• Started Making Independent and Art Films:
-Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989)
-Kafka (1991)
-King of the Hill (1993)
• Moved to mix of Blockbuster, genre films w/ stars:
-Erin Brockovich (2000)
-Ocean’s series (2001-7)
• And smaller budget, challenging films:
-Bubble (2005)
-Che (2008)
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Patterns of Continuity
• But even
Soderbergh’s
commercial films
(Ocean’s series)
show political and
formal concerns of his
art/independent
movies:
-Social Injustice
-Mix Realism and
Stylized Form
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Outsiders and Not an Invisible
Formal Style!
• Thieves Target Greedy
Casino Owner
• Introduced with:
-Stylized Editing
-Hand Held Camera
-Music That Helps
Define Their Cool
• Please view the clip.
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Intention
• The meaning we experience from a
director’s films isn’t always intended by
the filmmaker.
• Valid meaning can come from critical
analysis as well as the conscious
creation of the filmmaker.
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Alfred Hitchcock
• Saw himself as a
master of
suspense.
• Psychoanalytic
criticism has made
convincing case for
unconscious fear in
his films of
assertive women.
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In Rear Window (1954)
• Jimmy Stewart’s
character loves Lisa
(Grace Kelly)-after sees her
threatened for acting
assertively.
• Sums up Hitchock’s
fear of strong women
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Director Interviews
• Because meaning goes beyond intention,
analyze carefully what directors say in
interviews.
• E.g. Soderbergh Tells Lim: No Point of
View on Drugs in Traffic.
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Summary
Authorship analysis studies filmmakers’
careers “with definable thematic and
formal concerns within historically specific
cultural and social conditions.” (Lehman
and Luhr, p.97).
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Discussion Question
• How is this film representative of
Soderbergh’s formal and thematic
tendencies and how does it
demonstrate the influence of cultural
and social context?
• After viewing Traffic, post an answer on
E Board to this question as well as a
response to a classmate.
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End of Lecture 7
Next Lecture: The Art Film
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