The document discusses Tim Burton as an auteur director whose films reflect his personal creative vision despite studio interference. It explores influences on Burton's style such as German Expressionist films, Vincent Price, Edgar Allen Poe, and Dr. Seuss. German Expressionism aimed to depict psychological states through stylized visuals and used techniques like chiaroscuro lighting, mirrors/reflections, anthropomorphism, and abstractionism.
Media course work on Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock .
Alfred Hitchcock's rear window is a film full of symbolism, narratives, voyeurism and characterisation. The film focuses around the Main protagonist Jefferies, who is a photographer who recently broke his leg and is restricted to a wheelchair. The main character Jeff spends his days and nights watching the neighbours through a pair of binoculars. The audience are shown life through Jefferies eyes within the six weeks of his recovery.
Rear Window (1954) made viewers voyeurs, then had them pay for their pleasure. In its story of a photographer who happens to witness a murder, Hitchcock provocatively probed the relationship between the watcher and the watched, involving, by extension, the viewer of the film.
Hitchcock uses the point of view shot in order to show what Jeffery was seeing , using this shot doe not only allow the audience to see what he is seeing but it allows There are two main purposes for his use of optical point-of view shots in Rear Window.
One has to do with the story itself. The point-of-view shots help to pull the audience into the film and to identify more with the characters, most notably the main character Jeff. The second reason is much more universal, having to do with the nature of film itself, and the essence of cinema.
In Rear Window, female exhibitionism and objectification occurs. This is evident with the character Lisa. Lisa’s moves and poses suggest not only that she is confident and comfortable being looked at but also that she invites being looked at.
Lisa becomes a partner in Jeff’s gazing/voyeurism and an active investigator – maybe because this might be a stratagem for marriage, like her failed seduction attempt with the dinner from 21 and the sexy negligee.
Lisa’s wardrobe is expensive, high fashion (couture), and different in every visit. She is portrayed as only caring about her looks and the latest fashion which is a way of sexual objectification of women.
The gaze exercises power but also carries risks; it exposes Jeff to being seen by the other. Watching others without being seen gives Jeff a sense and a position of power, but then it is threatened and lost when Thorwald sees him from his apartment.
stereotypes are being used as the gaze is a male activity and the female the object of gaze, however Hitchcock undermines these stereotypes throughout the plot.
Jeff becomes powerless and passive when Thorwald breaks inside his apartment.
When Thorwald enters Jeff’s apartment, his eyes are lighted but his face and body are dark.
The gaze is an important element in this movie and there’s significance to Jeff using flash bulbs to try to blind and incapacitate Thorwald as to make an equal sense of powerless, however he fails.
Media course work on Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock .
Alfred Hitchcock's rear window is a film full of symbolism, narratives, voyeurism and characterisation. The film focuses around the Main protagonist Jefferies, who is a photographer who recently broke his leg and is restricted to a wheelchair. The main character Jeff spends his days and nights watching the neighbours through a pair of binoculars. The audience are shown life through Jefferies eyes within the six weeks of his recovery.
Rear Window (1954) made viewers voyeurs, then had them pay for their pleasure. In its story of a photographer who happens to witness a murder, Hitchcock provocatively probed the relationship between the watcher and the watched, involving, by extension, the viewer of the film.
Hitchcock uses the point of view shot in order to show what Jeffery was seeing , using this shot doe not only allow the audience to see what he is seeing but it allows There are two main purposes for his use of optical point-of view shots in Rear Window.
One has to do with the story itself. The point-of-view shots help to pull the audience into the film and to identify more with the characters, most notably the main character Jeff. The second reason is much more universal, having to do with the nature of film itself, and the essence of cinema.
In Rear Window, female exhibitionism and objectification occurs. This is evident with the character Lisa. Lisa’s moves and poses suggest not only that she is confident and comfortable being looked at but also that she invites being looked at.
Lisa becomes a partner in Jeff’s gazing/voyeurism and an active investigator – maybe because this might be a stratagem for marriage, like her failed seduction attempt with the dinner from 21 and the sexy negligee.
Lisa’s wardrobe is expensive, high fashion (couture), and different in every visit. She is portrayed as only caring about her looks and the latest fashion which is a way of sexual objectification of women.
The gaze exercises power but also carries risks; it exposes Jeff to being seen by the other. Watching others without being seen gives Jeff a sense and a position of power, but then it is threatened and lost when Thorwald sees him from his apartment.
stereotypes are being used as the gaze is a male activity and the female the object of gaze, however Hitchcock undermines these stereotypes throughout the plot.
Jeff becomes powerless and passive when Thorwald breaks inside his apartment.
When Thorwald enters Jeff’s apartment, his eyes are lighted but his face and body are dark.
The gaze is an important element in this movie and there’s significance to Jeff using flash bulbs to try to blind and incapacitate Thorwald as to make an equal sense of powerless, however he fails.
Hi this presentation is made originally by Gherm6 however I found out that it isn't that comprehensive so I added examples to elaborate the types of conflict.
1. Tim Burton – an AUTEUR
Auteur – a French word for “author”
An auteur is a director’s film reflects the director's personal
creative vision. In spite of—and sometimes even because of—the
production of the film as part of an industrial process, the auteur's
creative voice is distinct enough to shine through all kinds of
studio interference and through the collective process.
