Ben Holmes

There are different methods of analysing film. Most analysts divide films initially by genre. This means

grouping particular films together by genre, for example Thrillers, Horror, Sci - fi, Action & Comedies and then

examining the different codes and conventions that it follows/breaks. Each genre will have its own different

set of codes and conventions to follow, for example a Horror film would be full of sharp weapons, blood and

haunted houses. Whereas a Science Fiction movie would include Space ships, Aliens and futuristic technology.

However not all directors are known to follow the stereotypical genre codes and conventions. Directors such

as Francis Ford Copolla, Luc Besson & Jared Hess are all renound for breaking typical codes and conventions

and are known as Auteur directors. Auteur theory believes that a director's film reflects the director's

personal creative vision, despite any genre codes and conventions. By breaking

conformity directors are given the chance to stand out from other movies and

send a different message than the typical movie.

An example of the differences between genre theory and auteur theory can be

seen by comparing the two films Quantum of Solace directed by Marc Foster

and Leon which is directed by Luc Besson. The opening scene of the James Bond

film, Quantum of Solace, perfectly follows its genre conventions. They open the

film with an intense car chase; James Bond is driving an Aston Martin which is a

high speed, state of the art vehicle that is a symbol of British power. Bond is

also wearing an expensive suit which shows he is professional and very well

groomed. Both the car and the suit are sponsors of this film who have paid for

their product to be branded in this movie for advertisement purposes. It is very

rare that any company would use product placement in auteur movies as most films of this style would

damage their reputation and its viewers would not be interested in mainstream advertising.

The film Leon is the work of Luc Besson who is an auteur director

and portrays the role of women very differently to Marc Foster

who is known to closely follow genre conventions. Unlike all the

James Bond films, Leon includes a female protagonist, Mathilda;

Leon’s neighbour. 12 years old she is attracted to Leon sexually,

which is very uncomfortable narrative to watch. Eventually she

ends up joining forces with Leon and he develops feelings for

this 12 year old girl. This is something we would never

experience while watching a James Bond movie. Most female

characters in the Bond movies are very glamorous and feature

on scene for a short period of time usually used as an object to

distract the attention away from James Bond. Also Bond uses women to seduce his enemies and recover any

required information. In James Bond films, women are represented as sexual objects, with no real character

development. James Bond always ends up in bed with the woman. However in ‘Quantum of Solace’ directed

by Marc Forster in 2008, they are trying to make female character stronger by showing that she can fight, hold

a gun and defend herself but still ends up being rescued by James Bond so this shows us that despite attempts

to define female characters in a strong manner, women are not represented fully and are still seen as objects

of male desire. This is a convention of James Bond and most action

thriller films of a similar style because women are always seen as

attractive and have a bit of power. In other genres such as crime

thriller, women are represented differently because there is often a

femme fatale who is a woman who is very rich and attractive and

usually quite dangerous. This occurs in the film ‘Pulp Fiction’ directed

by Quentin Tarantino in 1994; with the character Mia Wallace, played

by Uma Thurman.

Ben Holmes

The main reason that Quentin Tarantino is viewed as an auteur director is because of the way he lays out the

narrative of his movies. This is known as a non-linear narrative (where there isn’t a defined start, middle and

end.) In Pulp Fiction they use the scene of the movie at the start of the film and then return to that exact scene

at the end but at a different perspective. Also the change in narrative can be seen as they tell the same story

from different perspectives. So if a character dies in one scene of the movie, they may return in the next scene

as it might be someone else’s perspective. The audience would not be able to piece the film together till the

end.