Hayao Miyazaki: Auteur Essay

An auteur is a director who personal creative vision and style is expressed through films. The term auteur is originated in France and is French for author. There are different ways in which a director can express their vision in films and show who they are. There are many directors that are considered to be a auteur such as: Quentin Tarintino, Tim Burton, Kathryn Bigelow, Stanley Kubrick and Woody Allen. The director I have chosen as an auteur is Spike Lee.

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.

During the 1940’s, the idea of the auteur theory arose. It was crafted by Andre Bazin, who was a French film critic, and Roger Leenhardt, a filmmaker. They stated that a film should represent the directors vision. Another French film critic, Alexandre Astruc, enhanced the auteur theory by expressing that directors with their camera should be like writers with their pen. This would make a director’s films all have the same type of aspects. Once a director makes a number of films, a certain “finger print” can be seen throughout his creations.

The art of storytelling is a primary foundation for human communication and understanding. Whether it is through myths — Greek, Roman, Egyptian, you pick — or wives tales or even Grandpa telling his old war stories, stories have power. Through technological advancements in the last 150+ years, there are multiple mediums to tell stories; film being the most potent medium used. Film has the power to not only entertain but enlighten too. Filmmakers have the ability to challenge and manipulate the power of the story through creative resistance; by exploring other elements of storytelling: location, voice, color, angles, rhythm, language, filmmakers can create dramatically different films out of the same story.

Hundreds of movies are released every year. Filmmakers try to create the next jaw-dropping movie that audiences will stand in line for hours and pay top dollar to see. The key to success is finding ideas that appeal to a mass audience. Viewers are the lifeline of any production company so making something for everyone is a savvy business move for the film industry. To cover all bases, there are over fourteen different genres of movies. Film making is not a solo effort. It is a collaboration between the actors, directors, producers and other key contributors. This combined effort or mise-en-scene includes all the elements of the film to include actors, backdrops, costumes, props and lighting used to meet the director’s vision

The job of the director is to produce a film that captures the audience’s attention by

There are various elements that contribute to the significance of a film. Cinematography, is one important element in which the camera is used to capture visual images through a number of other controllable elements such as; camera lens, framing, scale, movement etc. Editing is another fundamental component of film studies in which different shots are put together in a coherent sequence in order to make meaning of a film.

What attracts us to the movie theatre on Friday nights? Is it the commercials we see? Or is it all the gossip we hear from friends and TV talk shows? Well for many, it is the critiques we read and hear almost every day. One who specializes in the professional evaluation and appreciation of literary or artistic works is a critic. The profession of movie criticism is one of much diversity. Reviews range anywhere from phenomenal to average. Not only are movies created for the entertainment and sheer pleasure of the audience, they create a market of jobs and open doors to the world of financial growth. The success of these films, whether they are tremendous or atrocious, is not only dependent of the actual film, but

The movies “Spirited Away” and “Ponyo” show audiences how conflicted the lives of the main protagonists, Chihiro, Ponyo, and Sosuke were between love and family. In both films, there were several similarities between the main characters where they all tried to fit into their current world, were trying to save their family, or wanted to be with a loving family. Director Hayao Miyazaki illustrated in both films how negatively the perceptions of the protagonists were perceived because they were seen only as children. That people should not rush to judge someone because of their age or what they look like and that people should be judged based on their character, even children, and that age should not be used as a measure of a person’s capabilities.

"Ordinarly there is a great deal of snobbery from American film critics, they will accept a film by Stanley Kramer as a work of art before they see it, or a film from a European director...but they unloose their ire against low or medium budget Hollywood productions"3

Many people may have a specific style in which they like to dress. A woman might have a signature lipstick she enjoys wearing, a man might have a distinct cologne that stands out from the rest. Movies are not too far apart in comparison. Sometimes people find films more enjoyable than others, and often do not realize they come from the same director. The Auteur theory is a that defines the director as the sole author of the entire film, adding his or her own personal style. When it comes to the world of animation, director Hayao Miyazaki is a pioneer in auteur. His specific directorial style is seen in many of his films in which he manages to make films enjoyable to adults of all ages. Kiki's Delivery Service was one of director Miyazaki's

Auteur Theory is based on three premises, the first being technique, the second being personal style, and the third being interior meaning. Furthermore, there is no specific order in which these three aspects must be presented or weighted with regard to a film. An Auteur must give films a distinctive quality thus exerting a personal creative vision and interjecting it into the his or her films.

Spirited Away is an Oscar award winning, 2001 animated film from Japan, written, directed, and animated by Hayao Miyazaki (IMDb: Spirited Away). The story follows Chihiro, A young girl who is dealing with separation from family, tradition, and self-identity. Studio Ghibli films often have younger protagonists in their films, but in an interview with Miyazaki commented that “[he] felt [Japan] only offered such things as crushes and romance to 10-year-old girls” and that “ [Studio Ghibli] has not made a film for 10-year-old girls, who are in their first stage of adolescence” (Miyazaki 2001). Here, Miyazaki is signifying the lack of, what he sees to be, a proper presentation of a tweenaged girl. Miyazaki refrains from making the main plotline

The intention of this essay is to discuss the romantic notion of a film director who has etched their own cinematic vision into the body of their film work, and whether the theory and practice is dead and an infringement of the spectator’s imagination and is it the spectator who finds meaning in the film. I will be closely looking at critical material, primarily André Bazin and Roland Barthes and applying them to several case study films directed by Christopher Nolan including The Following (1998), The Prestige (2006) and Inception (2010), to examine whether Nolan possesses the qualities of an auteur and if so, does that imply an ideological view of what the auteur resembles or an artistic one.

When it comes to movies, many directors are good at their jobs. However, other directors are great in the art of film making. There is no doubt such statement is considered utterly subjective, but what would life be without subjectivity, for it is our differences that make us thrive against a monotonic existence. By the same token, Alfred Hitchcock and Christopher Nolan utilize their singularities to create films that for decades have impacted the movie making universe. In fact, it is their differences that provide us with a high contrast to compare and scrutinize their job and find what made them great at it.