Unit 26 Film Studies Theory Into Action : Auteur Task 2

For this task I am going to be looking at a director of choice and identify him/her as an auteur. I will give reasons by examining his/her body of work, their oeuvre.

Quentin Tarantino

TALK ABOUT  WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF AN AUTEUR?

The reason I have picked the director/actor/writer/producer Quentin Tarantino is because he has developed his own unique style that is present in all his films.

Tarantino is a hugely successful and a well known director with films like “Kill Bill Vol.1 &. 2“, “Django Unchained”,” Pulp Fiction”, “Inglorious Basterds” and “Reservoir Dogs”. These are just a few of the films that Tarantino is known for and they are all big hits in the cinema and on DVD release. All his films on IMDB (a movie website which gives ratings and film information) are given very high ratings with none of them below 8.0 out of 10.0. This is very impressive, since very few directors have so many films that are all rated so highly.

What is Tarantino’s style of filmmaking?

Tarantino likes to surprise and entertain his audience by mixing genres and conventions to produce a unique style of film making which has become totally his own, and which makes him a leading auteur in today’s film industry.

He frequently pays homage, a tribute, to older film-makers and their styles, for example using the Western genre of over the top gunfights, excessive blood, and slow-motion deaths. And he frequently adds humour to these death scenes. He also uses humour with very serious and taboo subjects, such as in the KKK scene when they are complaining about not being able to see through their eyeholes in their KKK masks.

Tarantino goes against many modern rules of film-making. He uses ‘zooms’, much hated by modern film-makers, several times in “Django Unchained” as a homage to many films made in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

One of Tarantino’s trade marks is that he uses very long scenes in his films. For example in “ Inglorious Basterds “ the opening scene is approximately 18 minutes, which is very long for an opening scene of a film but it grabs the audiences attention throughout as they wait patiently while the suspense builds up slowly.

Tarantino also sometimes pays tribute to other filmmakers in using their style of filmmaking, for example in the KKK scene in “Django Unchained “ he takes the comedy from the hit comedy Western “Blazing Saddles” with having the whole scene of the KKK complaining about their mask.

Tarantino also has a very cinematic style of filmmaking. In the opening scene of “Reservoir dogs”, to the sound of cool soul music playing throughout, he brings up the actors names which pop up onto screen one by one.

Tarantino also likes to go over the top with the use of sound, as in the final shootout in “Django Unchained” with the sound of the guns and the blood splatter. It’s very over the top with blood and guns so the music helps to add even more to the scene.

Tarantino’s ability to make audiences laugh in the middle of a violent scene has become a trademark of his work ever since he made “Reservoir Dogs” in 1992.

 

The way Tarantino uses music in his films.

Quentin Tarantino has many examples of using music in a different style and different ways to other directors in their films. The reasons I believe Tarantino uses music in a different style is that he likes taking risks and doing it the Tarantino way.

For example in “Django Unchained“ Tarantino uses a Rick Ross song called ‘100 Black Coffins’ which is a sort of hip hop/rap with a bit of old western style music. This is unusual to see in a film set in the wild west times and by using a rap song it shocks the audience but it has the Tarantino stamp on it. Tarantino also uses a 2 Pac song in the final shoot-out in the film, which although it doesn’t fit in with the wild west period it again works perfectly within the scene.

He also uses music in an usual way, for example very modern music (rap) in historical pieces as in “Django Unchained,” and in the ‘cutting off ear’ scene in “Reservoir Dogs” where the villain dances to the song “Stuck in the middle with you. ” which is a happy dancing sort of song but used in a scene with a lot of violence which creates a different feel to the scene

The music in “Django Unchained” works the whole way through the film with its different music styles from rap, hip-hop to old fashion western music.

Tarantino and a few other directors, such as Stanley Kubrick, have used music in films in a way that an audience would not normally expect. In the case of Stanley Kubrick, there is a famous scene in “A Clockwork Orange“ with a rape and murder set to the Gene Kelly song ‘Singing in the rain”. Tarantino use music to glorify and glamorise violence in “Reservoir Dogs” with a torture scene playing happy upbeat music when someone is about to get tortured.

To summarise, if you look at any scene from a Tarantino film, you will instantly know that it is a Tarantino film, in both its writing, it’s use of music and it’s visual story-telling style.

Tarantino,Authorship,Postmodernism

Oddly Enough , For a Figure so often Called ‘Postmodern’

CONCLUSION 

in the conclusion Tarantino he has the characteristics of being an Autuer. From writing this essay and doing my research i have come to the conclusion that he is an artist and an autuer.