Auteur Theory - Jonathan Glazer

The term auteur originates from France which translates as author.

The Auteur theory was introduced in the 1950s by French film directors like Francois Truffaut who advocated a focus on the contribution directors made on the style and form of film. Truffault quotes, "A true film auteur is someone who brings something genuinely personal to his subject instead of producing a tasteful, accurate but lifeless rendering of the orgiginal material".

Auteur Theory suggests that a director can use the commercial apparatus of film-making in the same way that a writer uses a pen or a painter uses paint or a paintbrush. In law, the film is treated as a work of art, and the auteur, as the creator of the film, is the original copyright holder.The film maker's style and practice has to be different which then gives them a signature status.

Jonathan Glazer (born 26 March 1965) is an English filmmaker, whose directing work includes feature films, music videos and advertisements. Glazer has a dull grey-ish style that runs through the vast majority of his music videos. They are often dragged and are slow paced, making the narrative videos complexed and often hard to follow and understand. In addition to this, he has a specific theme that runs through his videos which ususally consists of disturbed characters. An example of this would be "Rabbit in your headlights" by UNKLE ft. Thom Yorke (1998)

"Rabbit in your headlight"

From watching Glazer's work, he tends to use a lot of close up shots and mid shots to fully portray the tone of the piece. In "Rabbits in your headlights" his use of these shots illustrates the vulnerability og the lead role which goes against male objectification conventions. Glazer's work is typically very cinematic, in this he has fully captivated the tones of the piece, setting it apart from a "normal" music video.

"Under the skin"

In terms of mise-en-scene, by taking everyday environments, Glazer tends to manipulate them with negative or darker connotations and create surrealism. For example, taking a look at "Under the skin", Glazer uses clinical lighting to create an out of place feel to the audience. The evident minimalist take on the movie throughtout provides an 'eerie' and 'unsure' feel for the audience.

In addition to this fast editing and long shots are combined with special effects to create the enigmatic and disturbed feel to the video. In the case of 'Under the skin' he uses the woman as symbolic reference to convey lust/love.