Explore how auteur theory can influence film aesthetics. Make reference to A bout de Souffle to support your answer
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Underline the key terms
Explore how auteur theory can influence film aesthetics. Make reference to A bout de Souffle to support your answer
Auteur theory - the idea that the director makes the same film again and again and again. It is assumed that the auteur has complete control over the film. The film is the responsibility of the director.
The idea originated in the French Film magazine Cahiers du Cinema, to criticise what they saw as flaws in mainstream, Hollywood cinema. The American studio system was cinema made by committee, or cinema made on a factory line. Many films were created purely to tick boxes, and to maximise financial revenue with little thought as to 'art' and creativity. Directors that seemed to buck this trend included Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles. The French critics decided to use the auteur (author) to describe these up and coming American directors. The American film critic Andrew Sarris latched on to this idea in his book The American Cinema, and popularised this idea in America.
Knee jerk reaction
Goddard's aesthetic is highly influenced by his own authorial style, and only he could have made this film
Plan
Classical Hollywood Narrative - the rules of traditional Hollywood cinema
Cinematography
Jump cut
Montage
MES
Character positioning
Blocking
Natural lighting
On location filming
Camera movement
Handheld camera
New/unknown actors
Naturalistic acting
Improv
Natural lighting
Goddard
Auteur
Diegesis
Dialogue
Low budget
Girl and a gun
Existential crisis
Sex
France
Narrative ambiguity
Breaking the fourth wall
Introduction
Definition, argument, conclusion
Auteur theory refer refers to the idea a single individual is responsible for the aesthetic and ideology of a film. The term originated in France in Cahiers Du Cinema magazine to critique American mainstream cinema. Many of these ideas ended up informing the work of young French directors. In this essay, I shall argue that Auteur theory clearly influences the aesthetic of Goddard's film A Bout De Souffle. 'Breathless' is a French New Wave crime film directed in 1960 by French Film Critic Jean Luc Goddard. The film kicked of the French Nouvelle Vague movement, and is highly influential even today.
Paragraphs
Point, evidence, argument
One absolute key aspect of Goddard's auteurial style is related to the fact that all of his films draw attention to the very fact that they are films. The most clear and explicit example of this can be found in Michelle Poicard's deliberate breaking of the fourth wall. A close up shot frames the protagonist in an uncomfortable mode of address for the spectator. He turns his attention from the road to the spectator, and begins to rant about his love of the French countryside, establishing the anguish and mental turmoil that he feels. The naturalistic lighting of this shot constructs an unpolished mode of address, that deliberately steers away from the conventions of classical Hollywood narrative. This highly atypical aesthetic choice deliberately reminds the spectator that they are watching a film. This is later reinforced when Poicard finds a gun in the glove compartment of the car. Happily making gun noises, we cut to a shaky handheld POV shot that shockingly plays an internal diegetic sound of real gunfire over the top. This use of pleonastic sound helps reinforce a confusing and contradictory aesthetic for the spectator, that reinforces the film's fictional status
Another key aspect of Goddard's aesthetic is his insistence on using not only natural lighting and shot on location scenes
(creates a relatable mode of address)
Another critical element of Goddard's auteuristic style can be found in the aesthetic created through the use of jump cuts and camera movement being used in highly atypical ways