Compare how far your chosen films reflect the auteur signature features of their filmmakers
The auteur theory dictates that some film directors influence their films so much they rank as their author. The theory was introduced by Andre Bazin who suggested that a film’s director should be the true artist and the content should be a reflection of their individual style. The auteur theory particularly began to take prominence amongst critics arguing that the 1930-1960 “big three and little five” Hollywood Studio System had resulted in impersonal manufactured films to meet mass audiences rather than expressions of artistry.
Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) was made during this 1930-1960 period, known now as the Classical Hollywood era, and follows Rick, an owner of a cafe during World War II where refugees go to seek escape to America, as his former lover Ilsa returns with her husband.
Whilst Michael Curtiz cannot be considered an auteur, Casablanca still has a distinct individual style reflective of Warner Brothers’ house style suggesting that the studio acted as an institutional auteur. During the Classic Hollywood Era, “the big five and little three” film studios dominated cinema with MGM, Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox and RKO working through the process of vertical integration to control all the stages of the film supply chain thus maximising their profits.When combining the stylistic work of Curtiz, Warner Brothers’ consummate house director during the classical era, and other members of the film’s production, Casablanca appears to represent a distinct house style. In the process of making Casablanca, Warner Brothers influence was maintained through the input of Jack Warner who acted as executive producer and Hal B. Wallis who acted as producer; in the studio system producers were heavily involved in the film’s production process. However, more stylistic influences were brought to the film by cinematographer Arthur Edeson, renowned for his low-key lighting and use of shadows, and composer Max Steiner, viewed as having a speciality for creating dramatic and memorable scenes that match themes and characters on-screen. The combined work of these individuals under the Warner Brothers’ studio culminated in a unique film reflective of their styles, a similar sentiment that characterised the auteur theory.
Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967) was made after a 1948 supreme court cased prohibited big studios from controlling all stages of film production thus paving the way for the French New Wave. The film is based on a true story following Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, a famous criminal couple during the 1930s Great Depression, through their lives of robbery and media stardom.
Similarly, Arthur Penn cannot be considered an auteur for Bonnie and Clyde as most of the visually artistic techniques were adopted from the French New Wave. The post-World War Two world created a sentiment of break from tradition as french film critics began criticising the lack of artistic freedom, innovation and opportunity in Hollywood; these critics began making their own films under a movement called the French New Wave. One director that had a large influence on the film was Jean-Luc Godard, a major French director, whose film Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) contributed to the French New Wave by introducing new innovative film techniques. Bonnie and Clyde was deliberately made like a film from the French New Wave: David Newman and Robert Brenton, the screenwriters, wrote the script in the style of the French New Wave and Dede Allen, the film’s editor, embraced the freedom granted by the innovations of the French New Wave to create her own style of editing. Following the trend of key stars being involved with the production of the film, Warren Beatty hired the screenwriters and selected the cast as well as overseeing the development of the script. Whilst Penn individually was not an auteur, the combination of the film’s production team taking inspiration from the French New Wave meant that Bonnie and Clyde had a distinct style.
The use of cinematography and lighting in Casablanca is highly reflective of the Warner Brothers’ use of film noir. We are introduced to Rick through a close-up of him playing chess and holding a cheque, the shot then tilts up to reveal Rick shown in noir lighting that focuses on contrasting shadow and light. The effect is also a reflection of Casablanca’s cinematographer Arthur Edeson’s renowned use of low-key lighting and shadows; Rick is regularly shown in half-light to reflect his divided self whilst Ilsa is shown with soft lighting, a gauze filter and catch lights to make her eyes sparkle and add a sense of tenderness to her character.
During the French New Wave, film technology advanced and film stocks were faster enabling films to be shot with natural lighting instead of using the fixed lights that stylised movies like Casablanca. As a result, the lighting throughout Bonnie and Clyde is much more naturalistic with the majority of the film taking place outside to reflect the natural locations.
In Casablanca, characters and locations are deliberately framed to maximise the information we are given. As Major Strasser arrives in Casablanca,a two shot of him meeting Captain Renault pans out into a three shot then four shot then five shot as he is introduced to more characters, this is all one shot with the camera moving to appropriately frame all of the characters. This technique is reflective of Warner Bros’ house style as complex compositions to frame characters were frequently used. Additionally, Warner Brothers were known for their sweeping camera movements, shown again in the final shot of the film in which the camera cranes out from a mid-shot of Rick and Renault walking away to a high-angle long shot.
Bonnie and Clyde’s cinematography is characterised by innovative techniques introduced during the French New Wave. The film opens with the use of an extreme of close-up of Bonnie’s lips followed by a unnaturally structured series of shots of Bonnie in her room; the opening not only adopts the French New Wave’s unusual, less structured sequences but also follows their rule of not opening with a traditional establishing shot.
