Personal study​ topic research

1. Research - Academic
Media Theories
Auteur theory, Reception theory, The Hypodermic needle theory, The Male Gaze
Chosen theory: Auteur Theory

2. Auteur Theory
Auteur Theory is a way of looking at films that state that the
director is the “author” of a film. The Auteur theory argues
that a film is a reflection of the director’s artistic vision; so, a
movie directed by a given filmmaker will have recognizable,
recurring themes and visual queues that inform the audience
who the director is (think a Hitchcock or Tarantino film) and
shows a consistent artistic identity throughout that
director’s filmography.
‘-- Of course films are made by a whole teams of people but
either someone has something to say or someone has
certain ideas about life, or cinema or the world.’
- Francois Truffaut

3. Reception Theory
In a nutshell- Reception analysis model states there three
main types of 'reading' which audiences make of media
content:
•The dominant reading: which is the same as the
media contentcreators.
•The oppositional reading: which opposes the views
expressed in the media
•The Negotiated reading: where people interpret
media contentto fit in with their own lives.

4. The Hypodermic Needle Model

5. The Male Gaze
In filming, the male gaze is represented by the camera. It lingers over the female body in
ways meant to titillate both the male protagonist and the audience. It frames the female body
in sections and dehumanizes her

6. Auteur Theory
The birth of the auteur theory was in the Cahiers du Cinema a
French magazine. Renowned critic Andre Bazin introduced
Auteur theory that said directorsare the creatorsof the film.
Making the director's own style only makes the film unique and
creative. Other critics who contributedto the Cahiers du Cinema
and auteur theory is Francois Truffaut, who turns film director.
Here is a summarised version of the article Truffaut wrote for
the Cahiers du Cinema.

7. The British film-
maker Alan Parker
(BugsyMalone, The
Commitments)said it
was “cooked up by a
bunch of Frenchmen
with an exercise book
and a 16mm camera,
perpetuated by the
people who write
about film, and fed
by the insatiable
vanities of us
directors”

8. Someone people oppose auteur theory in the book The
Filmmaker Says a book which collects up helpful advice and
quotes from distinguished filmmakers. It's helpful to
understand both sides of the theory and to appreciate that it's
a theory, some people heavily oppose it.

9. Global Auteurs
Politics in the Films of Almodóvar, Von Trier,
and Winterbottom

10. Bibliography – Media Theories
Gilbey,R. (2018). The end of the auteur?. The Guardian. anon (anon),non.Last accessed 15th Sep 2021.
Goss,B (2009). Global Auteurs Politics in the Films of Almodóvar, Von Trier,and Winterbottom.anon:Peter Lang. Anon.Last accessed 15th Sep 2021.
Indie Film Hustle. (2021). What is Auteur Theory? – Definition and Examples. Available:
https://indiefilmhustle.com/auteur-theroy/. Last accessed 9th Sep 2021.
Lamb, B . (Unknown). THE HYPODERMIC NEEDLE THEORY. Available: https://lessonbucket.com/media-in-minutes/the-
hypodermic-needle-theory/. Last accessed 9th Sep 2021.
Leonard, K. (2021). What is the Male Gaze? Definition and Examples in
Film. Available: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-the-male-gaze-definition/. Last accessed 9th Sep 2021.
Thompson, K . (2019). The reception analysis model of audience effects. Available:
https://revisesociology.com/2019/11/06/the-reception-analysis-model-of-audience-effects/. Last accessed 9th Sep 2021.
Truffaut,F. (1954). A Certain Tendencyof French Cinema. Cahiers du Cinema. 31 (anon),anon.Last accessed 15th Sep 2021.
Stern, J (2014). The Filmmaker Says Quotes, Quips, and Words of Wisdom. anon:Princeton ArchitecturalPress.159. Last accessed 15th Sep 2021.

