UNIT IV

1) AUTEUR THEORY
Auteur Theory is a way of looking at films that state that the
director is the “author” of a film. The Auteur theory argues that a
film is a reflection of the director’s artistic vision; so, a movie
directed by a given filmmaker will have recognizable, recurring
themes and visual queues that inform the audience who the director
is and shows a consistent artistic identity throughout that director’s
filmography.
“In the French New Wave, people developed the notion of the
filmmaker as an artist. They didn’t invent the idea, but they did
popularize it. A German filmmaker who started as a German
theatre director, Max Reinhardt, came up with the idea of the
auteur – the author in films. He came up with that around the
teens…. So, [director François] Truffaut and the French New
Wave popularized it, or they revived it.” – New York University
Professor Julian Cornell.
Theorists say that filmmakers have an “authorial voice” and they
should be given more control in how their films are made.
Auteur theory is a concept in film criticism that argues the director
is the “author” of a film.
The term was coined by François Truffaut (in connection with
work already done by French film critic Andre Bazin), and it has
been most widely used to analyze films from Europe and Asia.

2) Psychoanalytical film theory

A method to investigate the mystery behind the thoughts and
unconscious activity in the human mind can be analysed through
psychology. This thought process is associated with film studies
to make psychoanalysis on films.
 Sigmund Freud, in 19th century brought forward the
psychoanalytical process on the films that are practised
worldwide even today. Even though it is evident that
psychoanalysis on the film started in 1930-40, but wasn’t until
1970s that the psychoanalytical theory started taking shape in
regard to the effects of cinema in mind.

The two renowned individuals brought forward the

psychoanalytical theory:
 Freudian Theory of Psychoanalysis
 Lacanian Theory of Psychoanalysis

According to Freud there are three types of psyches in the

human mind

 Id – Uncontrolled
 Ego – repressed
 Super Ego – authorities over id and ego

Freud defined that these two types of ego as the realist and narcissist.
One can define narcissist commonly as the person who is excessively
self-centred or in other words love with themselves. But, in terms of
psychology, a narcissist means that person is affiliated with the erotic
attributes, selfishness, impulsive and in love of mirrors. Here, it is
taken as condition normal for the personality development in the
initial stages of childhood. The desire seeking is the Id, and the
seeking is to means to desire is the reality. Ego works on satisfying
the desires sought by Id and narcissistic ego desiring a mirrored
object; since ego is linked to the beginning stage of narcissistic ego.
Freud pointed out that ego’s relationship is not reality but in acquiring
the pleasure of fulfilling the desires. The realist ego is the mediator
between Id and reality where the narcissist has no such connection
with reality.
It can be said that Lacan’s theory on the psychoanalysis developed on
many lacking points from Freud’s theory and more importantly the
shift in the focus from Freud’s theory on sexual drive to a different
subject and perspective – Language. Lacan uses linguistic model to
explain the psychoanalytical theory and his own derivation of human
psyche.

He justifies his focus on linguistic model for psychoanalysis and

states three reason for choosing language

 He says that the shift of focus to imaginary stage into

symbolic stage is due to the mirror stage. Once the child
enters the Symbolic Order the familial structures become
the ‘Law’ – a Symbolic Law and the understanding of
lacking in the child (he/she)
 Entry in social order, experience in lack understanding the
desire and repressing the same is the entry in language
 Finally, the perception between the mirrored image and the
self, here Lacan defines this mirror image as the illusion
and a vacuum. And there can be no relation between the
unified self and the subject of illusion

Psychoanalytic Based Films

 Spellbound, Alfred Hitchcock, 1945

 The Third Secret, Charles Crichton, 1964
 Atmen (Breathing), Karl Markovics, 2011
 Shrink, Jonas Pate, 2009
 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Mel Stuart, 1971

3) Structuralist film approach

Structuralist Film Theory is a theory that aims to give the
movie-goers a taste of what a film of any genre is all about. To
present the very essence of a film, making the viewing public
realize and understand the potential and the very core
significance of a film, presenting a film in structures that can
 makes the movie-goers easily adapt into by means of the usage
of structural techniques such as movie elements that effortlessly
grabs the curiosity and attention of an individual or a group of
people mostly as a whole, to make a moviegoer see how a
movie is all about not just through his or her eyes but also
through his or her perusing mind and human understanding.
Structuralist Film Theory desires to make it known that a movie
is not just a mere film flickering in the silver screen of a cinema
house but also at par a much broader reflection of the daily life
of every individual of all ages, ranks and race, in short, every
single person in all aspects of life.

