Dysfunctional families are a common theme in Stephen Spielberg’s
films, does this make him an auteur?
projector: Images of Steven Spielberg (item 9), and question shown underneath.
speaker: An auteur is a film director who influences their films
so much that they rank as their author. "Directors who show a consistency
in style and theme are called auteur's." (item
14) In my personal opinion I think that Spielberg’s experiences
throughout his life really affect the way in which he directs his films, I
think that he put a lot of what happened in his personal family life into his
work, this is what I found out...
speaker: The first film that I thought really emphasised a
dysfunctional family was E.T. In this film there shows a family without a dad
and it seems that E.T. comes along as a father figure for Elliot, " E.T.
becomes a surrogate father and friend to Elliot whose father in the story has
divorced his mother." This quote backs up my idea a lot,"(item 5)
when he was young his parents divorced he still included the divorce in his
film E.T. which makes me think more that he is an auteur. (item 1) "Steven Spielberg’s films tend to
convey a certain “heaviness” with regard to adult life but joy and belief with
regard to the children. He is at his most effective in his films that focus on
childhood, such as E.T. (item 8) because
I know that this kind of thing happened when he was a child it makes me think
that because he put his own life experiences into his films that he is an
auteur.
projector: Phone home scene (item
1)
speaker: In this scene you can see E.T. learning to talk English
and asking to phone home, this scene makes me think that E.T really wants to be
with his family, this also makes me think of when Spielberg was younger, “the
films drama is driven largely by the main characters faith and desire to return
home.” This is significant to me because when Steven Spielberg was young he
moved around a lot with his dad’s job, and perhaps when he was young all he
wanted to do was return home after moving to so many different places. However,
it also says that E.T. was a substitute to a dad or a friend, this could be
Spielberg’s way of saying that Elliot wanted his dad to come home, because of
this it really makes you think that Spielberg is putting his own life into this
film, which I think makes him an auteur. (item
5) This scene to me really portrays the connection between Spielberg's
life and Elliot's life the film, making me think that he is an auteur.
projector: Elliot cuts his finger scene. (item 1)
speaker: In this scene you can see Elliot cutting his finger and
e.t healing it, but what stand out the most for me in the scene is that
Elliot's mom is Reading Peter Pan in the background. For me this is important
because the story of Peter Pan is about a lost boy from a different world who
take on the role of a father to the lost boys, I think that this is significant
because I can’t see the same thing with E.T. and Elliot. This relates to my
opinion that Spielberg is an auteur because he was away from home when he was a
child, much like E.T. or Elliot. (item 1)
“For me e.t was both the quintessential story of my childhood and at the same
time the end of my childhood, it gave me the courage, based on its success, to
start more adult subjects. E.T. gave me a free pass to fail." this quote
really makes me believe that he is an auteur, because he actually states that
he put his own life into this film. E.T. was a great experience for me because
I wanted to be a dad after making it. I wasn’t a father and I kind of became a
father to those three kids." this quote really does suggest that he put
his life into this film and made it completely his own, I think that he got so
connected to his own story that it changed him and I really believe that this
backs up my opinion. (item 4)
projector: E.T. Leaving Earth scene. (item 1)
speaker: In this scene E. T’s family come back to take him home,
which to me is a really important scene in the film as you can really see the
connection between the life of Spielberg and the characters, what I mean by
this is that in the film all E.T wanted to do was go home and be with his
family, just like Spielberg when he was living with his father. All he wanted
to do was go home and be with his family, (item
4) because of the way that Spielberg has put himself into this film, it
really shows that he is an auteur.
