NYU Student Conference

March 23, 2001, 10:30 AM

Moderator: Steven Schneider

Panelists: Laura Laytham, Steve Repsher, Lori Rossiter,

Kimber Russell & Therese Suarez

The writers of the Cahiers du Cinema spoke of 'la politique des auteurs' rather than the "auteur theory." The latter phrase was popularized by Andrew Sarris in his famous follow-up to the Cahiers articles and, since then, has sprung forth wings and become a sort of romanticized ideology unto itself. In many senses, the "auteur theory" is now a functioning methodology for understanding and analyzing cinema. It is our view that it has yet to tread on some very fertile soil and we wish to incite further exploration of the rich valley of unexplored potential that the auteur theory has to this point neglected.

We intend to present considerations of the idea of the "auteur" that go beyond the romantic notions of the director as the all-encompassing creator of meaning for a text. We will do this through the examination of a number of "alternative auteurs:" theorists, peer directors, cinematographers, composers and finally, spectators themselves.

For a multitude of reasons, it seems a basic groundwork of philosophy is required when discussing the auteur theory today, and for that reason our panel has established three tenets which are as follows:

Finally, for reasons of sanity, we will be arguing our points under the light of a few key essays within the body of texts that make up modern day auteur theory. While we acknowledge that there are many related works that we may be neglecting with this explicit consideration, we feel it is best to limit our references to the core formulations of the auteur theory and expound from there rather than traverse the entire history of the debate. Each panel member may reference other texts in addition to these four and when that it the case, it has been noted in their summary accordingly. Our core texts are:

Therese Suarez, Theorists as Auteurs

In the case of the DOGME 95 group, how does a theory that establishes specific rules with regards to the mode of production of a film influence notions of the auteur? Does the theorist or group of theorists become auteurs in their own right? Or the director still the source of the voice of intentionality?

Laura Laytham, Peer Directors as Auteurs

I will examine the idea of influential auteurism whereby the ideology, alongside the style, of one auteur is made visible in the works of his or her peers. The example I wish to employ is that of the auteurist influence of Oliver Stone and particularly of his film JFK on Spike Lee's Malcolm X.

Lori Rossiter, Cinematographers as Auteurs

In acknowledging the Truffautian concept of film as a means of individual self-expression (Buscombe), I will be theorizing that the films of Gregg Toland signify his auteur status. If the personality of the auteur appears within an individual film or across a body of work, this personality manifests itself in "thematic and/or stylistic consistency," which Toland's oeuvre reveals (Caughie, 9). Though Toland himself has stressed that story dictates cinematographic approach, and, therefore, that films must differ one from another, Toland's imprint and strength as an auteurist is impossible to ignore (Toland, 572).

Steve Repsher, Composers as Auteurs

The film composer occupies a difficult position within the discourse of the alternate auteur. By the nature of her/his medium, the ideology of the composer is necessarily masked, or at least subordinated, by that of the visual element of the film and its creators (director, editor, DP, etc.). Methodologies such as psychoanalysis and semiotics cannot easily be applied to the musical score of a film, if they may be applied at all. Nevertheless, the score may greatly affect a film's reception, thereby impacting the intentionality of the director (and others, perhaps). At the same time, the creation of a musical score is itself an act of intentionality; moreover, the work of a particular composer may certainly in many cases be discernable over a body of work. This combination of circumstances would seem to qualify the composer at least in some sense as an authorial presence within a film.

Kimber Russell, Spectators as Auteurs

Following arguments made by Barthes and Eisenstein pertaining to the role of the spectator (reader) in (film) authorship, I will suggest that the "appropriation" of film texts, especially by subordinate social groups, can be understood as another form of film "authorship".

"Generation X: Henry Louis Gates, Jr. interviews Spike Lee"

Black Film Review, 1993, Volume 7, Issue 3, page 14.

Carringer, Robert L. The Making of "Citizen Kane."

Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1985.

Toland, Gregg. "How I Broke the Rules in "Citizen Kane"

Perspectives on "Citizen Kane." Ed. Ronald Gotterman. New York: G.K. Hall & Co., 1966.

Bobo, Jacqueline. "Black Women as Cultural Readers,"

Feminism and Cultural Studies, Morag Shiach, ed.

Oxford University Press: New York, 1999.

