Film Noir: David Fincher And Martin Scorsese

Auteur Theory is defined in the dictionary as a theory that the director is the chief creator of a film and gives it an individual style that is evident in all aspects of the finished product. Andrew Sarris, an american film critic, coined the term “auteur theory” in an article he wrote in 1962. Sarris’ understands there to be three premises of auteur theory. The first premise is the technical competence of a director as a criterion of value. The second premise of the auteur theory is the personal style and personality of the director.

The Film Noir, “The Third Man”, showed the evident effect that World War 2 had on people. Since this film was produced in 1949, after World War 2, it reflected the social fears and cultural changes that have plagued people during post war. Before the war, there was the ideology of the strong American family. This family portrayed strong values such as happiness, hardworking, and optimism. However during post war, there was a shade of darkness as fear, greed and evil lurking. ‘The Third Man’ portrayed the social, economic and moral corruption which reflects off the social evils during the post war era.

Film Noir was extremely trendy during the 1940’s. People were captivated by the way it expresses a mood of disillusionment and indistinctness between good and evil. Film Noir have key elements; crime, mystery, an anti-hero, femme fatale, and chiaroscuro lighting and camera angles. The Maltese Falcon is an example of film noir because of the usage of camera angles, lighting and ominous settings, as well as sinister characters as Samuel Spade, the anti-hero on a quest for meaning, who encounters the death of his partner but does not show any signs of remorse but instead for his greed for riches.

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.

Hollywood in the 1940s produced hundreds of films, many of which define the decade. America was in a dark time; most movies were used to cheer people during or after the war. Movies made by Walt Disney cheered up children and families with fun cartoons and happy endings. (Dirks, N.P.) Romantic dramas contented couples everywhere, showing them what might or might not have been in their relationship.

Film noir is a cinematic term used to describe stylish crime drama movies. They usually involve cynical attitudes and sexual motivations.” All film noir movies are shot in black and white giving sense of moral corruption, evilness or desperation. A dark-themed music is played making the movie more mysterious. The world inside the film noir movie is filled with doom, fate, fear and betrayal. The factor in the movie “Out of the past” that proves it is film noir are atmosphere of movie, presence of character as femme fatale and doomed character.

The auteur theory holds that a director's hand is clearly and consistently evident in their work, regardless of involvement in the rest of the production process. It's not uncommon for artists to have a signature or quirk--- Author Stephen King uses simplistic writing and significant world building to frame his often dark and fantastical stories, and some painters choose to put their own hair or saliva into their work rather than a signature. In the same way, an auteur's films have an instantly recognizable atmosphere, motif, or even color palette--- and, just as importantly, such an impression can give insight into an auteur's life and mind, lending that much more weight to a body of work. Two such auteurs are thriller and suspense master

Coined in 1946 by the French, Film noir, translated literally to mean “black cinema or film,” defines early to middle 20th century film that reflects a trend of dark and grim emotions as art seen on screen in post-war America (Dirks 2016). Stylistics such as people presenting themselves as something they really are not, criminal activity, entrapment, corruption, grim city settings, characters that operate on the margin of society are littered throughout film noir. There are many common narratives presented in film noir. Rational versus evil, femme fetal, investigations, private detectives and atomic anxiety are all narrative patterns embodied through this genre. Film of this era often utilized visual effects that were clear reflections of the emotions many viewers held during this time. Dark shadows, framing of characters, bar motifs, obscure lighting and focusing techniques were all put into motion during this period, creating a space for audiences to connect emotionally to the film they are viewing.

The film is about a group of 5 people fighting to find and keep the

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.

“2017 is not only the year of the twenty-seventh anniversary of “Twin Peaks”, the acclaimed TV series by David Lynch and Mark Frost, but it’s also the year “Twin Peaks” comes back to our screens for a third season, turning into reality the dreams and predictions of long time fans.

According to Todd Erickson, he states that neo-noir is a genre exhibits a self-consciousness about its indebtedness to the earlier noir films. Neo-noir has emerged notably in the 1980s, with such films like the 1982 film “Blade Runner,” that incorporates familiar narrative and stylistic elements from the noir films into a science-fiction genre. With its tone and specific style, Film Noir itself has become one of the prominent elements from the 1940s and 50s that helped shape the American cinema, and internationally to a certain extent. Fast forward 1994, an English-language French film titled “Leon: The Professional,” written and directed by Luc Besson, has been released. It exhibits noir traits from the characters, their interactions, and the overall environment, but still provides a distinct genre of neo-noir by updating the traits in a contemporary setting.

This is an agreed conception of film and human life, that man is a being with the possibilities of success or failure. We also see that Schatz’s way of thinking is how film and the settings of the culture are with in the film and what drives the film to its climax for the viewer, but at the end it does due what Schatz’s talks about with gangster films.

If I were asked what my favorite movie was I would have to ponder that question for a while. In my early life, my parents owned a movie rental place. This was during the eighties and nineties and it operated similar to Blockbuster. This is one of the main reasons I have a diverse knowledge and appreciation for all kinds of films and that’s what makes this question even more difficult. However, one of the movies I would consider the best is Seven – a film proving that the seven deadly sins are just a collection of mere emotions. The ability to control them, or in some instances not being able to control them, is what makes us human.