Another film that shows Spielberg's use of dysfunctional family's
is A.I. (Artificial intelligence) Having researched this film I have found that
the original idea for A.I. was by Stanley Kubrick. Before he passed away he had
been talking to Spielberg about the ideas that he had for the film and he had
asked him to direct it. When Kubrick passed away, he did, I think that this is
one of his more personal films, the whole theme of being loved and the feeling
of belonging, when he started to produce the film he didn’t change any of the
story but really put himself into it. (item 6)
projector: Imprinting
on David scene (item 2)
speaker: I think that
this scene is significant because it really shows a dysfunctional family,
almost at its worst, the family is replacing their dying son with a robot and
this scene where David imprints on the mother sets that in stone. Although
Spielberg didn't include his own life experiences into this scene I do however
think that it really emphasises how
dysfunctional this family, which makes me think that my opinion of him being an
auteur is correct because of his frequent repetition of style, by this I mean
his continuous use of dysfunctional families. (item 2)
projector: Abandoning
David scene (item 2)
speaker: This scene
however differs from the previous one that I showed, in this scene David is
being abandoned by his Mother rather than being destroyed. This scene makes me
think of Spielberg's life. When Spielberg left with his father he felt
abandoned by his mother, (item 6) this
shows to me that my idea is correct. Spielberg put himself into this film with
his use of dysfunctional families, I think that this shows he is an auteur. “I
basically learnt to put more of my own experiences into my films for my
characters in my pictures, I’m encouraged". this is quote of him admitting
that he puts himself into his films which really backs up my theory and almost
proves it. In A.I. his whole plan changed because not only did he have to use
his own style of directing, in the sense that he wanted to put some of his own
experiences into the film, he also felt that he had to use Stanley Kubrick’s
style. For example using Stanley’s favourite lens in most of his shots when he
was directing the film. Even thought when you watch it you can see a lot a
Kubrick’s style you can tell that it’s a Spielberg film and I think that his
ability to do that truly shows that he is an auteur. (item 6)
projector: Teddy and
David trapped under the Ferris wheel scene (item
2)
In this scene it
shows Teddy and David trapped and then saved by aliens. The ending of A.I. for
Kubrick was that David and teddy were trapped under the Ferris wheel in the
sea, he wanted them to be trapped until their batteries ran out and then the
credits would role. However, this did not happen, there is a lot of controversy
about the ending because Spielberg put his own idea and twist into the film and
added aliens to the end. Because of this fact I can’t help but think that he
wanted to put more of himself into the film rather than making it a Kubrick
film. (item 10) This makes him an auteur
because even though it wasn’t entirely his film he still wanted to put himself
into it. (item 6) In the end David got
to spend one more day with his mother, the dream to be part of a functional
family and to be loved came true, this to me relates to Spielberg's life making
me think that he is an auteur.
Another example of a
Spielberg film that includes dysfunctional families is The Colour Purple, (item 3)
projector: Celie and
Nattie are split scene (item 3)
speaker: For me this
is one of the most powerful scenes for showing dysfunction in families. Although
this only relates to Spielberg slightly as he wasn't forced from his family, it
does show a really, truly dysfunctional family at an extreme. I have used this
film as one of my examples because this is the first serious film that
Spielberg made. (item 4) By serious I
mean the story is really hard hitting and emotional. This film to me really
shows that he is an auteur because it doesn't matter what the genre of the film
is, it still shows the same consistency in theme. (item 3) (item 14)
projector: "I
don’t think that I could have made Schindler's List or empire of the sun
without the colour purple, that would have been impossible I didn’t have the
maturity, the craft and the emotional information. “(quote) (item 4)
speaker: This quote
to me, (although I don’t think there is any relation between the film and
Steven Spielberg’s childhood other than dysfunctional families) makes me think
that Steven Spielberg is an auteur. Because of the severity of the plot of The
Colour Purple I think that this film helped him to be an auteur because of the
amazing films that he was mature enough to make after the production of The
Colour Purple. (item 4) I think the fact
that this film is almost entirely based on really dysfunctional family’s really
helps me to answer my question. This film was one a Spielberg’s most emotional
pictures, and I believe that he would have really had to think about his own
family life and what was bad about it and then think about how much worse it
could have been. I think that’s why Spielberg was the author to this film, he
used it to mature himself, he made this film apart of himself which in my
opinion makes him an auteur.
projector: Celie is
reunited with her children scene (item 3)
speaker: This scene
reminds me a lot of my focus scene because it has the same kind of ending. that
ending being that E.T. goes home and is reunited with his family. This is just
like the ending of The Colour Purple, this makes me think that Spielberg is an
auteur because of the similarities in style and in themes. (item 14) It is so alike his other films even
though has a completely different story and I think that his use of
dysfunctional families in these films makes him an auteur.
projector:
photographs from the book "cinema of loneliness". (item 7)
projector:
photographs from Duel to bridge if spies- telegraph (item 9)
conclusion: "
Hardly a single one of my films isn’t based on something that happened in my
childhood."(item 4) This proves my
argument, Spielberg himself has said that he uses his own experiences as a child
in his film. I think that proves that he is an auteur. Going back to my
original question, Dysfunctional families are a common theme in Stephen
Spielberg’s films, does this make him an auteur? Yes, I believe it does, he
puts parts of himself into all of his films and makes them his own, because of
his consistency in style and theme, (item 14)
I think that this makes him an auteur.
Molly Ryan
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