Tim Burton : An Anomalistic Auteur

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

Tim Burton is one of the most unusual and unique directors of our time. He brings characters to life by putting them in a habitat they don’t belong. His movies “Alice in Wonderland”, “The Corpse Bride”, “Charlie and the chocolate factory”, and “Edward Scissorhands” all demonstrate how one of a kind his movies are. Using cinematic techniques, Tim Burton points out the misfit character and shows how different they are then everyone else. His use of camera angles, lighting, and sound give the viewers a different perspective on the movies, and help pick out the individual character.

Inspired by Roald Dahl and Vincent Price, director Tim Burton is easily one of the most remarkable and creative directors of his generation. Burton has a unique and individual way of challenging the minds of viewers and attracting individuals to his films, and has been using this technique for over 30 years. His ways persuade the audience to change the mood they have toward the film. In the films Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Edward Scissorhands, and Big Fish Director Tim Burton uses cinematic and editing techniques such as lighting, sound, and flashbacks in order to enhance the mood and feelings of viewers.

I will talk about how auteur theory can be applied to the study of Hitchcock’s North by Northwest and vertigo.

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.

Director Tim Burton is brashly thought of as having a dark, macabre, and humorous style in his films. This being true, there is a multitude of ways that the style is created for the audience. Furthermore, Burton’s cinematic technique usage is a direct mark of creative exposure of this dark style throughout the duration of a film’s story. Director Tim Burton uses diverse cinematic techniques to create a variety of effects that represent his style of grim childlike misfortune, tampered by opulent optimism.

“With this hand, I will life your sorrows. Your cup will never be empty, for I will be your wine. With this candle, I will light your way in darkness. With this ring, I ask you to be mine”. She walks into the chapel and sees the couple telling each other their wedding vows. Little does she know this day will be the worst and best of her life. In almost all films directed by Tim Burton include dark colors and choral music. This is what bonds cinematic techniques and mise en scène. Burton’s unique style includes the use of lighting and mise en scène to convey that self-discovery is important in developing an interesting outlook on life.

In 1962, an American film critic, Andrew Sarris, wrote the “notes on the auteur theory.” He stated that the “first premise of the auteur theory is the technical competence of a director as a criterion of

Tim Burton has a unique personality, although others call it strange, I would say he's a creative genius. Burton uses cinematic techniques such as non-diegetic sound and close-ups in order to make his audience feel and understand the characters emotions. This is important because Burton used the main characters in his movies to express his dark, gothic and gloomy childhood.

Tim Burton is a unique American filmmaker that grew up watching horror movies, and even lived near a cemetary. He was surely a self admitted oddball. However, Tim's style always seems to appear in any movie he directs. A few movies are Edward scissorhands, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Corpse Bride. These movies represent his interests, inspirations, and life experiences. Some of Tim's techniques are different, with a touch of darkness, and suspense to create his style of flashbacks, gothic theme, and irony.

The term Auteur seems to bless a privileged group of filmmakers with an almost messiah-like legacy. Men such as Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford and Fritz Lange are believed to inhabit the ranks of the cinematic elite, and not surprisingly most critics are more than willing to bestow upon them the title of Auteur. By regarding filmmaking as yet another form of art, Auteur theory stipulates that a film is the direct result of its director's genius. With the emerging prominence of auteur based criticism in the 1950?s, the role of the director became increasingly integral to a film's success. However most would argue that this form of criticism didn't reach its apex until 1960s, when Andrew Sarris released his

For over 30 years Tim burton has been entertained audiences with movies like Edward scissorhands and Charlie and the chocolate factory and has become a master of cinematic techniques he has used a plethora of them in all if his films and some other techniques like lighting and music and camera angles.

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.

The romantic idea of the auteur is described by film theoretician, André Bazin, observing the film form as an idealistic phenomenon. Through the personal factor in artistic creation as a standard reference, Bazin primarily refers to an essential literary and romantic conception of the artist as central. He considers the relationship between film aesthetics and reality more important than the director itself and places cinema above paintings. He described paintings as a similar ethical creation to film stating a director ‘can be valued according to its measurements and the celebrity of the signature, the objective quality of the work itself was formerly held in much higher esteem.’ (Bazin, 1967: 250). Bazin contemplates the historical and social aspects that indeed hinder a director’s retribution to their own personalised film, thus en-companying their own ideological judgement upon the world ‘more so in cinema where the sociological and historical cross-currents are countless.’ (Bazin, 1967: 256)

Tim Burton is one of the most creative and unique directors of this time. He’s made many films with different studios, created amazing and scary artwork, and has inspired many of us to create what we imagine. Even though his childhood wasn’t that great and he had to work hard to be noticed. He succeeded in building a career for himself and enjoy it as well. Burton is an idol and has never made a dull film.