Critically Analyse the Distinctive Features of your Chosen Auteur Stylistically and Thematically

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Critically Analyse the Distinctive Features of your Chosen Auteur Stylistically and Thematically

           The formal definition of the word ‘auteur’ is “A film director, especially one whose work is regarded as having some distinctively personal quality about it…this film director’s practice also has to comply with the ‘auteur theory’, which states that he/she must be considered the primary creative force in a motion picture”.  This essay will argue whether Andrei Tarkovsky can be considered to be an auteur.  The evidence will be drawn from one of Tarkovsky’s earlier films, ‘Andrei Rublev’ (1966) and ‘Mirror’ (1974). 

        The film opens with a scene unconnected to the remainder of the story of a peasant sneaking into a tower to ride aboard a primitive hot air balloon.  He succeeds in briefly soaring into the atmosphere, only to crash violently into the ground. This abstract opening sequence, disjointed from the rest of the narrative, immediately sets an elliptical and episodic structure to the film.

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The scene may only serve as a metaphor in relation to the mystical undercurrent that flows throughout the film, in that each of us can find momentary happiness in the simplest of things, just before we have to pay for them. This theme in a way relates to the Shelagh Delaney’s play “A Taste of Honey” and the similarity in their naturalistic styles is also noteworthy.

                        The main thematic concern of the movie seems to be that of art and the question of good and evil. ...

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