The Analysis of Quentin Tarantino as a Director
The director I have chosen to look at is Quentin Tarantino. His films
have achieved a cult ang global status and I dont think anyone is
going to argue that he is not an auteur. I am more interested in
examining his style and seeing how this makes him an auteur and if it
has changed when he was receiving a higher budget.
Tarantino was born in Noxville Tennessee on 27th march 1963. Tony
Tarantino, an actor and musician of Italian descent, and Connie McHugh
of half-Irish and half-Cherokee, who shortly after his birth married
musician Curt Zastoupil with whom Quentin would form a strong bond. He
attended kindergarten in San Gabriel Valley from 1968. In 1971 the
family moved to El Segundo, in the South Bay area of Los Angeles where
Tarantino attended Hawthorne Christian School. At the age of 22, he
wrote his first script, Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit.
Dropping out of Narbonne High School in Harbor City, California at the
age of sixteen, he went on to learn acting at the James Best Theatre
Company. In 1984, Tarantino started working at the Hermosa Beach Video
Archives in Manhattan where he struck up a friendship with fellow
worker Roger Avary with whom he would later collabarate. He continued
to study acting at Allen Garfield's Actors' Shelter in Beverly Hills
but began to concentrate mainly on script writing.He loved westerns
and his favourite was 'ride the whirlwind' directed by Monte Hellman
who later was an executive producer on reservoir dogs. He also loved
Rio Bravo (another western) which came out before he was born (1959)
and was directed by Haward hawks. His favourite di...
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...truth.
****************EXTRACT: Kill Bill 2 scene 16-17 The scene where
Beatrix kills Bill ****************
I think Tarantinos style changes slightly as he uses more special
effects and dramatic settings. The gore is much more extravigant and
he can afford some special appearences like the 5,6,7,8s playing in
kill bill vol.1. Ref.The cinema book 2nd edition p100 "Tarantinos
films mix violence with intertextual homage. He wants an audience to
notice the way his films relate to a history of earlier film, fiction,
t.v., thus combining movie fiction and movie criticism by playfully
referring to movie history and mini history contained in his stars." I
think Tarantinos style is evolving now he has the money to support his
wishes but his storytelling and directing technique is still
difinitively Tarantinos own.
In the film industry, there are directors who merely take someone else’s vision and express it in their own way on film, then there are those who take their own visions and use any means necessary to express their visions on film. The latter of these two types of directors are called auteurs. Not only do auteurs write the scripts from elements that they know and love in life, but they direct, produce, and sometimes act in their films as well. Three prime examples of these auteurs are: Kevin Smith, Spike Lee and Alfred Hitchcock.
Indisputably, Tim Burton has one of the world’s most distinct styles when regarding film directing. His tone, mood, diction, imagery, organization, syntax, and point of view within his films sets him apart from other renowned directors. Burton’s style can be easily depicted in two of his most highly esteemed and critically acclaimed films, Edward Scissorhands and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Burton ingeniously incorporates effective cinematic techniques to convey a poignant underlying message to the audience. Such cinematic techniques are in the lighting and editing technique categories. High key and low key relationships plus editing variations evinces the director’s elaborate style. He utilizes these cinematic techniques to establish tone mood, and imagery in the films.
Following careful thought on which director to study, I chose Francis Ford Coppola. Although he has directed more films than I have had the opportunity to experience, I have viewed enough to understand his progression and style of his work. Over almost forty years of work, Coppola has directed about twenty-five films, produced near forty-five, composed two, and acted in eight. He is known predominantly for Apocalypse Now (1979) and The Godfather I (1972), II (1974), and III (1990). However, he has worked in other genres, such as Horror/Romance, Musical, and even Comedy.
How would mankind communicate to each other without names? Names are what describe people in terms of personality, traits, and association. That’s why names are immensely important and thus, used in films such as Bound, in order to create a deeper meaning in a character’s actions and personality. The film Bound is written and directed by The Wachowskis. The film is about two lesbians: ex-convict Corky, and lesbian prostitute Violet who is in a relationship with mob money-launderer Caesar but decides to escape from Caesar after meeting Corky for she fell in love with her the moment she sow her in the elevator. So Violet wants to leave Caesar for Corky, but that’s not all. She and Corky come up with a strategy to steal two million dollars from the mob and blame it on Caesar. "Your name defines you," says Gregg Steiner, a Los Angeles talent manager (Parenting). In the film Bound, characters’ names have a lot of significance in which some have more connotations than others. Each character’s name holds symbolic meaning to the character’s role in the film and this is very apparent among Corky, Violet, and Caesar as well as the supporting casts: Gino and Johnny Marzzone.
Spike Lee is considered to be one of the underrated directors of our time. He was born on March 20, 1957 in Atlanta. He grew up with a supportive family. He started making amateur films at the age of 20.After graduating NYU film school he was ready for the world. He already overcame the fact that African-American filmmakers were narrow. His big break started when he earned seven million in box office for a movie which priced at $175,000 to make. Also, the film was only shot in two weeks. This was only the beginning to a bright future. His vision shows no favoritism and spares no races. His use of interviews and social commentary gives different cultures an opportunity to look honestly into the hearts, minds, and conscience of their people. He also exposes hypocrisy and lies when he demonstrates the different stereotypes that remain in today’s society .Spike Lee creates amazing movies about provocative topics no else wanted to discuss. Who would know that small kid from Atlanta, Georgia could be considered an auteur? Shelton Jackson Lee is considered an auteur to extent by addressing provocative subjects, playing an acting role, unique traits, and being consistent.
