Auteur Theory

Auteur

French word for author.

The dictionary definition of an auteur is “a film director who influences their films so much that they rank as their author”.

What it means, in this situation, is that a director has a signature style and elements that will be recognisable in their different works.

Aphex Twin: Come to Daddy (1997)

Directed by Chris Cunningham.

Filmed on the same council estate where Stanley Kubrick shot many scenes in A Clockwork Orange.

The music video is very fast-paced to match with the music. It is also very much influenced by horror media based on all the things that happen in the video.

The video opens with an old woman walking a dog in a grimy, industrial setting. The dog urinates on an abandoned television lying on the pavement, causing it to sputter unexpectedly into life, and a distorted and warping headshot of Aphex Twin chanting the lyrics. This unleashes a spirit, accompanied by a gang of small children, who all wear grinning mask and who appear to inhabit the abandoned buildings. The children go around wreaking havoc, trashing an alley and chasing a man into his car. The thin man emerges from the television, screams in the woman's face, then gathers the children around him.

Madonna: Frozen (1998)

Directed by Chris Cunningham.

This music video, similar to Come to Daddy, is influenced by horror which shows itself due to what happens.

The video has a dark and creepy atmosphere to it. Moments of it that contribute to that atmosphere include; Madonna being alone dressed in black in the middle of nowhere, her turning into a flock of crows and there being copies of herself doing strange movements at the end.

The video begins with the camera skimming along a cracked, desiccated desert floor, and within seconds Madonna appears, hovering just above the ground in the distance. Her hands are covered with mehndi and an enigmatic symbol on one palm. In the video she slowly gestures and sways her arms toward the sky in the video, desperately pleading to her cold lover cited in the song. At one point Madonna falls, and as she hits the ground, she transforms into a flock of large, dark birds. Later, she transforms into a black dog. Three Madonnas also appear walking and crawling amid the desert throughout the video. As the song progresses, the sky darkens, and Madonna levitates from the ground. Her form then changes to a shiny black liquid, which runs along the desert floor and appears to be absorbed by the tattooed hands of another Madonna, who is curled up on the ground.

Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody

Directed by Bruce Gowers

Popularised the music video.

The video opens with a shot of the four band members in near darkness as they sing the a cappella part. The lights fade up, and the shots cross-fade into close-ups of Freddie. The composition of the shot is the same as Mick Rock's cover photograph for their second album Queen II. The photo, inspired by a photograph of actress Marlene Dietrich, was the band's favourite image of themselves. The video then fades into them playing their instruments. In the opera section of the video, the scene reverts to the Queen II standing positions, after which they perform once again on stage during the hard rock segment. In the closing seconds of the video Roger Taylor is depicted stripped to the waist, striking the tam in the manner of the trademark of the Rank Organisation's Gongman, familiar in the UK as the opening of all Rank film productions. All of the special effects were achieved during the recording, rather than editing. The visual effect of Mercury's face cascading away (during the echoed line "go") was accomplished by pointing the camera at a monitor, giving visual feedback, a glare analogous to audio feedback. The honeycomb illusion was created using a shaped lens. The video was edited within five hours because it was due to be broadcast the same week in which it was taped. The video was sent to the BBC as soon as it was completed and aired for the first time on Top of the Pops in November 1975. After a few weeks at number one, an edit of the video was created. The most obvious difference is the flames superimposed over the introduction as well as several alternate camera angles.

Michael Jackson: Rock with You

Directed by Bruce Gowers

Uses a shorter version of the song, the video features Michael in a sparkly sequined suit singing the song with a bright laser behind him. So it is a very minimalistic music video.

The style of Bruce Gowers’ music videos are those that have a lot of lighting and mainly feature the artist singing the song with those lights on them.