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Auteur Theory Essay

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The dictionary defines an Auteur as a filmmaker whose individual style and complete control over all elements of production give a film its personal and unique stamp. The auteur theory states, the director that overseas all the audio and visuals elements of a film is considered it’s author. Even though the definition of an auteur has been highly debated since the 1940’s, the director is the one that brings a film to life and uses it as an opportunity to express their views on the matter in discussion. The auteur I choose to study was Martin Scorsese, a highly acclaimed director behind some of the most iconic films ever made. After he left his job as a teacher at NYU, Scorsese released his first feature film Who’s that knocking at my door?. …show more content…

Taxi Driver was released in 1976 and focused on Travis Bickle, a mentally unstable war veteran working as a Taxi Driver in New York without an outlet for his deeply disturbing and violent thoughts. The second focus film was Good Fellas, which revolved around Henry Hill and his journey from a local boy turned gangster in neighbourhood of the roughest criminals in New York, released in 1990. The most recent of the three films, released in 2002 was Gangs of New York. Gangs of New York is a film about Amsterdam Vallon, who returns to scene of his father’s murder years later amid violence and corruption to gain power among the locals and avenge his father death. Taking apart Scorsese’s films piece by piece you discover a certain pattern to his film making, the camera angles he uses, his consistent use of the same setting through most films and the dark, gritty themes he displays as well as his unique way of storytelling. Although there are a lot of aspects of Martin Scorsese film that make him an Auteur three of the most important reason are, Scorsese’s love for New York as a setting in a lot of his films, his unique use of narration in a film and most importantly his constant use of dark and gritty

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