The Auteur Theory

The Theory

The auteur theory is a concept created by French film critics in the 1950s. It states that the director has the most creative influence on films; therefore their personal style will shine through the film making their films recognisable. This means that an auteur director is a director with a creative signature – audiences familiar with their work will instantly be able to notice if they directed a film.

To be an auteur director it means that the director’s individual style is reflected in all their films; this may be through the use of genre conventions such as using the same actors to play specific characters. Along with this they also use specific film techniques, this involves using lighting, colour and music in a uniform manner that makes all their films have a similar, unique style.

Although there are many famous and successful auteur’s (such as Edgar Wright and Quentin Tarantino), the auteur director I have decided to look at and analyse is Tim Burton.

Tim Burton

Tim Burton (full name being Timothy Walther Burton) was born in Burbank, California in 1958. His career within film was originally made with extremely good luck, however by being an auteur director, his creative flare and talent kept him being a successful Hollywood director. When he was young he attended the California Institute of the Arts due to his passion for drawing, he then studied animation when he fortunately was awarded a fellowship from Disney.

From here he went on to work for Disney, however he found that working for them limited his creativity when working on mainstream films such as The Fox and the Hound. But by working for Disney it allowed him to have the freedom to work on more personal projects – he made a 6-minute animation (called Vincent) that was made in a black and white gothic style in tribute to Vincent Price. Along with this is made a 27-minute film called Frankenweenie that was under the zombie genre, however said to be unsuitable for children and then therefore never released. However, playing to Burton’s luck, Paul Reuben saw Frankenweenie and offered Burton to direct his feature debut Pee-wee’s Big Adventure; from this being a surprised box-office hit it meant that Burton had the opportunity to make the supernatural comedy Beetlejuice.

From Beetlejuice being very successful it meant that Tim Burton gained the trust to be in charge of the highly expensed Batman. This was a huge step for Burton, allowing his career to be recognised although Batman being his least personal yet successful film. From here Burton had to status within Hollywood to be able to create multiple successful films (Edward Scissor Hands, Batman Returns, The Nightmare before Christmas). Furthermore, Burton’s most unsuccessful films was Ed Wood, a tribute to Edward D. Wood Jr, it lead to many reviews gained acknowledgement and individuality to his style that we all know and recognise today.

Influences

Numerous people, ranging from the work of Ray Harryhausen to more obviously Vincent Price, influenced Tim Burton. Burton even made a short animation called Vincent to honor the impact Price’s work has had on his own. Burton says that as a child Vincent Price was his favourite actor, being the protagonist in various horror films that Burton adored. Additionally, Tim Burton was a huge fan of the horror films that were based off of Edgar Alan Poe’s poems, such as ‘Raven’. Lastly, Tim Burton loved Harryheausen’s stop motion animations – the first film he watched of his being ‘Jason and the Argonauts'.

Along with this many of Tim Burton’s films are based around the drawings he created when he was younger; the design of the film ‘Frankenweenie’ was created because of childhood dog. Furthermore, his work is said to reflect his life as a child due to being very isolated. Also, the characters in ‘Frankenweenie’ were an opposite representation of his parents.

Casting

Tim Burton is not only known for his individual style for his films, but also he is known for using recurring actors and actresses for his films, which also add to the fact of making them rememberable and recognisable. The most common actors and actresses that feature in Burton’s films are Johnny Depp (being in 8 films), Helena Bonham Carter (being in 7 films) and Christopher Lee (being in 6 films).

Along with this, Danny Elfman has composed all the music for every Tim Burton’s feature films (excluding ‘Ed Wood’ and ‘Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’). Elfman also composed the music for the stop-motion animation ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’.

Lastly, Vincent Price has collaborated with Tim Burton on three projects. He hosted the television special ‘Hansel and Gretel’, narrated the short film ‘Vincent’ (which was based off of him), and finally played a character in he now hugely successful film ‘Edward Scissorhands’.

Genre Conventions

Tim Burton’s films don’t usually follow the genre conventions. This is because he uses things such as settings, characters and themes in a very gothic and somewhat horror genre. However, although his films may be made in the style of a horror genre they may actually be a romance. For example, one of Burton’s most famous films is ‘Edward Scissorhands’ which presents the main character to have hands made of scissors, with scars all over his face, he lives in a creep abandoned mansion, yet it is a romance drama film.

However, I think this comes to play in the fact that Tim Burton is an auteur director. His way of going against the genre conventions, and making his films more individual and distinctive make him so recognisable and commendable.

Film Techniques

Tim Burton is an auteur director as his films are very distinctive due to being made in a certain style. Some techniques that Burton uses in his films are firstly the use of dark and moody lighting – all his films are made in a gothic style and therefore the lighting of most of his films are dark and dim making it seem more mysterious and somewhat scary.

Another film technique Burton uses is costumery; one thing that makes his films so recognisable is through the use of characters. Tim Burton’s characters are always made up through costumery and makeups making them work towards his halloween-ish style.

Along with these techniques, Burton’s use of sound and music play a big role in making his films his own. All songs in his films (excluding two) are composed and produced by Danny Elfman, this means that they always suit Burton’s style - the songs are usually quite spooky and slow, lots of piano used.

Lastly, many of Burton’s most successful films are stop-motion animation, which is another, film technique Tim Burton uses. Also, every stop-motion animation is made in the same physical style, the characters/settings all look the same; this makes his films look uniform and therefore always keeping him being an auteur director.