Compare how far your chosen films reflect the auteur signature features of their filmmakers.

Compare how far your chosen films reflect the auteur signature features of their filmmakers. [40 marks]

This essay will explore the reflect of the auteurs signature on their films which are Vertigo and One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest. The auteurs for these films are Alfred Hitchcock for Vertigo and Milos Forman for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Auteur is a French word which means author and this means then the author has a certain way of creating or putting something in their films to make is immediately recognisable as their films, auteur also include the style of the film.

In the film Vertigo the auteur being Alfred Hitchcock makes it easy to see his influences on the film he uses a lot of the same camera shots for example a bird's eye view which lets the audience get a better perspective on what is happening throughout the whole film and also high angle shots which show who is dominant in the scene which is Scottie throughout most of film. As a an auteur he uses a plot device called a MacGuffin which used in suspense films mostly which is a detail which by inciting curiosity and desire which drives the plot and motivates the actions of characters within the story. However the specific identity of the item is actually unimportant to the plot which Hitchcock uses in many of his films for example Vertigo, Carlotta Valdes is a MacGuffin she never appears and the details of her death are unimportant to the spectator but the story about her possessing Madeleine Elster's body is the spur for Scottie's investigation of her and the plot goes from there. Then another film that Hitchcock uses McGuffin in is the film Notorious where the uranium ore that the main characters must recover before it reaches Nazi hands serves as a motivation as any dangerous object would do. Alfred Hitchcock also uses birds in his films Vertigo is a perfect example of this as Gavin's last name is Elster which is a German equivalent of a Magpie and then in the film Psycho the films begins with written text saying Phoenix, Arizona and a Phoenix is a mythological bird. There is also a women called Marison Crane which again is a bird which then it also being used in other film of his made it part of his films and also apart of his auteur signature. Alfred Hitchcock's use of colour also makes one of his films recognisable to a spectator because in Vertigo he uses a lot of green to show envy and maybe to show Scottie's sickness when he gets vertigo. Hitchcock also has the auteur signature feature of staircases in Vertigo the church bell tower plays a crucial role in the plot with Scottie having a battle with the staircase but in the end beating it. In the film Shadow of  a Doubt, Uncle Charlie attempts to murder his niece by rigging the staircase to collapse also staircases are used in other films created by Hitchcock. Hitchcock also appears in his films for a brief moment which has also become part of his auteur signature. Hitchcock also has created the auteur signature feature of a perfect murder which is when the murder is intellectual murder, leaving no clues and the police would never find out what happened or who is the culprit this occurs in Vertigo, Strangers on a Train, Dial M and many more. Alfred Hitchcock also uses the male gaze theory to his advantage by using young, blonde and beautiful women and especially in Vertigo they are then used as an object for a male to control and overpower however he does also have the Femme Fatale theory there as well because Madeleine is using the Femme Fatale where as Judy is leaning towards male gaze theory. This shows Hitchcock is trying to show both sides of the coin of what women can truly be like which is impressively shown in Vertigo from when the women change from Madeleine to Judy.

The auteur signature features are that he has used the same actors like Danny DeVito in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and was also in Man on the Moon in 1999 which Milos Forman was director of both films. Milos Forman also worked with Jack Nicholson by being the director of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and then be an actor along side Jack Nicholson in the film Heartburn in 1986. He also worked with Brad Dourif again on the film Ragtime in 1981 where Milos Forman was also the director of the film. Milos Forman's cast for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest was very well chosen because Jack Nicholson was a very manic actor, that's shown through the way he plays RP McMurphy, he is so in touch with his character you can't tell what he would be like in real life. This is because in his other films that came out a couple of years later it was the same manic actor again and the more films a spectator watches with him in they might see that he plays a lot of the same roles because that is what he seem to just click with and be so good at like The Shining and him also in the Batman movie as the Joker is just brilliant.     

In conclusion, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is not reflecting the auteur signature feature as much as Vertigo is because Alfred Hitchcock seems to repeat a lot of his techniques into most of his films where as Milos Forman doesn't almost all of his films are different which makes it very hard for then to be a continuous auteur which makes it very hard to make connection that aren't there besides the character that have been used and the repeating the usage of similar actors in his films.