film essay questions

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GrahamPetrierevised.pptx

Graham Petrie

“Alternatives to Auteurs”

Graham Petrie

Graham Petrie starts with quotes from directors John Huston and Franklin Schaffner. Huston won the Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay Oscars for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). Schaffner won the Best Director Oscar for Patton (1970). Both directors mention the lack of control they had over their own content.

Graham Petrie starts with questioning the premise of auteur theory. He argues that the theory was developed to “by-pass the issue of who, ultimately, has control over a film.” (110)

Graham Petrie

He notes auteur theory ignores the “power conflicts and financial interests that are an integral part of any major movie project.” (110) He asks several important questions that are neglected in auteur theory:

“Who instigated the project, and for what motives?

Who wrote the script, and how much of it survived?

Who cast the film, and for what reasons?

Who edited the final product, and for what reasons?” (110)

Graham Petrie

Petrie posits that cinema needs to be thought of a “cooperative art and of the ways in which it thereby differs from fiction, poetry, painting, and even music and drama.” (111)

Graham Petrie

Petrie asks what is “visual style” and what type of control the auteurs really have over his/her visual style regarding

The lighting arrangement

“Choice of lenses, filters, and gauzes” (typically the preview of the cinematographer/director of photography”

Framing and composition

Moving or static camera

Type of location and setting

The color scheme of the film

Costumes and make-up

The basic editing rhythm

Graham Petrie

He then describes how

The director of cinematography would control the “balance of light and shadow, the visual effect of the close-ups, and the movement of the camera.”

The screenwriter may have established the “pattern, order, and the type of shot.”

The studio may have selected the costumes and sets.

The editor and producer “may create the final shape of the film between them without even consulting the director.” (111)

Graham Petrie

Petrie views the flaws of auteur theory as not only the “assumption that the director’s role is of primary importance as its naïve and often arrogant corollary that it is only the director who matters and that even the most minor work by auteur X is automatically more interesting than the best film of non-auteur Y.” (112)

He discusses the importance of actors to the filmmaking process. Bette Davis had a very specific artistry and “wielded much more power at Warner’s at that time than more directors (and even read her scripts right through before committing herself to filming them).” (112)

Graham Petrie

Petrie feels that directors were recognized for the personal touches before auteur theory came into existence. He argues that while one can recognize “recurring themes, characters, and situations that reappear throughout the work of many directors,” relying these alone may be deceptive. “The continuity may be the result of working within a certain genre, or for a particular studio, or in habitual collaboration with a favorite scriptwriter or actor.” (113)

Graham Petrie

He creates a list of filmmakers that he believes had almost complete control over their films. He then notes who stars, producers, cameramen, and scriptwriters had a personal style and influenced films as well.