Auteurs

An auteur is a film director whose influence on their films is so great that they are considered to be its author.

Auteurs and their signature styles:

Alfred Hitchcock

- Strong visuals, rather than lengthy dialogue

- Use newspaper headlines and stories to aid in narrative

- Suspense, murder, romance, dark humour

- Locations used are not just a background, they are important to the story, e.g. uses shots of American symbols and portrays them as dangerous and menacing, when they are meant to be pure

- Extreme close ups, slow zoom into objects are commonly used in his films

- Emphasis on emotion

- Use of skewed angles, wide shots that end in close ups, long sequences with no dialogue and cause a level of discomfort
- Voyeurism

Martin Scorsese

- Slow motion
- Long tracking shots
- Freeze frame
- Breaking the fourth wall
- Silence
- Often shots of characters looking/talking into mirror

Francis Ford Coppola
- Central character is not brave or heroic
- Long tracking shots
- Focuses on faces and expressions of characters, rather than dialogue
- American Dream, family, brotherhood

The Coen Brothers
- Majority of films are crime dramas
- Crimes gone wrong
- Screaming characters
- Car tension
- Foolish characters
- Yellow and gold tones

Quentin Tarantino
- Shot from inside car boot/where the camera is at a low angle and characters are looking down, towering over the shot
- Uses food to emphasise power
- Stylised dialogue and upbeat music during murder scenes
- Use of crane shots that track over characters
- Hyper-stylised violence
- Strong female leads

Tim Burton
- Gothic colour palettes, production design and costume design
- Peculiar loner characters

Sofia Coppola
- Pastel colours
- Non-verbal techniques
- Languid camera movements
- Modern soundtracks

Wes Anderson
- Symmetrical style
- Overhead shots
- Mostly keeps camera stationary
- Most shots from straight on
- Colour palette

Guy Richie
- High-octane action
- Quick jump cut scenes
- Circular and interconnected plots
- Colourful characters
- Filtered overlays and strong use of colour to depict the mood