Eisenstein, Sergei. "The Audience as Creator [1946-47],"

S.M. Eisenstein: Selected Works: Volume 3, Writings, 1934-1947,

Richard Taylor, ed. British Film Institute: London, 1996.

Shively, JoEllen. "Cowboys and Indians: Perceptions of Western Films Among American Indians and Anglos,"

Film and Theory: An Anthology, Robert Stam and Toby Miller, eds.

Blackwell Publishers: Malden, Massachusetts, 2000.

Andrew, Dudley. "The Unauthorized Auteur Today,"

Film and Theory: An Anthology, Robert Stam and Toby Miller, eds.

Blackwell Publishers: Malden, Massachusetts, 2000.

Hillier, Jim, ed. Cahiers du Cinema: The 1950Õs: Neo-Realism, Hollywood, New Wave.

Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1985.

Sarris, Andrew. The American Cinema: Directors and Direction,1929-1968.

Octagon Books: New York, 1982.

Schatz, Thomas. "The Whole Equation of Pictures"

Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen, eds.

Oxford University Press: New York,1999.

Wollen, Peter. Signs and Meaning in the Cinema.

Indiana University Press: Bloomington, 1972.

By Laura Laytham

When examining Spike Lee's filmmaking career, there is a noticeable moment in which his initial focus on narrative fiction films expands into a more historically informed and involved focus repertoire. He changes direction from films like School Daze (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989) and Jungle Fever (1991) to encompass more politically expressive films like Malcolm X (1992), Get on the Bus (1996) and 4 Little Girls (1997). While remaining within the popular narrative conventions, his films are no longer merely about stories or characters but instead start to incorporate a focus on recognizable events and personal figures with distinct roles in black history.

This tendency to focus narratives on politically evocative topics and subjects, if described without the name of Spike Lee attached, would most likely be identified as the filmmaking style of Oliver Stone. Stone, noted for his dramatized accounts of history, has produced films like Salvador (1986), The Doors (1990), JFK (1991) and Nixon (1995), which all have an explicit focus on recounting the events of the past.

It seems reasonable to follow a hypothesis that the influential style of Oliver Stone had the means of not only reaching Spike Lee as a spectator but also of influencing Lee's own directing style. This hypothesis would seem entirely speculative without the release of Malcolm X in 1992. It is my argument that the production of Malcolm X was greatly influenced by the work of Oliver Stone, particularly being influenced by JFK which was released only one year prior to Malcolm X release. There is a variety of evidence to support this assertion.

1. Theatrical Timeline.

Malcolm X was a film that was in the minds of producers for at least 20 years before it became a reality in 1992 under the direction of Spike Lee. According to Lee, the time was right for Malcolm X. He credits his own notoriety and filmmaking success and the success and popularity of Denzel Washington as two major reasons for the film's final financing, approval and production. It is also important, however, to acknowledge that the controversial release of JFK and its commercial and critical success would clearly play a part in studio's decision to support further controversial versions of historical filmmaking, such as Malcolm X (and Hoffa ,which was subsequently released in 1993). Further, Oliver Stone's liberal adaptation of the events surrounding the JFK assassination and his appropriation of historical footage to support his dramatized claims broke the ice in terms of facilitating an attitude of acceptance for this sort of adaptation.

2. Historical Footage, Film Stocks and Verbatim Re-enactments.

The ways in which Malcolm X recounts the events of history and the style of living during the decades of the 1950s and 1960s is not the typical style or technique of recognized "Spike Lee" filmmaking. Beginning with Malcolm X and carrying on into his later historically motivated films, Lee begins to adopt the use of actual historical news and documentary footage. He begins to incorporate multiple types of film stocks into his pictures and he also begins to re-enact historically recognizable events, such as the ones depicted in the included historical footage, with his own actors. He then merges his re-enactments into the film's narrative, oftentimes alongside the real historical footage. These methods of appropriating history for the purposes of narrative cohesion are usually the most criticized and effective tropes of Oliver Stone.