Structuralist Film Theory – Through the Olive Trees

Through The Olive Trees is a film directed, produced and

written by Abbas Kiarostami and was released on February 17,
1995. The movie plot and theme with equivocal end revolves
around a stone-mason who becomes an actor portrayed by
Hossein Rezai. Behind the camera he proposed to his leading
lady, but the relatives of the girl disapprove of him because of
his poor lifestyle thus making the girl dodge away from him
even during film shooting. Apparently, the girl got confused
between “acting” and what is “real”. The situation reached their
director who counselled him but conflict arises as he told the
scenario. Eventually, even from quite afar, she gave her answer
to him. Here is a story that made the audience pondering
whether the girl accepted the man or not or whatever was the
answer she gave to him. This is an Iranian movie that runs 103
minutes in Persian language.

4) Marxist film theory

Marxist Theory on Films is one of the most archaic frames of
cinematic hypothesis. It was not until the dawning of the era of
the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in the 1920s
 that this age-old supposition was administered in the academic
work in the realm of motion pictures genre. This particular
exercise was carried down and got adopted through the 1930s on
China as it was stimulated by Chinese cinematic faction dubbed
as the left-wing. The acceleration did not stop there as Marxism
was once more utilized in the era French New Wave business of
cinematic supposition survey.

The Marxist ideas and ideals is dubbed as like a bane to the

enterprise mandated by the cinema trade of the United States of
America; however, the standpoint of Marxist Film Theory
materializes itself in a myriad of American motion pictures.

Marxist Theory on Films – Conversation Piece

Conversation Piece is a top-notch motion picture directed by an

Italian director known as Luchino Visconti released in Italian
cinema on December 10, 1974, running 121 minutes. The movie
is star-studded with an ensemble of actors from America (Burt
Lancaster), Austria (Helmut Berger), Italy (Silvana Mangano
and Claudia Cardinale), and France (Dominique Sanda). This is
about a serene life deliberately disturbed and messed up by
unfavourable individuals. The plot concentrates around a former
American instructor who settled himself in his grand Roman
palace. The tranquil life of the professor turned disorderly when
he was tormented by a lewd Italian marquise and her associates
who made him lease a place for them right on his very mansion.
From then on, his untroubled life steered to its worst. No matter
how outstanding this movie is, it was still redacted in Spain for
explicit and legislative contents and was only released
unabridged in Spanish cinema on 1983.

5) Post Modern approach

That postmodernism is indefinable is a truism. However, it can
be described as a set of critical, strategic and rhetorical practices
employing concepts such as difference, repetition, the trace, the
simulacrum, and hyperreality to destabilize other concepts such
as presence, identity, historical progress, epistemic certainty,
and the univocity of meaning.

Postmodernism broadly refers to a socio-cultural and literary

theory, and a shift in perspective that has manifested in a variety
of disciplines including the social sciences, art, architecture,
literature, fashion, communications, and technology. It is
generally agreed that the postmodern shift in perception began
sometime back in the late 1950s, and is probably still
continuing. Postmodernism can be associated with the power
shifts and dehumanization of the post-second world war era and
the onslaught of consumer capitalism.

Postmodernism shares many of the features of Modernism. Both

schools reject the rigid boundaries between high and low art.
Postmodernism even goes a step further and deliberately mixes
low art with high art, the past with the future, or one genre with
another.

In short, Modernism and Postmodernism give voice to the

insecurities, disorientation and fragmentation of the 20th century
western world. The western world, in the 20th century, began to
experience this deep sense of security because it progressively
lost its colonies in the Third World, worn apart by two major
World Wars and found its intellectual and social foundations
shaking under the impact of new social theories a developments
such as Marxism and Postcolonial global migrations, new
technologies and the power shift from Europe to the United
States. Though both Modernism and Postmodernism employ
fragmentation, discontinuity and decentredness in theme and
technique, the basic dissimilarity between the two schools is
hidden in this very aspect.

Postmodernism understands that grand narratives hide, silence

and negate contradictions, instabilities and differences inherent
in any social system. Postmodernism favours “mini-narratives,”
stories that explain small practices and local events, without
pretending universality and finality. Postmodernism realizes that
history, politics and culture are grand narratives of the power-
wielders, which comprise falsehoods and incomplete truths.