Auteurism and psychoanalysis

Auteurism is a filmmaker whose individual style and complete control

over all elements of production give a film its personal and unique stamp.
Auteurism has arguably been at the center of film practice, theory, and
history since the 1950s, originating in the films and writings of the French
New Wave. During the German occupation in World War 2, the French
were denied American movies but by the end of the war they
rediscovered the greatness of American cinema and took it very seriously.
The rediscovery of American films led to the re-evaluation of the director
as an artist. It impressed the French that the Hollywood directors can be
handed a project and make it their own.
Francois Truffaut was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor,
and film critic, as well as one of the founders of the French New Wave.
After starting his own film club in 1948, Truffaut became close friends with
film critic Andrew Bazin who helped him through financial and criminal
situations throughout his life. Truffaut joined the army in 1950 and was
later arrested for trying to leave. Bazin helped to get Truffaut released
and set him up with a job at his new film magazine Cahiers du cinma.
Truffaut then became a critic and was known for his brutal reviews. He
supported Bazin in the development of the auteur theory. After writing a
controversial article, attacking the current state of French cinema,
Truffaut devised the auteur theory which believed that the director was
the author of his work and that directors such as Hitchcock have
distinctive styles and themes that run throughout their films.
Andrew Sarris was an American film critic and leading supporter of the
auteur theory. Sarris wrote the highly influential book The American
Cinema: Directors and Directions. The books purpose was to raise
awareness of the role of the films director and the auteur theory. In his
book, Sarris listed the pantheon of the 14 greatest film directors. This
included, Charles Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock and Jean Renoir. He reduces
the auteur theory into 3 points; An auteur is technically competent; An
auteur has a personality that manifests itself in recurring stylistic traits
that becomes their signature. Also an auteurs film exhibits a tension
between their personality and their material.
A good example of an auteur director would be Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick
was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer

and editor. He is regarded as one of the most influential directors of all

time. Kubrick's cinematic style was very distinctive and influenced many
other films and film makers. He established a technique as an auteur that
was recognisably his own, and frequently spurred diverse opinions and
interpretations in viewers and critics. Kubrick has touched on nearly every
film genre from Sci-fi and horror to comedy and romance.
Another film theory Kubrick touches on would be the psychoanalytic
theory. The psychoanalytic theory is a method of investigating and
treating personality disorders and is used in psychotherapy. Freud
believed that the mind is made of two parts - the conscious mind and the
unconscious mind. The unconscious mind often prompts people to make
certain decisions even if they dont recognize it on a conscious level.
Freud tells us that the human psyche is broken up into three parts. The id
is the primitive and instinctive component of the personality which
consists of all the inherited components of the personality. The id
demands immediate satisfaction regardless of the consequences and is
not affected by logic or reality. It also engages in primary process
thinking, which is primitive illogical, irrational, and fantasy oriented.
The ego is the decision making component of the personality and usually
works by reason whereas the Id is more chaotic and unreasonable. The
ego works out realistic ways of satisfying the Ids demands by postponing
satisfaction to avoid negative consequences from society.
The superego's function is to control the id's impulses, especially ones
that go against societies norms. It also persuades the ego to turn to
moralistic goals rather than just realistic ones. The superego consists of
two systems: The conscience and the ideal self. The conscience can
punish the ego through causing feelings of guilt e.g. giving into the Ids
demands. The ideal self is an imaginary picture of how you ought to be,
and represents career aspirations, how to treat other people and how to
behave as a member of society.
This is similar to the surrealism theory which was a movement launched
by Andre Breton, a French poet in 1924. The aim of surrealism was to
reveal the unconscious and reconcile it with rational life. Freud believed
that dreams revealed the workings of the unconscious and his famous
book The Interpretation of Dreams was central to surrealism.
We meet some of these concepts when we look at the psychoanalysis
behind Kubricks- The Shinning. The shining is about a married couple
and their son who take on the role of the caretakers of the overlook hotel

for the winter. Danny, the son starts to see disturbing visions of the hotels
horrible past using his telepathic gift known as The shining. Jack, the
father whilst writing his next project slowly slips into insanity due to cabin
fever and the influence of the former residences of the hotel. After some
advice from the waiter telling jack to correct his family, he goes
completely insane and tries to murder his wife and child.
Roger Ebert describes the movie as not about ghosts but about the
madness and energies it sets loose in an isolated situation primed to
magnify them. The shinning is often mistaken as a supernatural movie
rather than a psychological one. During the film, Wendy makes reference
to Danny having an accident which we later learn occurred from one of
his fathers drunken rages. Modern iterations of psychoanalysis tell us
that Danny may have suffered from a personality disorder, which brought
on the arrival of Tony, Dannys super ego. Tony is a sensible psychological
creation to guide Danny through his fears of his potentially dangerous
father. Dannys psychic visions are simply the psychic reality of the horror
he feels of living with an abusive father and a hysterical mother who
cannot protect Danny due to her own fears of her husband. We learn that
Jack has not had a drink in five months though we see the extent of his
isolation and madness as he sits at the bar drinking imaginary booze and
having conversations with a non-existent bartender. We believe that
Danny sees these hallucinations due to his fears of another attack from
his father. The Overlook Hotel is merely a catalyst that allows the real
horror to emerge. The supernatural is like the enabler for the alcoholic.
Anyone who studied Freud would understand the concept of the
compulsion to repeat. Unconscious desire, both sexual and aggressive
cannot be put to sleep. It can only be used to do something good or
productive or it can return as something chaotic.
In the pictures below you can see two images of Dannys door. The first
image is from the scene were Danny is looking in the mirror and has a
vison from the Overlook Hotel. From this he passes out and a child
psychiatrist comes to visit him. Notice that in the first picture before
Danny had the vision there is a sticker of Dopey from Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs and then it has disappeared in the second image. This is
not a set malfunction but rather a subtle message telling us that Danny
has wised up to the situation he is in and has been initiated into a
disturbing adult awareness of the depths of depravity to which his father
might go.

To conclude I believe the psychoanalytic theory is useful as it allows us to

get inside the head of particular characters. This works particularly well in
the horror genre as it allows us to see the likes of psychopaths in another
light e.g. Halloween and Silence of the lambs. Some believe that using
the psychoanalytic theory in film is an insight into filmmakers
unconscious. Others believe it allows us to see what lays in us, the
audiences unconscious as we study the actions and dialogue of certain
characters and try to relate to them.

Sources
http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-psychoanalytictheory.html
http://www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Stanley_Kubrick
http://mindhacks.com/2013/09/28/madness-and-hallucination-in-theshining/
http://www.mindswork.co.uk/wpblog/the-shining-a-family-can-be-scaryenough/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Truffaut
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Sarris
http://www.nettonet.org/Nettonet/Film
%20Program/theory/psycho_theory.htm

http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/surrealism