3. Directors bring production and story elements together to create
atmosphere and mood within the world on screen.
But what influences their sense of style?
• Personal experiences / tastes
• Popular Art Works / Artists (All Art Forms)
• Human Experience/ The Human Condition (Universal Themes)
• Politics / Religion
• Upbringing / School (childhood)
• Identity (defining oneself in relation to others)
5. What has inspired his work?
* German Expressionism
(particularly 1920s Horror films)
• Vincent Price
• Edgar Allen Poe
• Dr Seuss
Life in Suburban Burbank
• The Human Condition
Adult Versus Childhood perspective
7. German Expressionism
Expressionism encompasses an artistic
movement (including film, theatre,
painting, and other art forms) that aimed to
give shape to psychological states through
highly stylised visuals in the early decades of
the 20th century.
15. Formal Elements of German Expressionist Film
Chiaroscuro lighting: lighting that employs extreme
contrasts of light and dark, thus creating dramatic shadows
20. The use of anthropomorphism, which is the attribution of a human
form, human characteristics, or human behaviour to nonhuman
things
Formal Elements of German Expressionist Film
21. An interest in abstractionism, which is a style of art that privileges internal
form over pictorial representation.
Abstraction is different to a lot of more traditional styles of art because it
is more focused on the use of imagination or ideas expressed through
emotion.
Formal Elements of German Expressionist Film
He is a master auteur whose illustrious cinematic career has spanned diverse genres and forms. He is also an artist, who is incessantly painting, photographing, drawing and doodling, exploring his wildly unique imagination and forming its content into wondrous cinematic worlds and characters.An outsider growing up in Burbank, California, Burton went on to work as an apprenticedanimator at Disney, where he began his filmmaking career with the short film Vincent.Throughout his career, Burton has always challenged the Hollywood formula and model todevelop and further his own voice, his own vision.
The German Expressionism movement began in 1905, but it was not until after World War I that it evolved into the political statement that ultimately became the source of its destruction. In order to understand German Expressionism, it is necessary to understand something of the postwar years in Germany and the effect that period had on the artists and the society in which they worked.
This artistic movement was in many ways a reaction to the conservative social values that continued at the turn of the 20th century. Expressionist Artists rejected the stale traditions of the state-sponsored art academies and turned to boldly simplified or distorted forms and exaggerated, sometimes clashing colours.Directness, frankness, and a desire to startle the viewer characterize Expressionism in its various branches and arrangements. Many of the German Expressionism artists had served in the military during World War I. Two well-known German Expression artists, August Macke and Franz Marc, were killed and those who survived returned from the experience disillusioned, depressed, sometimes maimed and often shell-shocked. The Germany to which they returned was a country overwhelmed with major economic, social, and political problems. Parties from both the extreme left and extreme right were bitter political enemies that shared one common goal; to overthrow the current government. The final blow to an already shaky economy was the signing of the Versailles Treaty in 1919 which cost Germany not only some of its land (new states of Poland and Czechoslovakia were created) but massive amounts in reparation for the costs of the war.
As Expressionism evolved from just after the turn of the century through the early 1920s, a number of crucial themes and genres came into focus, many of which reflect deeply humanistic concerns and an ambivalent attitude toward modernity. These include a fascination with the enticing yet often wretched experiences of modern urban life; the enduring solace associated with nature and religion; the naked body and its potential to signify primal emotion; emotionally charged portraiture; and, most pivotally, the need to confront the devastating experience of World War I and its aftermath.
As a result of an intensely rapid period of industrialization in the 19th century, German cities experienced an explosion in size and population density between German unification, in 1871, and 1910. The Expressionists approached the modern city with ambivalence. On the one hand, they recognized the dehumanizing and alienating effects of an urban lifestyle. Yet at the same time, they celebrated the excitement and vitality of its bustling pace and many and attractions.
E.g. The Mona Lisa Painting (Da Vinci used this technique to create a n effect of ambivalence and ambiguity – was she smiling or smirking?)
While alone and insane encased in his tombVincent's mother burst suddenly into the roomShe said: "If you want to, you can go out and playIt's sunny outside, and a beautiful day"Vincent tried to talk, but he just couldn't speakThe years of isolation had made him quite weakSo he took out some paper and scrawled with a pen:"I am possessed by this house, and can never leave it again"His mother said: "You're not possessed, and you're not almost deadThese games that you play are all in your headYou're not Vincent Price, you're Vincent MalloyYou're not tormented or insane, you're just a young boyYou're seven years old and you are my sonI want you to get outside and have some real fun."Her anger now spent, she walked out through the hallAnd while Vincent backed slowly against the wallThe room started to swell, to shiver and creakHis horrid insanity had reached its peakHe saw Abercrombie, his zombie slaveAnd heard his wife call from beyond the graveShe spoke from her coffin and made ghoulish demandsWhile, through cracking walls, reached skeleton handsEvery horror in his life that had crept through his dreamsSwept his mad laughter to terrified screams!To escape the madness, he reached for the doorBut fell limp and lifeless down on the floorHis voice was soft and very slowAs he quoted The Raven from Edgar Allen Poe:"and my soul from out that shadowthat lies floating on the floorshall be lifted?Nevermore..."
