Stanley Kubrick is considered an auteur director due to his consistent artistic vision and themes across his films. As a director, Kubrick took on many roles such as cinematographer, editor, and soundman on his early films to maintain full control over his artistic vision. His films featured recurring themes of fear, desire, and violence that became hallmarks of his style. Kubrick's magnum opus 2001: A Space Odyssey exemplified his meticulous approach and cemented his status as an auteur through its innovative special effects and exploration of philosophical themes.

1. Theory
Stephen Royle

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.

3. Auteur Theory

4. Reception Theory
Reception theory as developed by Stuart Hall asserts that media texts
are encoded and decoded. The producer encodes messages and values
into their media which are then decoded by the audience. However,
different audience members will decode the media in different ways
and possibly not in the way the producer originally intended.

5. Reception Theory

6. The Hypodermic Needle Model
The Hypodermic Needle Theory is a linear communication theory
which suggests that media messages are injected directly into
the brains of a passive audience. It suggests that we’re all the
same and we all respond to media messages in the same way.
The Hypodermic Needle Theory continues to influence the way
we talk about the media. People believe that the mass media has
a powerful effect.
Parents worry about the influence of television and violent video
games. News outlets run headlines like ‘Is Google making us
stupid’ and ‘Grand Theft Auto led teen to kill’.

7. The Hypodermic Needle Model

8. The Male Gaze
The “male gaze” invokes the sexual politics of the gaze
and suggests a sexualised way of looking that empowers men
and objectifies women. ... Visual media that respond to masculine
voyeurism tends to sexualise women for a male viewer. As
Mulvey wrote, women are characterised by their “to-be-looked-at-
ness” in cinema.

9. The Male Gaze

10. Auteur Theory further development

11. Auteur Theory Source one
Something I have learned from this
source is that directors that are given the
title of an auteur are deemed as very
prestigious directors. I have learned this
from the phrase “afforded”. I also learned
that they can become an auteur through
having similar conventions in films such
as mise-en-scene and thematics.
Doughty, R (2017). Understanding Film Theory. London:
Macmillan Education UK. p3.

12. Auteur Theory Source two

13. Auteur Theory Source three
This source, helped me learn more about Stanley
Kubrick’s themes and why he is considered an
auteur. He consistently uses themes of fear and
desire, killers kiss and the killing. These themes
make Kubrick stand out and are what make him
an auteur.
staff. (2019). Director: Stanley Kubrick. Available:
https://www.sothetheorygoes.com/auteur-stanley-kubrick/. Last
accessed 15th sep 2021.

14. Auteur Theory Source four
Source 4
This source went into detail about Quintin Tarentino being
an auteur. They highlighted his use of violent awakenings in a
few of his films. (Kill Bill and Pulp fiction to name a couple).
These techniques make Tarentino an auteur and I will be
taking some of these different techniques to use in my FMP.
Film, I. (2021). What is Auteur Theory? – Definition and Examples. Available:
https://indiefilmhustle.com/auteur-theroy/. Last accessed 15th sep 2021.

15. Bibliography
Ferrari, A. (2019). Auteur Theory. Available: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-auteur-theory-why-important-
alex-ferrari. Last accessed 9th Sep 2021.
Anon. (). Reception Theory . Available: https://revisionworld.com/a2-level-level-revision/media-studies-level-
revision/reception-theory. Last accessed 9th Sep 2021.
Lamb, B. (2021). The Hypodermic Needle Theory . Available: https://lessonbucket.com/media-in-minutes/the-
hypodermic-needle-theory/. Last accessed 9th Sep 2021.
Simmons, A. (2017). Male Gaze. Available: https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-the-male-gaze-
mean-and-what-about-a-female-gaze-52486. Last accessed 9th Sep 2021.
Doughty, R (2017). Understanding Film Theory. London: Macmillan Education UK. p3.
staff. (2019). Director: Stanley Kubrick. Available: https://www.sothetheorygoes.com/auteur-stanley-kubrick/.
Last accessed 15th sep 2021.
Film, I. (2021). What is Auteur Theory? – Definition and Examples. Available: https://indiefilmhustle.com/auteur-theroy/. Last accessed 15th
sep 2021.

16. Essay Plan
Stanley Kubrick and Auteur Theory

17. Macro Analysis
• Stanley Kubrick was born in New York City on July 26, 1928, and grew up in the Bronx, New York.
• Kubrick never took to the classroom. In school, his attendance record was evenly split between days absent and present. In high
school, he was a social outcast and the prototypical underachiever, ranking at the bottom of his class, despite his intelligence. "I
never learned anything at school, and I never read a book for pleasure until I was 19," he once said.
• Kubrick's early ambitions were to become a writer or play baseball. "I started out thinking if I couldn't play for the Yankees, I'd be a
novelist," he later remembered. Seeking creative endeavours rather than to focus on his academic status, Kubrick played the
drums in his high school's jazz band.
• Kubrick also displayed early promise as a photographer for the school paper, and at age 16, began selling his photos
to Look magazine. A year later, he was hired for the staff of the magazine.
• Toward the end of his high school career, Kubrick applied to several colleges, but was turned down for admission by all of them.
• Kubrick began to explore the art of filmmaking in the 1950s. His first films were documentary shorts financed by friends and
relatives.
• His first feature was the 1953 military drama Fear and Desire, was made independently of a studio—an uncommon practice for the
time.
• Early into his filmmaking career, Kubrick acted as cinematographer, editor and soundman, in addition to directing. Later, he would
also write and produce.
• Kubrick released his most popular film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, in 1968, after working diligently on the production for a number of
years—from co-writing the script with Arthur C. Clarke to working on the special effects, to directing. The film earned Kubrick 13
Academy Award nominations; he won one for his special effects work.