2. What is an Auteur?
Firstly, an auteur is a director who takes creative control of the
majority of a film-making project. This is through the director himself
inputting his own style onto his films; therefore creating their own
recognisable style making their particular style differentiate from
others.
3. I will be doing my presentation on Martin Scorsese, who is an
Italian American director, and how his creative input in his films
has made him an auteur.
4. Martin Scorsese’s Work
Scorsese is known for his unique style in films
containing masculinity, identity and violence
through his gangster films, period films and
biopics. Many of his leading characters in films are
often portrayed to be isolated in a chaotic world
by trying to make sense of it.
5. Scorsese is known for his unique style in films containing
masculinity, identity and violence through his gangster films,
period films and biopics. Many of his leading characters in films
are often portrayed to be isolated in a chaotic world by trying to
make sense of it.
Martin Scorsese’s Visual Styles
6. Martin Scorsese’s Visual Styles
Scorsese is also well known for his films
based on true stories, portraying the
lives of real criminals. These films I will
be comparing – evidencing why
Scorsese is an auteur.
Quite often in Scorsese’s films, you see a
use of Steadicam shots, slow motion,
freeze frames and popular music. There
are examples of these in…
7.
8. Steadicam Shots: Mean Streets &
Goodfellas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srphI34omF4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sr-vxVaY_M
The reason Scorsese uses Steadicam shots in these extracts is to let the
audience see out of a similar way the eye sees but not with a shaky-like feel,
with a more continuous feel.
9. Visual Styles: Freeze Frames
Goodfellas and Casino share the use of freeze frames. In Goodfellas, Scorsese uses freeze frames to
highlight the important memories Ray Liotta’s character Henry Hill remembers from his life, which
is used to draw our attention to these particular memories and to let us see it from his point of
view. The freeze frames are on the following memories:
- A beating from his father
- Running away from cars that he torched
- Henry staring into the boot of a car where a brutally injured man is, with a non-diegetic voice
saying “As far back as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a gangster.”
- When Henry comes out of court
10. Scorsese also uses a freeze frame in Casino when Frank
Vincent’s character Frankie is asked a question, the frame
shows the look on his face of him being in a predicament
where he is unsure of whether or not he should lie due
to the consequences. Scorsese does this as the voice
over presents the character’s emotions, allowing Frankie
to speak directly to the audience so they can sympathise
for him.
15. And his parents who often play small roles, e.g.
Goodfellas
Casino
Raging Bull
Cape Fear
The King of Comedy
Who’s That Knocking at My Door
Mean Streets
16. Scorsese may have done this due to Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci
and Frank Vincent often playing similar roles as the main
character with violent sidekicks (likewise with his parents even
though they only often play small cameo roles).
17. Visual Styles: Music
Martin Scorsese’s films are also recognisable through his use of popular
music. In Casino, he uses two different versions of two tracks by The
Rolling Stones. The original versions of ‘Gimme Shelter’ and ‘Satisfaction’
are shown during the beginning of the film whereas towards the end when
situations between characters get worse, ‘whacky’ cover versions of these
are played to highlight the tension and unordinary behaviour between
characters. In addition to this, ‘Gimme Shelter’, ‘Monkey Man’ and ‘Memo
from Turner are also played in Goodfellas, ‘Jumpin Jack Flash’ and ‘Tell Me’
are played in Mean Streets, ‘Gimme Shelter’ and ‘Let it Loose’ were also
played in The Departed.
18. Scorsese may have potentially done this as during the beginning
of his directing career The Rolling Stones were a famous group as
they still are today, which will make the audience like it even
more, therefore through using music from the same group
throughout his films, the audience will always easily be able to
link the two together as the majority of their songs are heard in
Scorsese’s films.
19. Visual Style:
Voice Over
Narration
Often found in Scorsese’s films, are voice overs and non-diegetic
narrations made by the main characters. This is primarily because the
voice over provides the character with the opportunity to speak to
the audience – making them feel as if they can relate to the
character in some way. The following films include voice overs:
Goodfellas (Ray Liotta, Lorraine Bracco)
Casino (Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci)
Taxi Driver (Robert De Niro)
Mean Streets (Harvey Keitel)
Wolf of Wall Street (Leonardo Dicaprio)
Gangs of New York (Leonardo Dicaprio)
20. Visual Styles: Slow Motion
Scorsese is also known to use slow motion in his films to enhance subjectivity; he uses the
technique to tell the audience something about the characters and/or what we’re seeing at that
moment.
Firstly, slow motion is used during Johnny Boy’s entrance to create tension between Robert De
Niro and Harvey Keitel’s characters.
Again, during the beginning of Raging Bull and during fight scenes (of De Niro’s character).
In Goodfellas, when Joe Pesci’s character shoots someone.
In Casino after Joe Pesci’s character stabs and kills someone.
In Taxi Driver after the shooting.
In Goodfellas looking at Robert De Niro’s character.
21. Recurring
Themes
The recurring themes throughout these films are
often dramas based on criminals and/or the grey
areas of immorality and greed that the main
characters’ face. You can see this in Goodfellas as
Ray Liotta’s character Henry Hill is faced with the
option to live within the law as a regular person,
however he chooses the opposite route to have
a life of luxury. A similar theme is in Casino with
Robert De Niro’s character Sam Rothstein as his
greed for power and money from running a
casino takes over his life. Again, a recurring
theme of deception is often portrayed in
Goodfellas, Casino and Raging Bull as the main
characters turn against each other for money
(Goodfellas), power and women (Raging Bull &
Casino).
22. Again, the theme of immorality is also portrayed in Raging Bull as the main
character is arrested for introducing underage girls to men in his club.
However, in Taxi Driver when Robert De Niro’s character Travis Bickle kills
the gangsters involved in child prostitution he was still morally wrong for
taking matters into his own hands even though he did it for the right
reasons. Therefore, the theme of immorality is still there.
