The average movie-goer, or even movie "fan" - by the loosest definition possible, may never think about what goes on behind the camera. The making of the film. The lighting, camera-work, sound, musical score composition, set design and construction, storyboards, or the screenplay (script). Just scan the end credits of any movie and you'll see hundreds, even thousands, of jobs involved in the making of a picture. Things that are crucial to the creation and completion of a movie, yet aren't immediately obvious to the viewer in the cinema - or in their living room home theatre.
Just about everybody who's ever watched movies can name some favourite actors, even some famous actors who aren't favourites. Eastwood, Schwarzenegger, Heston, Fonda (any one of them), Hanks, Bogart, Brando, Nicholson, Hoffman, Cruise, De Niro, Hackman, Hopkins, Pacino, Gable, Connery, Cagney, Chaplin, Pitt. And the ladies: Fonda, Streisand, Hepburn (both), Bacall, Garbo, Streep, Bullock, Roberts, Kidman, Dench, Loren, Leigh, Johansson, Jolie, Monroe, and Witherspoon. Everybody knows some movie star names.
But how about the head honcho of the whole production? The director. He or she manages the whole shebang, sometimes at arm's length, allowing the technicians and actors to practise their craft undisturbed; sometimes micromanaging every detail... in which case the director is often referred to as an auteur. An auteur strongly exerts his or her personal influence and artistic control over the making of movies. The auteur's films reflect his or her own personal vision. And the auteur often performs more than one role in the creation of a movie - directing, producing, writing, and even acting. Maybe more.
For example - and perhaps the best example of all - look at the 1980 movie The Shining. The film strays from Stephen King's original novel, with a re-written story that establishes a tone and visual imagery that are not exactly King. Auteur director Stanley Kubrick took this tale into his hands and molded it into a masterpiece that did not satisfy King or every movie-goer who saw it, but he did create something that was uniquely and entirely Kubrick. His style, his co-written screenplay, his use of striking visuals, expressive music, emphatic lighting, camera-work, set design, the actors... all of it... screamed Stanley. A perfectionist to the end, he would labour over his pictures for years. Kubrick also got behind the camera and inserted himself into the actors' space to demonstrate exactly what he wanted from everyone. Though highly lauded, he was so passionate about his work that his often insensitive methods drove his employees to near-nervous breakdowns. But you can't deny the unforgettable results in his pictures. Consider just a few examples in from his impressive filmography: Paths of Glory, Lolita, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and A Clockwork Orange.
A Kubrick bio and a Preminger auto-bio off my bookshelf
Alfred Hitchcock, too, was an auteur director, imprinting his style deeply into his films. Not only did Hitch pioneer unique technical methods (like a camera that glided smoothly, simulating the viewer's voyeuristic gaze), but he also invented or adapted stylistic devices that became synonymous with his name. Even from early silents like The Lodger, we see how he framed camera shots to unnerve the audience. The master of suspense... and tension and terror and anxiety and empathy. Hitch employed complete silence to maximum effect, too. He had favourite themes that he used in his films, often revealing his idiosyncratic personality. Fugitives, blonde women, violence, plot decoys, and twist endings. Psychology and sexuality were key elements in his pictures, playing on every viewer's weaknesses. Oh, and you can't forget Hitchcock's whimsical touches, like his tiny cameo appearances in his movies. His massive filmography includes mystery classics like The 39 Steps, Spellbound, Rear Window, and North By Northwest.
A couple of great guides to the master, Hitch
Terrence Malick's output as director has been sporadic, though he's developed more films in recent years. His work as screenwriter dominated his early career, though as a director he took huge strides as time passed. Malick's auteurism was first evident in 1973's Badlands, about a fugitive on the run, starring young Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. Story is secondary to slow-paced, detailed character studies in a sprawling setting. And with Days of Heaven, Malick's lingering camera shots, sumptuous colour and nuanced sound entrance the viewer with the sweeping vistas and rustic lifestyles of the Texas Panhandle. More recently, Tree of Life stunned and puzzled audiences the world over, not least because of its lack of traditional storytelling. The blindingly beautiful visuals are almost too much to absorb or even comprehend, yet the warmer and more emotional tone that slowly develops helps make sense of this enigmatic and experiential movie.
Roman Polanski is among my favourite movie directors even though I am not crazy about all of his work. His vaguely, but sometimes overtly, disturbing and unsettling films are heavy in atmosphere. From his early masterpiece of madness Repulsion to Rosemary's Baby and Macbeth, Polanski worked with horror in all its forms, prying into the recesses of our minds, not handing us bloody monsters, but rather our own personal deeply buried psychological terrors. He was adept at tapping into the uncomfortable areas in one's subconscious, even in crime thrillers like Chinatown and Frantic. Returning to something more steeped in gothic overtones, Polanksi brought mental breakdown, the supernatural, and procedural adventure to The Ninth Gate (1999); here, he again demonstrated his handiwork with mood and exceptional character development. More recently, with The Ghost Writer and Carnage, he showed us that his Chinatown chops weren't gone (with the former), and his taut writing flavoured with emotion - even humour, was strong as ever (with the latter).
Polanski's Chinatown, in glorious widescreen
- on VHS?
There were, and are, so many great auteur directors in the history of cinema. I've only touched on a few favourites here, but some other notables, even if they are not quite to my taste (like Von Trier) - though I can still respect their talents, are: Otto Preminger, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Tim Burton, Woody Allen, David Lynch, and Lars Von Trier.
Aaaaand.... action!
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