11. Personal Study
Topic Research
Lucas Higham

12. Context and History
Federico Fellini
Born: 20th January 1920, Rimini
Died: 31st October 1993, Rome
Spouse: Giulietta Masina (1943 – 1993)
Childhood
These facts of Fellini's childhood have directly impacted his work and his journey to becoming one of the
greatest artisis of the 20th century.
• Fellini grew up in the small seaside city of Rimini, Italy. During in the summer Rimini was a resort for Italian
families to swim and enjoy the sun.
• Fellini's father had a successful business selling parmasan cheese, olive oli and prosutio. They were firmly
middle class. He was also a ladys man and was frequently unfaithful to his wife. He was very much the absent
father.
• His mother came from a very strcit catholic household which rubbed off on her parenting, this made Fellini
rebel against his upbringing. Fellini was left as a loney child, he was left to his own imagination.
• Skilled cartoonist at young age.
• Would attend the Rimini cinema frequently, to watch American films such as Charlie Chaplin and Marx
Brothers.
• Repressed education, Fellini thought repressing his creativity was good as it's just dying to burst and
explode.
• Lived throughout the regine of Mussolini.
• Fellini enjoyed comic strips, Little Nemo about a boy who would go to sleep and dream about
fantastical things, like Fellini himself.
• Aged 7 first went to the circus, shocked and frightended at first.
• He longed for freedom from Rimini, the church, the government and his mother's watchful eye.

13. Early life in Rome
• Fellini went to Rome in 1938 (18-years-old) got a job at a newspaper, this got him out and about in
the city.
• Caught the attension of several editors with his caricatures and he ended up working for the
renowned comedy magazine Marcorelio in 1939.
• In 1940 Mussolini joined forces with Hitler, Fellini did not want to fight for his country, he bribed
doctors and made-up rare illnesses.
• 1943, the writers of Marcoelio would make up the writers of great Italian cinema in years to come.
Fellini wrote a radioplay and main the acrtess who was cast was he bride to be.
• Federico and Giulietta Masina were married October 30th, 1943.
• In 1944 she gave birth to their son, Pirrie Federico Fellini. He died soon after his birth. This was very
painful and cruel in their lives.
• June 1944, the Americans occupied Rome and Fellini opened up his own shop called "The Funny
Face Shop" where he drew caricatures of American GIs.
• One day in walked director, Roberto Rossellini. Rossellini wanted Fellini to help him write a
screenplay he was working on. The film- Rome, Open City.
• It was a massive success, a true classic and launched the careers of Rossellini and Fellini. It gave
birth to the filmmovement Neorealism (natural lighting, real people over actors, real locations and
often a poltical message) Fellini wasn't interested in neorealism, films with a message.

14. Life as a Director
• One day fellini wanderedintothe edtingroom,seeingjustthe visualimages,he
had an epiphany,he wantedtodirect.
• He made The White Shiek, itdidn'tdo well atthe box office. IVitelloni
garneredhimrespect.
• While makingLaStrada Fellini experiencedacrisis.Sufferingwithdepression
and flirtingwithsuicide.
• La Strada wasa huge success,confirmingtoFellini thathe wasdoingsomething
right.It wonthe GoldenLionat Venice FilmFestival andOscarBest ForeignFilm.
• Next,he wentontomake Nightsof Caberia.WinninghissecondOscar.
• By thistime,he wasalreadyan established director.He had,hadthree big
successes.
• It tookhis1960 filmLa Dolce Vitatocatapulthimintointernationalstardom.It
broke box office recordsworldwide,wonthe Palmed'Or,massive impacton
Italianandinternational popularculture.
• Practicallyall Fellini'sfilmsare very personal tohim.The thingsthe characters
did,themesecploredall echoFellini.MarcelloMastroianni(whomade many
filmswithFellini) became Fellini'salterego.
• Afterthe successof La Dolce Vita, Fellini sufferedasevere creative block.
• He decided tomake afilmabouthiscreative struggles inhismasterpiece8½.
• Hislaterfilmsnevergotthe attensionorcritical acclaimas hisearilerwork.
Felliniused hisdreamsasthe mainsource of inspirationforhisfilms.Making
themverystylishwithstrikingvisualsblendingrealityandfantasy.
• Hisfinal filmVoicesof theMoon couldn'tgeta release inAmerica.He was
strugglingtobackingforhisnextfilm,he fell intoa depression.
• The final stagesof hislife were veryunhappy,he hadheartandliverproblems.
He couldn'texpresshimself artisticallyasnoproducerinRome waswillingto
take a gamble since hisfilmsforsome time wereperformingpoorlyatthe box
offfice.
• He gotstudiotopaintas he couldn'tmake films.
• In 1993 got his5th Oscar for a lifetime of work.
• Fellinisufferedastroke while stayinginthe GrandHotel inRimini.He died.

