“A filmmaker, usually a director, who exercises creative control over his or her works and has a strong personal style.”
Auteur translated from french means “author”; auteur theory was started by film director and critic Francois Truffaut. Cahiers du Cinema is a journal where auteur theory was discussed who was the “author” of a film. This group argued that films should reflect the directors personal vision.
Tim Burton is very well known for this dark and artistic movies. His first two shorts were developed from his work at Disney: Vincent(1982) and Frankenweenie(1984). “The combination of bizarre characters and the constantly shifting expressionist backgrounds produced a film that may best be described as ‘The Cabinet of Dr Caligari meet Ray Harryhausen.’ This was describing the short Vincent which was done in ‘claymation’ to tribute Burton’s idol Vincent Price.
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure(1985) was Burton’s first movie deal. This movie was created around TV personality Pee Wee Herman, it was filled with childish comedy and received poor reviews but still made audiences laugh with its charm and child-like state. Burton had a limited budget for this film still managed to create a sense of reality in the film and became a new visionary in Hollywood.
In 1988, Burton brought Beetlejuice to life which was a black comedy about “a dead couple disturbed in the haunting of their own house by a snobbish city family intent on redecorating.” Burton worked with Bo Welch to create one of the most visually distinct film sets. The budget for Beetlejuice was $13 million and with $1 million for visual effects alone, he stated that he wanted to make it look like the B movies he had grown up with. “I wanted to make them look cheap and purposely fake looking.” With this he created a slapstick horror and social satire.
One of Burton’s most well know film Edward Scissorhands has been called is masterpiece. IMBD states the plots line as…”An uncommonly gentle young man, who happens to have scissors for hands, falls in love with a beautiful teenage girl.” This film has been compared to fairytales in certain research they state that like a fairytale the young man finds love and fame and then is rejected from the heart of suburbia. Unlike a fairytale though Edward see a plea for tolerance for handicapped people. “Johnny Depp brings a feeling of tortured emotion to his almost silent character that lingers long in the memory.” American critic Rodger Ebert states, ” Burton uses special effects and visual tricks to create sights that have never been seen before. The movie takes place in an entirely artificial world, where a haunting gothic castle crouches on a mountain-top high above a storybook suburb, a goofy sitcom neighbourhood where all of the houses are shades of pastels and all of the inhabitants seem to be emotional clones of the Jetsons.”
Tim Burton is considered an auteur director because of his distinctive style and content from his work. His blend of dark humour and horror has made an impact on audiences and the industry of cinema.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/auteur
http://www.timburtoncollective.com
Cinema and Society 2012 