Lesson 12: Film Authorship

Lesson 12:Lesson 12:Film Authorship Film Authorship

Professor Aaron Baker

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Previous LecturePrevious Lecture

• What is Genre?

• Genre History

• Social Functions of

Genre Films

• Genre and Out of Sight

(1998)

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Today’s LectureToday’s Lecture

• Central Ideas, the History of Film Authorship

• Filmmaker Mira Nair

• The Namesake (2006)

Part I: Central Ideas and The Part I: Central Ideas and The History of Film AuthorshipHistory of Film Authorship

4John FordJohn Ford

AuteurismAuteurism

• Auteur = Author• Post WW II French

Cultural Formation:

-Magazines, Festivals,

The Cinemateque,

Cine Clubs• Existentialism

-Holocaust/Absurd World

-Individual Recreates It5

HENRI LANGLOIS, CO-HENRI LANGLOIS, CO-FOUNDER OF CINEMATHEQUE FOUNDER OF CINEMATHEQUE FRANÇAISEFRANÇAISE in Paris in 1936, the in Paris in 1936, the world’s first film archive.world’s first film archive.

Andre Bazin Andre Bazin

• Individual Must Create Own Meaning in Absurd World

• “The centrality of the activity of the subject”

• Film Director as Auteur (Creative Subject)

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Film Can Be ArtFilm Can Be Art

• Alexander Astruc• French Director,

Critic• Camera Stylo (Pen)• Filmmaker Like

Writer• Films Like Novels,

Poems, Plays

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Paris Film CriticsParis Film Critics

• Francois Truffaut, Jean Luc Godard

• Reject French Cinema of Quality

• Too Literary, Elitist• Prefer Hollywood

Energy, Lack of Pretention

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TruffautTruffaut

• Essay, “A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema” 1954

• French Cinema relies too much on literature, adaptation

• Film Authors, “often write their dialogue and some of them themselves invent the stories they direct.”

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Auteurist Critics Auteurist Critics Championed CinemaChampioned Cinema

• Rejected Snobbish, Elitist French Intellectuals Devaluing Movies as Just

-Entertainment

-For the Masses

-Hollywood Mind Control

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Style and ThemesStyle and Themes

• Reveals Auteur’s “Personality” (View of World)

• Stylistic and Thematic Patterns

• Subtext in Hollywood Films

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HitchcockHitchcock

• Hollywood Filmmaker with Auteur Subtext

• French Critics Rohmer and Chabrol:

-Hitchcock’s “transfer of guilt”

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Stam:Stam:

Auteurism Combines:

• Idea Romantic Artist (Individual, Outsider)

• Modernist Focus on Form, Style

• Post Modern Celebration of Popular Culture

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Norman Bates in Norman Bates in Psycho, Psycho, 19601960

• Nice Young Man and Killer

• Hitchcock Asks Us To Identify with Him, His Voyeurism

• Transfer of Guilt. . . to Us.

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French Auteurist French Auteurist Critics and FilmmakersCritics and Filmmakers

• Ambivalence Toward

Hollywood:

-Like Hollywood Energy, Lack Pretention

-Dislike Its Obsession with Profits Over Art, Society

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Jean Luc Godard and Brigette Jean Luc Godard and Brigette Bardot On the set of Bardot On the set of Le Mepris Le Mepris (1963)(1963)

Clip #1: Clip #1: Le Mepris Le Mepris (1963)(1963)• Jean-Luc Godard• Film About Filmmaking• International Production:

American Producer (Jack

Palance)

German Director (Fritz Lang)

French Writer, Actress (Michel Piccoli, Brigette Bardot)

American Critic Andrew American Critic Andrew SarrisSarris

• Brought French Auteurism to U.S.

• Notes on The Auteur Theory in 1962

• U.S. Films Best in World

• Great Hollywood Directors Transcend Studio System

• Pantheon

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Auteurism and SocietyAuteurism and Society

“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.”

--Bazin

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Talent and ContextTalent and Context

Most complete analysis recognizes, • a director’s individual talent, and • the cultural and social environments in which

s/he works. • “The concept of an author as a genius

outside history, who possesses profound, universal insights, . . .is now . . . outdated” (Lehman and Luhr, Thinking About Movies, p. 77).

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• Lee has made films with a distinctive formal style, yet

• they have been influenced by ideas of race in the movie industry and within American society.

E.g. Spike Lee, Style and E.g. Spike Lee, Style and RaceRace

Clip #2 from Do the Right Clip #2 from Do the Right Thing Thing (1989) (1989)

• Story about Racial Conflict in Brooklyn

• Direct Address, Wide Angle Lens = Distorted Thinking About Other Racial Groups

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• Stagecoach 1939 • Native Americans as

“Savages”• 1950s, 60s Civil

Rights/New Ideas of Race in American Society

• Cheyenne Autumn 1964

• Shows Abuse of Native Americans by Whites

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John Ford and Native John Ford and Native AmericansAmericans

Auteurism: Main AssumptionsAuteurism: Main Assumptions

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• Film can be art• Involves the contributions

of many people, but a skilled director shapes, selects, organizes them

• Analysis of film authorship starts with thematic concernsand

formal style of themoviemaker.