15. Quotes
• Novelist Italo Calvino diagnosed the influence of mass cultureon Fellini’s later sophisticated cinematic language as a “forcing of the photographic image in a
direction that carries it froman image of caricaturetoward that of the visionary.”
Cited by Peter Bondanella in The Cinema of Federico Fellini(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992, p.9),fromCalvino’s prefaceto an edition of four Fellini
scripts published in 1974, “Autobiografia diuna spettatore,” in Federico Fellini, Quattro film (Turin: Einaudi, 1974), p.xxii.
• Fellini was interested in moving toward a “cinema of Reconstruction.” After Paisà, he redefined his artistic credo to “looking at reality with an honesteye – but
any kind of reality; not justsocial reality, but also spiritual reality, metaphysicalreality, anything man has inside him.”
Federico Fellini, “The Road Beyond Neo-Realism, ” in Fellini, “La Strada”: Federico Fellini, Director, ed. Peter Bondanella and Manuela Gieri, (New Brunswick, NJ:
Rutgers University Press, 1987), p.217.
• La strada (1954), thefilm Fellini called “the complete catalogue of my entire mythological world,”.
Federico Fellini, Juliet of the spirits, trans. from the Italian by Howard Greenfeld, ed. Tullio Kezich, (New York: Orion Press, 1965), p.26.
• It’s as if Fellini critiqued realismas an impossiblenotion by pointing up its fabrication and adding the suppressed element of the fantastic. In his own words, “I
make a film in the samemanner in which I live a dream…”
Bondanella, The Cinema of Federico Fellini, p.327.

16. Micro Analysis

17. La Dolce Vita (1960)
• This film is heavily responsible for the evolution in Fellini's style. I will break down the opening
shot as it encapsulates how this is already a different Fellini film. The modern helicopters
juxtapose the ancient old Rome. The media and press mustalways follow.
Ancient ruins
Statue of Christ
Helicopter
Helicoptertransporting the
press
Wide screen format, firsttime ever
used in a Fellini film

18. The White Shiek (1952)
The White Shiek is another important film in Fellini's filmography, his first official solo directorial debut. Already we see an
artist riffing on bizarre imagery, comic elements and innovative filmmaking. This scene is an early example of his style which
can be seen after his evolution.

19. Bibliography – Topic Research
1. Bondanella, The Cinema of Federico Fellini, p.327. Lastaccessed 20th Oct2021
2. Cited by Peter Bondanella in The Cinema of Federico Fellini(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992, p.9),fromCalvino’s prefaceto an edition of
four Fellini scripts published in 1974, “Autobiografia diuna spettatore,” in Federico Fellini, Quattro film (Turin: Einaudi, 1974), p.xxii. Lastaccessed 20th
Oct 2021
3. Megaw, M (1997). Biography: FedericoFellini. Lastaccessed 20th October 2021
4. Federico Fellini, “The Road Beyond Neo-Realism, ” in Fellini, “La Strada”: Federico Fellini, Director, ed. Peter Bondanella and Manuela Gieri,
(New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1987), p.217. Lastaccessed 20th Oct2021
5. Federico Fellini, Juliet of the spirits, trans. fromthe Italian by Howard Greenfeld, ed. Tullio Kezich, (New York: Orion Press, 1965), p.26. Last
accessed 20th Oct 2021
6. Shanahan, A. (2002). Fellini, Federico. Available: https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2002/great-directors/fellini/#2. Lastaccessed 20th Oct2021.