3. Rapid Fire Editing.

Spike Lee's use of historical footage, varying film stocks and staged re-enactments are not only included in his films like Malcolm X, but are also utilized in the quick cutting, rapid fire editing technique normally attributed to the work of Oliver Stone. The ways in which characters in the film relate to events going on around them (oftentimes on television or within their own minds) is conveyed through a barrage of over-determined images which succinctly collide with each other through an immediate, successive display of non-narrative montage. Combined with the soundtrack and the narrative circumstances, these montages force an understanding of them as the mental imagery associated with the protagonist and thereby attach the experience with the identified protagonist, as if we have shared the same thought process. Once again, this technique is most widely recognized as the style of Oliver Stone (in mainstream Hollywood film that is, although its roots can be traced back to the avant-garde trance films of the 1940s and 1950s by filmmakers such as Maya Deren). Spike Lee effectively appropriates these techniques for almost exactly the same purposes.

4. Use of Lighting and Color.

Lighting techniques, although generally hard to summarize, especially in relation to two complex and unusually lengthy films like JFK and Malcolm X , provide another distinct connection between the films. In JFK, Oliver Stone seems to classify events and thusly their visual style in a few key ways. Personal events which are being influenced by worldly circumstance are usually tinted with a midnight blue hue which is usually associated with the reflection of the blue light coming from the black and white television on to the faces and surroundings of the characters. Events related to emotional climaxes or generally happy retrospectives of personal life are often tinted with a yellowish hue. Scenes which are to be seen as factual events of history are shown in a clear black and white film stock, usually either with the actual historical footage or with a crisply re-enacted situation that represents the past. Lastly, when characters are being interrogated, either mentally or physically by another character or group of characters, a strong white light shines directly down onto them, creating sharply contracting shadows of light and dark. These same visual tropes are also used in Malcolm X with almost exactly the same purposes and meanings.

5. Ideological Intent.

While it is foolish to assume that the intent of either director can be clearly established by anyone other than himself, it does seem that both JFK and Malcolm X are being told for personal and ideologically based reasons. Two events of key significance to the identities of both men are the focus of these films. For a white male American coming of age in the 1960s, the assassination of President Kennedy is typically credited with playing a major role in Stone's mature political understanding. This is especially true with Oliver Stone who has aligned himself both before and after JFK with causes dedicated to fully understanding the circumstances of the assassination. For Spike Lee, on the other hand, who was coming of age in a similar time but growing up as a black man in America, the role of Malcolm X is clearly an influential one on his own understanding of personal identity. To say that JFK is just another film for Oliver Stone or that Malcolm X is just another film for Spike Lee is impossible. Likewise, while I cannot espouse to know Spike Lee's intentions when he decided to make Malcolm X, it seems more than coincidental that his "great black man" film follows so immediately after Oliver Stone's "great white man" film. (Similarly, in 1993 Steven Speilberg released Schindler's List).

To summarize, the intersections of Spike Lee's Malcolm X and Oliver Stone's JFK seem to merit consideration of the possibility of an "influential auteur" category in the hierarchy of auteur theory classifications. At the very least, the coincidences justify further exploration. Spike Lee, who persistently mentions (and perhaps thusly credits) Oliver Stone's JFK in almost every interview he gives that is associated with Malcolm X, clearly has a regard for Stone's filmmaking. I would argue that this is more than simply a regard but rather a distinct influence on the styles and choices that Spike Lee has subsequently made in his own work.

2.Bamboozled (2000)

3.Original Kings of Comedy, The (2000)

4.Summer of Sam (1999)

5.Freak (1998/I) (TV)

6.He Got Game (1998)

7.4 Little Girls (1997)

8.Get on the Bus (1996)

9.Girl 6 (1996)

10.Lumière et compagnie (1995)

11.Clockers (1995)

12.Crooklyn (1994)

13.Malcolm X (1992)

14.Jungle Fever (1991)

15.Mo' Better Blues (1990)

16.Do the Right Thing (1989)

17.School Daze (1988)

18.She's Gotta Have It (1986)

19.Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983)

20.Sarah (1981)

21.Answer, The (1980)

22.Last Hustle in Brooklyn (1977)

1.Any Given Sunday (1999)

2.U Turn (1997)

3.Nixon (1995)

4.Natural Born Killers (1994)

5.Heaven & Earth (1993)

6.JFK (1991)

7.Doors, The (1991)

8.Born on the Fourth of July (1989)

9.Talk Radio (1988)

10.Wall Street (1987)

11.Platoon (1986)

12.Salvador (1986)

13.Hand, The (1981)

14.Mad Man of Martinique (1979)

15.Seizure (1974)