The document discusses film analysis techniques, including genre analysis and auteur theory. It analyzes the films Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, directed by Quentin Tarantino, as examples of how he breaks conventions as an auteur. It also discusses the action thriller genre and compares films like James Bond and Leon. Overall, it argues that Tarantino is an auteur director while Jon Favreau is not for the film Cowboys and Aliens.
A KING’S HEART THE STORY OF TSAR BORIS III (Drama) (Feature Film Project in D...
PR1 How We Analyse a Film
1. Film analysis
There are different ways to analyse a film, i will use genre analysis which means analysis between
different types of films such as horror, crime, war etc. I shall go into detail about the Acton thriller
genre and the film i shall be looking at is pulp fiction. I shall also be looking into auteur theory; this is
the theory in which a director is an auteur the way of doing this is if the director has put his own
stamp of the film or breaks the codes of conventions of a film. I will be using Quentin Tarentino as
the auteur of my choice. With his films that have broke codes and conventions such as pulp fiction
and Resivour dogs. As Quentin Tarention directed pulp fiction but made a change to the usual
gangster movie such as smart suits and the back room of a restaurant to blood stained clothes that
are messed up but still keeping the iconic black suit, and also he puts the end of the film at the start
and cut and changed through the characters timelines. This makes him an Auteur and he is a very
iconic Auteur.
There are 7 key factors in analysing a film; there are Codes and conventions,
setting, character, themes, narrative, iconography, ideological message.
Codes and conventions are what that certain genre uses to tell the story for
example with a horror film it would use a haunted house that could be
anything from a spaceship to the sea for example jaws, and then there
would be the first teens to die usually the ones who are the most attractive
and stupid, and the geeky girl would live to the end and survive, another
code and convention is the murders weapon as it is usually a knife or
chainsaw etc, to represent the male genital, these codes and conventions
apply to a horror film and there are different ones for different genres. The
setting of a genre is the environment so for a teen film it would be mostly
likely a school for example the breakfast club as it is all filmed in the school, this is different to every
genre as in action films its most likely to be in a hostile country or jungle. The character of the film
would be analysed on the different genre for example James bond in the 007 films is a spy who is
physically strong and wares suits to a different genre such as horror the insane killer would be
deformed, the theme of the film is the storyline behind it as with the different genres there are
different themes as with a war film it shows dead and disturbing scenes and then with a romantic
film it shows messages of love. The narrative is how the director tells the story and different
directors tell the story in different ways as it is out of their eye. The iconography for the film is how
the film is iconic as with James Bond the viewer expects action and a massive fight, and an
ideological message is when the director puts a message across using the film for example a war film
would show a strong anti war message. You can see all the in pulp fiction as Quentin uses he
gangsters in black suits but he breaks them and makes the gangsters look different in appearance
and the language they use as in to other gangster films such as the godfather where there all smartly
dressed and take respectable. The setting of the film is in a city and there are many different
characters all with different personalities, the theme and narrative is set as a gangster film and the
narrative is all over the place, and the ideological message i got from the film was don’t trust bad
people.
2. The action thriller genre for James Bond Quantum of Solace starts off with a
chase scene where James is being chased in an Aston Martin which is iconic to
him being English and the smart suit he wears and the guns shows this is going
to be an action thriller, also when he talks it is a very British accent. This is
similar to Leon as Leon is a hitman and it starts off with him killing a group of
gangsters and then leaving the main guy, this is similar to James bond as the
main bad guy gets away, Leon is dressed completely different to James as
James has the smart suit and Leon dresses scruffily and untidy but has the iconic
sunglasses and hat, this shows he is an iconic character as is hitman the main
character has a barcode on his head so all the main characters have something iconic to them. This
shows how the director of Leon Luc Besson is an Auteur as he uses Leon as a hitman but hitmen are
suppose to dress smart and with Leon he is not. Also during the film it becomes more of a romance
which is strange in an action thriller. So i would say that Luc Besson is an Auteur.
Quentin Tarinteno is the Auteur director i have picked as his work is original and also he is a famous
Auteur director who puts the art of his films before the amount of views he gets. With pulp fiction
he changed the narrative so it made no sense but it was a brilliant film. Also he acted in Reservoir
dogs and directed it at the same time so that also makes him very different from other directors. In
Reservoir dogs he never told us who the rat was at the beginning and cut from the beginning to the
end and missed the heist out, and also he added comedy to violence were the police officer gets his
ear cut off and petrol poured over him and the psychopath is singing and dancing along to the song.
I think that Quentin Tarinteno is a brilliant Auteur director.
On the other hand i don’t think that Jon Favreau is an Auteur director with
cowboys and aliens as the film has been done before just with a different
name and instead of cowboys there were police officers. This was called Alien
nation and it has aliens fighting the police. Also there was nothing that really
stood out to me about the film to make him an Auteur. Also it was a book
before it was a film and i think that the director is not an Auteur.
A good first draft Adam. Please refer to my comments to push your grade higher; it can easily
achieve a high MERIT/Distinction if you follow my guidance
PASS