Notes from Context of Practice lecture 4 Film theory 1.

What is an Auteur?

• A filmmaker whos films are molded by a filmmaker's (Directors) creative influence.
• Auteurs work is original
• They have creative control
• They use personal film language
• They often create conventions of a genre but often do not follow them.
• Auteur's are like artists, they are the creators of their own work, they are in control of whether they stick to the set rules they have individually created OR whether they break the rules they have set for themselves.
• Andre Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca, founded 'Cahiers du Cinema' (Notebook of cinema) in 1951, This film critics publication was heavily influenced by Hollywood at the time.

Hitchcock and why he was important 

• In 1920 Hitchcok started his career in the film industry, he was drawing film sets as he was a skilled artist.
• He continued his apprenticeship with Graham Cutts at Gainsborough
• In 1925, Michael Balcon sent Hitchcok to Germany to work with F.W. Murnau's
• Hitchocock was a pioneer, he used suspense using his revolutionary technical abilities, such as, Expressionist lighting, the Dolly zoom and his use of montage and cutting to create tension, he was revolutionary in the film industry.

The Lodger 1927

• in 1927 Hitchcok created the Lodger, a silent film aimed to provoke as much fear and suspense to the audience as possible.
• He did this by using lighting to convey emotions, as well as his use of different and fast moving shots, cuts and montage.
• The visually dialogued film, so instead of using the characters vocal dialogue to create tension, he instead uses his pioneered techniques to convey the emotion of specific scenes, quick moving edited shots provoke this tension.
• His signature was to include cameo appearances in his film, this was like his trademark, again similar to an artist. 
• He often used blond haired actresses in him films ' Blondeds make the best victims. They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints.'
• 'There's no terror in the bang of the gun, only the anticipation of it'

• Hitchcock films are not concerned with realism or naturalism, he is only interested in evoking emotional responses from his audience. 

 Vertigo

•  Expressionism through his use of colour and dolly zoom
• Hitchcock was obsessed over the physiological thoughts of his audience
• He uses techniques such as voyeurism and trauma.
• "Always make the audience suffer as much as possible"

• 1938 Hitchcock leaves Gainsborough studios to work in America where David O Selznick introduces his to pyschoanalyis.
• Together they made 'Rebecca' (1940), 'Spellbound' (1945) and 'Notorious' (1946)

• The Bird's-Eye view was also pioneered.
• and the birds were the most prominent motif in sabotage and they appear in 'Young and Innocent' (1938), 'The Lady Vanishes' (1938), 'Jamaica Inn' (1939), 'Saboteur' (1942) and 'Psycho'