The racial system is composed of three basic parts that divides people into different categories: the white on top, black on bottom, and brown in between. This system came to be as a result of three different population coming together with unequal terms resulting in one population having the most power. The film Do the Right Thing, directed by Spike Lee, does an excellent job at portraying how the racial system functions by showing the advantages of being at the top of the system and the disadvantages of being at the bottom of the system. Not only does Spike Lee show the way that the racial system works but it also shows the reality of it and how it puts the races at the bottom
Judd Apatow (‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’, ‘Knocked Up’) is known for his contained and loveable comedies, but this marks the first time he’s directed a film that he didn’t write or co-write himself. He co-wrote ‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’ with his leading man Steve Carell, but he’s never not taken part in the screenplay of one of his films, at least not until this film. I personally walked into this film with a lot of hesitation, I’m not well-versed in Amy Schumer’s particular brand of humor thus I’m not sure how much I can trust her, but the trailers worked for me and Judd Apatow has never made a bad film in my eyes, and this is definitely not a slipup.
Throughout history America remembered slavery in a crucial unsettling way. Slaves worked long strenuous hours, get whipped to death, starved, and become broken spirits. All these factors describe the life of a slave. "To be a slave meant to be black and to be black meant to be a slave". Slavery at its very core was inhumane and traumatizing for every African American facing it, However today in our history textbooks slavery will be a chapter that many students come across. But what about in the media? well in today 's media movies about slavery are being reenacted and altered on the big screen. Two big box office hits come to many minds of Americans today, those films are Django Unchained and 12 years a slave. Both of these films provide
” … an auteur is able to maintain a consistency of style and theme by working against the constraints of the Hollywood mode of production.” – Warren Buckland (2008)
This New Wave aesthetic solidified film as a mainstream artform, stressing that film was carefully crafted similarly to literature. Individual directors, or auteurs, were expected to “author” their films in much the same way that an author would write a novel. This auteur theory and its accompanying aesthetic became the backbone of the French New Wave and was what drove innovation. Breaking free from the screenwriter, producer, and studio driven systems of the past, and putting the creative power back in the hands of the director was seen as a crucial step in solving Cahiers’ perceived problems with French cinema before the movement.
Think about your favorite movie. When watching that movie, was there anything about the style of the movie that makes it your favorite? Have you ever thought about why that movie is just so darn good? The answer is because of the the Auteur. An Auteur is the artists behind the movie. They have and individual style and control over all elements of production, which make their movies exclusively unique. If you could put a finger on who the director of a movie is without even seeing the whole film, then the person that made the movie is most likely an auteur director. They have a unique stamp on each of their movies. This essay will be covering Martin Scorsese, you will soon find out that he is one of the best auteur directors in the film industry. This paper will include, but is not limited to two of his movies, Good Fellas, and The Wolf of Wall Street. We will also cover the details on what makes Martin Scorsese's movies unique, such as the common themes, recurring motifs, and filming practices found in their work. Then on
The history of the slave era has been consistent throughout the past years whether it is told through textbooks or documentaries. Slavery through history is remembered as an era in which thousands of individuals were robbed from their freedom and treated with mass cruelty. History generally goes into depth on what slavery was and why it lasted for over two centuries, and the reason being is that African Americans were viewed as extremely profitable property, not as actual living human beings, “the sense of the humanity of these people were simply suppressed for the sake of gold” (“Africans in America” 1998). Another point to mention is the fact that history focuses on the overall picture of slavery and what it was, not necessarily what impact it had on African Americans and the individual hardships they endured.
As time goes on, history has a way of getting distorted from its most truthful form. Time causes people to drift away from accuracy and become more interested in what they want to remember. Hollywood has a reputation of creating films that cater more to the average viewer, rather than the history buff. Inglorious Basterds, by Quentin Taratino, take very liberal liberty with a history story, and creates a story that will sell to the crowd. This may seem dubious, but it is often not such a bad thing. Hollywood can take a story that may have one connotation, may it be serious or dreary, and turn it into something that evokes different emotions, will still addressing historical issues or topics. Taratino chooses to film a movie of this type because of the way he can portray a very serious topic in way that no one has before. He picks the topic of World War II and the Nazi’s, but does not take the generic portrayal of it. Many previous movies of this subject have been released either show heroic American that battle insurmountable odds, or forsaken Jews that fight threw the worst. While it may seem dark to make a movie that takes a serious subject so lightly, it is part of the process of history. As it becomes more and more distant in time, there is less and less truth and seriousness put into it. It is seen in many other Hollywood movies, such as The Patriot (2000), 300 (2007), Braveheart (1995), and Django Unchained (2012). The interesting thing in many of the movies like these, is the enemy is often portrayed in an extremely negative, almost so extreme, they could be compared to the Nazis. Hollywood uses that Nazis as the level setter for enemies, it does not get worse than them. It is interesting to see how Taratino portrays the ...
It is no doubt that Martin Scorsese has heavily influenced the emulating of American film making from European influences. He is a prime example of a ‘New Hollywood Cinema’ director, not only from his ethnicity and background, but from his sheer interest in this form
“Entertainment has to come hand in hand with a little bit of medicine, some people go to the movies to be reminded that everything’s okay. I don’t make those kinds of movies. That, to me, is a lie. Everything’s not okay.” - David Fincher. David Fincher is the director that I am choosing to homage for a number of reasons. I personally find his movies to be some of the deepest, most well made, and beautiful films in recent memory. However it is Fincher’s take on story telling and filmmaking in general that causes me to admire his films so much. This quote exemplifies that, and is something that I whole-heartedly agree with. I am and have always been extremely opinionated and open about my views on the world and I believe that artists have a responsibility to do what they can with their art to help improve the culture that they are helping to create. In this paper I will try to outline exactly how Fincher creates the masterpieces that he does and what I can take from that and apply to my films.