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He has excelledwith specialeffects portrayal ofthe fantastic . . .

Form in Spielberg’s FilmsForm in Spielberg’s Films

Spielberg’s Thematic Spielberg’s Thematic ConcernsConcerns

“with family dramasof divorce, single-parent homes, and the precarious formation of romantic couples.” (Lehman and Luhr, p. 80).

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Catch Me If You Can Catch Me If You Can (2002)(2002)

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Summary: Style, Theme and Summary: Style, Theme and ContextContext

Authorship analysis studies filmmakers’ careers “ with definable thematic and

formal concerns within historically specific cultural and social conditions.” (Lehman

and Luhr, p. 97).

Part II: The Films of Mira Part II: The Films of Mira NairNair

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Thematic ConcernsThematic Concerns

• Globalized World• Indian

Culture/Diaspora• Equality for Women

Career as FilmmakerCareer as Filmmaker

• Born in India in 1957• Educated at Harvard• Eight features,

including--

-Salaam Bombay! 88

Nominated for Oscar

-Monsoon Wedding 01

-Vanity Fair 04

-Amelia 09

The Namesake The Namesake (2006)(2006)

• Based on novel by Jhumpa Lahiri (2003)

• Pulitizer Prize Winner

• Indian Diasporic Identity

Indian DisaporaIndian Disapora

• Traditional Indian Culture

• Arranged Marriage• Immigration and

Opportunity• Calcutta to New

York• Ph. D. in

Engineering

Two GenerationsTwo Generations• Bengali Parents:

Ashoke, Ashima• Indian-American

Children: Gogol and Sonia

• 2nd Generation Rebellion• American or Indian

Identity?• Focus on Both

Generations

Film Form and Global Film Form and Global Identities Identities

• Clip #3

• India/U.S.

• Contrasting:

-Colors

-Landscape

-Language

-Music

Successful ChildrenSuccessful Children• Parent’s Immigration

Offers Children Education and Career

• Ashoke to Ashima: “the options are limitless”

• Gogol – Yale, Architect

• Wealthy American Girlfriend, Maxine

Father, Ashoke’s DeathFather, Ashoke’s Death

• Gogol Realizes Value of Multiple Identities

• Language and Pluralism

• Again Colors and Cultural Difference

• Clip #4

Moushumi and MusicMoushumi and Music

• Bengali, American, French

• Selfish?• Clip #5: Verdi, “La

Donna e mobile”• Music and Gogol’s

Choice• Pearl Jam, “Once”

Music Also Defines Music Also Defines Ashima’s Choice Ashima’s Choice

• Immigration and Sacrifice• Ashima’s Love for

Classical Music • Represents Her Choice to

Return to India• Bahri: “Music is of great

significance in the film . . . [the] sound of rival cultures . . . generations in collision.” 13

Nair’s WomenNair’s WomenAbout disasporic Indian women in Nair’s films:

“[They are] no longer content to fulfill dutifully their roles as custodians of tradition, these women might be said to betray a fragile social structure with their diversity of experiences and choices available to them.”

--Deepika Bahri

Mississippi Masala, 1991

• Mina (Sarita Choudhury) Lives in Mississippi Where Indian Family Owns a Hotel

• Has Relationship with Demtrius (Denzel Washington)

• Family Wants Her to Marry an Indian

SummarySummary

• Film Authorship• French Ideas of Auteurism

-Film as Art

-Director Unifies Film/Communicates Personality (World View)

-Uses Style and Theme

-Film Can Be Commercial and Meaningful

SummarySummary

• Mira Nair as Global Auteur• Her Themes:

-Diasporic Indian Culture

-Gender Roles• Represented Through Mise-en-Scene (Color),

Sound (Music), and Characters Choosing Hybrid Identities, Strong Women Resisting Traditional Roles

• The Namesake (2006)

Jonathan Rosenbaum:Jonathan Rosenbaum:

“Foreign movies have important things to teach us . . . . They’re proof positive that Americans aren’t the only human beings and that the decisions we make about how to live our lives aren’t the only options available.” Movie Wars, page 108

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What We Learn from Nair’s What We Learn from Nair’s FilmsFilms

• Hybridity of Identity in Global World ( Example of Indian Diaspora)

• Value of Tradition (Family, Music, Food)• Value of Modernity

-Wealth from Work (Immigrant Experience)

-Right of Women to Have Same Choices as Men

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