Past exam question:
How far has an awareness of the filmmaker as auteur influenced your response to your chosen film?
Key Terms:
Auteur theory:
A filmmaker with a distinctive style creates a signature within their films making them easily identifiable by audiences.
MacGuffin
In fiction, a MacGuffin is a plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation.
How far has an awareness of the filmmaker as auteur influenced your response to your chosen film?
Key Terms:
Auteur theory:
A filmmaker with a distinctive style creates a signature within their films making them easily identifiable by audiences.
MacGuffin
In fiction, a MacGuffin is a plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation.
The specific nature of a MacGuffin is typically unimportant to the overall plot.
The most common type of MacGuffin is a person, place, or thing (such as money or an object of value). Other more abstract types include victory, glory, survival, power, love, or some unexplained driving force.
The MacGuffin technique is common in films, especially thrillers. Usually the MacGuffin is the central focus of the film in the first act, and thereafter declines in importance. It may reappear at the climax of the story but sometimes is actually forgotten by the end of the story.
Critic Andrew Sarris also developed an auteur theory comprised of three key elements: technical competence, personal style and interior meaning.
Hitchcock explained the term "MacGuffin" in a 1939 lecture
The MacGuffin technique is common in films, especially thrillers. Usually the MacGuffin is the central focus of the film in the first act, and thereafter declines in importance. It may reappear at the climax of the story but sometimes is actually forgotten by the end of the story.
Critic Andrew Sarris also developed an auteur theory comprised of three key elements: technical competence, personal style and interior meaning.
Hitchcock explained the term "MacGuffin" in a 1939 lecture
It might be a Scottish name, taken from a story about two men on a train. One man says, "What's that package up there in the baggage rack?" And the other answers, "Oh, that's a MacGuffin". The first one asks, "What's a MacGuffin?" "Well," the other man says, "it's an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands." The first man says, "But there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands," and the other one answers, "Well then, that's no MacGuffin!" So you see that a MacGuffin is actually nothing at all.
Technical competence
“... if a director has no technical competence, no elementary flair for the cinema, he is automatically cast out from the pantheon of directors.”
Hitchcock quickly became known for dream sequences and a range of shots including dolly zooms, point of view shots and shot reverse shots.
Task 1:
How does the scene at Ernie's restaurant reflect Hitchcock's technical competence?
Consider camera moves and how they reinforce the themes in Vertigo.
Whose point of view do we see and why do you think that is?
Technical competence
“... if a director has no technical competence, no elementary flair for the cinema, he is automatically cast out from the pantheon of directors.”
Hitchcock quickly became known for dream sequences and a range of shots including dolly zooms, point of view shots and shot reverse shots.
Task 1:
How does the scene at Ernie's restaurant reflect Hitchcock's technical competence?
Consider camera moves and how they reinforce the themes in Vertigo.
Whose point of view do we see and why do you think that is?
Write 100 - 200 words.
The second part of Sarris’ theory is personal style, the personalised signature of a director or a recurring characteristic within their films. For Hitchcock this includes examples such as the MacGuffin narrative structure or the binary opposition of the predator versus the prey once again linking back to the voyeuristic nature of relationships.
Kim Novak’s casting as Madeleine is also in alignment with Hitchcock’s personal style, he was known to hire young blondes and treat them in a similar manner to their representation in the film.
Task 2:
How is Hitchcock's personal style evident in the Museum scene in Vertigo?
Consider: Male gaze/objectification
Macguffin
Write 100 - 200 words.
The final part of the auteur theory is interior meaning, known as the ultimate premise Sarris states “Interior meaning is extrapolated from the tension between a director’s personality and his material.” Throughout Hitchcock’s films, Vertigo in particular, America’s obsession with an idealistic view of beauty is highlighted. This ideology and interior meaning can be seen within Judy’s full transformation back to Madeleine at Scottie’s hand.
Task 3:
What other themes are identified in the Madeline/Judy scene as we explore interior meaning as part of auteur theory?
Consider:
Hitchcock's themes of obsession and desire.
Who are the audience positioned to sympathise with? How has Hitch' positioned the audience?
Why would a second or third viewing impact on audience positioning?
Write 100 - 200 words.
______________________________________________________________________
The second part of Sarris’ theory is personal style, the personalised signature of a director or a recurring characteristic within their films. For Hitchcock this includes examples such as the MacGuffin narrative structure or the binary opposition of the predator versus the prey once again linking back to the voyeuristic nature of relationships.
Kim Novak’s casting as Madeleine is also in alignment with Hitchcock’s personal style, he was known to hire young blondes and treat them in a similar manner to their representation in the film.
Task 2:
How is Hitchcock's personal style evident in the Museum scene in Vertigo?
Consider: Male gaze/objectification
Macguffin
Write 100 - 200 words.
____________________________________________________________________
Task 3:
What other themes are identified in the Madeline/Judy scene as we explore interior meaning as part of auteur theory?
Consider:
Hitchcock's themes of obsession and desire.
Who are the audience positioned to sympathise with? How has Hitch' positioned the audience?
Why would a second or third viewing impact on audience positioning?
Write 100 - 200 words.
In conclusion, the auteur critical
response surrounding Hitchcock is crucial in gaining a deeper understanding of
Vertigo especially when applying Sarris’ auteur theory to the film.
One can easily find examples of
technical competence, personal style and interior meaning throughout Vertigo
and relate it back to Hitchcock’s own personal signature throughout his
films.
Vertigo captures the themes of
voyeurism and objectification of women, a key element of many films by the
director, but by knowing these thematic links other elements within the film
become clearer as they foreshadow Scottie’s obsession over Elster’s
fictionalised character of Madeleine.
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