Auteur theory in 'Blade Runner' and 'The lady from Shanghai'

“An auteur director is one who brings to film, signs of their own individuality - perhaps in the way narrative is constructed, the way certain themes are explored or within their visual style.”

The Auteur theory is the belief that someone was able to prefect a certain style or quality to a piece of meida, that they are often concidered to be the creator of whatever they were able to make. Usually, in films, an auteor is a director, such as Ridley Scott and Orson Welles. The reason why an auetur is usually only a director is becuase they are overseeing the entire project, from script writing to screenplays to actual filming. They see the filmn as a whole, and all of the elements that need to be included to make a certain message be conveyed to the audience.

For example, in Blade Runner, just months before shooting began on the feature film, Ridley Scott's brother committed suicide. Rightfully so, this effected Scott when production began. Instead of the film being a light hearted science fiction movie, in a similar vein to the likes of Star Wars and Star Trek, Scott opted to cast a more darker overtone to the film, visually and metaphorically. The film has many scenes take place in dark allyways or shadowy areas, with most lighting being street lamps and neon signs. Majority of the film takes place in the rain, using pathetic fallacy as a way to reflect the mood through visual cues. The character of Deckard tends to be very straight faced, not really showing any emotion to those around him and seems to do his job becuase he has to, not becuase he wants to. This character trait could be a reflection of Scott himslef, as at the time, making Blade Runner would have been something low on his priority list, becuase he had lost his brother only months before, but felt he had to make the film reguardless due to his contractual obligations. So this would exaplin why Scott decided to change the overall tone of the film to suit how he felt at the time of production.

Reffering to the quote above, the reference of 'own individuality' and 'the way certain themes are explored' stand out as being something Scott did when making Blade Runner. Scott used his personal issues and troubles to influence the tone and themes of the film to fit a more noir type film. One theme that is more prominant than others in Blade Runner is the theme of morality. In context to the film, Deckard is aware that Rachel is a replicant, and has to decide whether or not to turn her in, or run away with her. While this theme could have worked without the more gothic style of the film, Due to Scott's change in tone, the theme fits the narrative better, and makes the theme seem more consistant throughout the movie, as viewers seem to enage with Deckard while he juggles the decision in his head, and making an audience seem like they are having to make the decision alongside Deckard, and are not just watching him on a screen. Despite the tradgedy, Scott was able to turn his real life experiences into the feature film that still have people discussing its themes today.

Similarly to Ridley Scott, Orson Welles is also reguarded as an autuer, with some calling him the ultimate auteur, as it is believed that he changed cinema into what it is now. Before working in film, Welles worked with radio, so when he movied onto film, he was very au fait with audio and how to work with it. He was the first person to use sound for more than just audio. He was able to manipulate the sound to portray an element of depth when listening to the film. He achieved this by being experiemntal with things. He tried having people move closer to and further away from the microphone depending on if they were moving in and out of the scene respectively, dubbing sounds over the top of footage, and echoey distortion just to name a few. And audio wasn't the only thing he was experimental with. He played around with camera a lot as well. Welles, after building upon the idea of depth of field, came up with the technique 'deep focus' and used it in his film Citizen Kane.

Looking towards The Lady from Shangahi, whereas Scott used his auterial traits to make a statement, Welles used his as a way to show an upcoming change in the narrative, but shown through the cinematography, not the dialouge.. For example, the funhouse scene was not only an experly filmed scene involving many mirrors and cleverly placed cameras to create the effect that is so impressive, despite being made over 70 years ago is still impressive to see now, but it also was a way Welles was able to reflect a change in narrative through the camerawork. One shot has two thirds of the screen be taken up by Arthur Bannister, and the remaining third by Elsa. Despite the rest of the film showing her as a powerful and manipulative woman, sometimes reffered to as a feme fatele, this shot tells an audience that there has been a power shift, and as the audience come to learn, Elsa no longer has the power she once had. In an instant the power had been transferred to Bannister, who then dies at the hands of Bannister. At the time of making the film, Welles decided to show the effects of having a woman in power, and showed audiences that a powerful woman is going to get her and those around her hurt or killed. This message refelected the societal views in the 1940's of women and how their status was still lower than men's.

Overall, the quote above, describing the common characteristics of what makes an auteur, is accurate in relation to Ridley Scott and Orson Welles. Using one film from each of their repertoirs as examples to back up the theory, and to consolidate why these two are widely considered to be auteurs in their own right. Each director has a style that transfers into their films, and both taking real life experiences and feeding them into the themes and/or narrative of their films.

Auteur essay

What is an auteur?

An auteur is someone who takes such precision and care in their film making, that many people regard him or her the creator of that style or genre of film. The word 'auteur' translates as 'author' in French, so gives connotations of a creator of something.

One example of an auteur is Christopher Nolan, who is most famous for the Dark Knight trilogy with Christian Bale and Heath Ledger as Batman and the Joker respectively.