Bonnie and Clyde is also made with lots of hand-held camera used for realism such as the tracking of Bonnie around her room. This contrast to Casablanca’s use of tripods for idealism is reflective of the use of the French New Wave’s production with minimal crews and lightweight equipment.
Casablanca and Bonnie and Clyde also take very different approaches to sound design. The sound mix inside of Rick’s Cafe includes low diegetic background music played by Sam and other background noise very low in the mix. In Bonnie and Clyde, the consistent use of random diegetic sounds as Bonnie and Clyde walk through the streets after meeting for the first time presents a sense of verisimilitude. Bonnie and Clyde’s naturalistic sound design is a reflection of the on-location shooting whereas Casablanca’s artificially created sound is a product of it being filmed on-set in the Warner Bros studio due to the rules of the studio system. Casablanca’s composed scores are highly reflective of the renowned work of the film’s composer Max Steiner.
Casablanca’s use of brisk pace editing for formality was a common technique used by Warner Brothers’ to ensure their films did not stray too much into sentimentality. Continuity editing is used throughout the film to present a seamless narrative with invisible cuts. Editing is used in the film to provide structured information: in the beginning, an officerover a speaker says round-up the usual suspects and the next shot we see is other officers rounding up the usual suspects.
Contrastingly, throughout Bonnie and Clyde discontinuous editing and varying pace is used; the unpredictability of the editing techniques reflect the French New Wave’s innovative move from formulaic and invisible cuts to artistic and deliberate techniques. The final scene in which Bonnie and Clyde are killed is shown through numerous camera angles all editing together to dramatise the events and create an overwhelming spectacle for the audience.
In Casablanca, when we enter Rick’s cafe for the first time multiple tracking shots through the location are used to show off the elaborate mise-en-scene of the set design. The film was shot on-set at the Warner Brothers Studio and therefore the sets were constructed to fit camera movements, lighting and character positioning thus creating a glamorous aesthetics reflective of the Warner Brothers’ house style.
The French New Wave favoured the use on-location filming rather than on-set productions. The first time Bonnie and Clyde meet they walk to a gas station, the environment around them is deprived to reflect the conditions of the 1930s Great Depression.
In terms of performances, the Warner Brothers’ contracted actors in the studio system, cause the characters in Casablanca to speak with the same vaguely foreign accent despite representing different nationalities: as an audience, we are given the Anglicised version. In Casablanca, the characters dialogue is performed theatrically, they speak one at a time and stick to the script word-for-word. The tame language is explained by the institutional context as the Production Code from 1934-1954 set moral guidelines that had to be strictly followed by films to prevent the government banning or censoring them.
In Bonnie and Clyde dialogue is delivered much more naturally with characters speaking over one another and abbreviating. At the time of Bonnie and Clyde’s release, the Production Code was seen as increasingly outdated and was even disbanded in 1968, a year after the film’s release, thus contextualising the exploration of relaxed morals in the dialogue of Bonnie and Clyde.
Gender representation differs between the films. In Casablanca, Ilsa, despite having a lead speaking role, tends to be subservient to the decisions of both Rick and Victor who ultimately decide her future by the end of the film. It also clear that her beauty is the main focus of her character with lighting and cinematography being deliberately manipulated to showcase her beauty; the focus on female beauty is a reflection of the aesthetics and glamorisation of the Classical Hollywood era.
At the beginning of Bonnie and Clyde, Bonnie is seen in her bedroom. She lays behind the bars on her bed, representing her entrapment, and hits her head repeatedly thus reflecting her frustration with her position in society. The film goes on to challenge and disprove these norms through the exploration of Bonnie’s sexual liberalisation. The open exploration of themes like sex and female freedom were characteristics of the French New Wave as they broke from the regulations of studio systems.
In conclusion, whilst neither of the films fit the traditional definition of the auteur theory in which directors as individuals influence their film’s production, both feature characteristics of the group of people that worked on them as well as the production contexts surrounding them. Casablanca combines the renowned cinematography of Arthur Edeson and composer Max Steiner and the work of Jack Warner, Hal B. Wallis and Michael Curtiz with the Warner Brothers’ well-known house style. Casablanca’s traditional structure and classical aesthetic are a result of these auteur techniques and stylistic aspects. Bonnie and Clyde can also be considered an ‘auteur’ film in terms of its ability to reflect the styles and techniques of the French New Wave as well as the renowned editing of Dede Allen, the producing of Warren Beatty and the directing of Arthur Penn. The French New Wave’s influence is evident in Bonnie and Clyde’s focus on artistic editing and cinematography as well as the open exploration of previously unspoken topics such as sexuality.
