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Poll

Is Michael Bay an auteur

Yes - All of his films bear his indelible stamp.
No - You have to make great films to be an auteur.
Maybe - I can't find any signitaure themes.
He is a Hack

Author Topic: Is Michael Bay an auteur?  (Read 16296 times)

Beavermoose

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Re: Is Michael Bay an auteur?
« Reply #70 on: June 09, 2010, 11:25:25 PM »
I think if put in a position where you were to watch a Michael Bay movie, having seen his other films, but not knowing beforehand that the film you are watching is his you would be able to tell from the way the story is told that it was a Michael Bay movie.
That is being an auteur.

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Is Michael Bay an auteur?
« Reply #71 on: June 10, 2010, 03:52:09 AM »
So if Auteur Theory is the investigation of a director's style/imprint across the body of their work. All directors will leave some kind of imprint of themselves in there body of work. Therefore Director = Auteur, so Auteur is a different word for director, but Auteur Theory is a useful study tool.

Not all directors make personal films in a personal style.  This is the issues with Bay: while he has a clearly distinct visual style, is it actually an expression of something about the way Bay sees the world, or is it a cynical exercise in audience pandering?

Keith's articulating an extreme version of the theory on a couple of ends.  Auteurists certainly don't believe writers or actors are irrelevant (see Jonathan Rosenbaum's argument that Taxi Driver has four auteurs: Scorsese, Schrader, DeNiro and Bernard Herrmann).  Nor would they argue that every director is an auteur.  One of the main games auteurists play is sorting out the hack directors from the competent but impersonal directors (metteurs en scene) from those directors with a strong personal vision/style/obsession.

Also, the theory is not the end of the conversation.  It functions as an organizing principle, but is not, in itself, criticism.  The important thing about Andrew Sarris's The American Cinema is its organization by director.  But the great thing is that Sarris uses the organization to discuss each directors work in the context of all their other work, in terms of both visual style and thematic concerns.

My point in part was that all directors will leave a mark on their films, that can be categorised.

Holly Harry

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Re: Is Michael Bay an auteur?
« Reply #72 on: June 10, 2010, 05:16:17 AM »
So if Auteur Theory is the investigation of a director's style/imprint across the body of their work. All directors will leave some kind of imprint of themselves in there body of work. Therefore Director = Auteur, so Auteur is a different word for director, but Auteur Theory is a useful study tool.

  One of the main games auteurists play is sorting out the hack directors from the competent but impersonal directors (metteurs en scene) from those directors with a strong personal vision/style/obsession.



Bingo. That's part of the fun.
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sdedalus

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Re: Is Michael Bay an auteur?
« Reply #73 on: June 10, 2010, 12:59:33 PM »
My point in part was that all directors will leave a mark on their films, that can be categorised.

Sure.  I don't think that's true.
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1SO

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Re: Is Michael Bay an auteur?
« Reply #74 on: June 11, 2010, 12:04:52 AM »
This is great. From Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian:

"Bay has a great love of flashy effects, stroboscopic editing and loud crashes; he famously calls his cinematic technique “f--king the frame”. That phrase might be brutal, but it’s accurate. And there’s no doubt about it: he really has given the frame a right old seeing-to this time. Bay has turned up at the frame’s flat with some unguent massage oils, scented candles and a hundredweight of Viagra. It isn’t long before the headboard of the frame’s bed is crashing repeatedly against the wall, while the frame gazes up at the ceiling … and I think the frame is faking it."

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Is Michael Bay an auteur?
« Reply #75 on: June 11, 2010, 04:37:07 PM »
This is great. From Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian:

"Bay has a great love of flashy effects, stroboscopic editing and loud crashes; he famously calls his cinematic technique “f--king the frame”. That phrase might be brutal, but it’s accurate. And there’s no doubt about it: he really has given the frame a right old seeing-to this time. Bay has turned up at the frame’s flat with some unguent massage oils, scented candles and a hundredweight of Viagra. It isn’t long before the headboard of the frame’s bed is crashing repeatedly against the wall, while the frame gazes up at the ceiling … and I think the frame is faking it."
;D

IDrinkYourMilkshake

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Re: Is Michael Bay an auteur?
« Reply #76 on: June 11, 2010, 05:27:17 PM »
A-M-A-T-E-U-R. You spell it A-M-A-T-E-U-R.
« Last Edit: June 11, 2010, 05:39:42 PM by IDrinkYourMilkshake »
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edgar00

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Re: Is Michael Bay an auteur?
« Reply #77 on: June 11, 2010, 05:52:39 PM »
A-M-A-T-E-U-R. You spell it A-M-A-T-E-U-R.

He way to good at handling shit blowing up to be called an amateur.
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Moviebuff28

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Re: Is Michael Bay an auteur?
« Reply #78 on: June 12, 2010, 10:33:58 PM »
It takes more than a directors stamp to make an auteur.  There needs to be some unique vision.  Michael Bay is just a Hollywood hack who churns out the same crap other Hollywood hack churn out.  He might have a few unique tricks to making his crappy movies, but ultimately his movies have neither soul nor personality.  If the hack who made GI Joe secretly switched jobs with Michael Bay and directed Transformers, nobody would notice, nor would they notice GI Joe being directed by Michael Bay.   
  Ed Wood is an auteur.  I would also argue that Bay has a unique vision, it's just not one that I care for all that much.

edgar00

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Re: Is Michael Bay an auteur?
« Reply #79 on: June 12, 2010, 10:35:18 PM »
It takes more than a directors stamp to make an auteur.  There needs to be some unique vision.  Michael Bay is just a Hollywood hack who churns out the same crap other Hollywood hack churn out.  He might have a few unique tricks to making his crappy movies, but ultimately his movies have neither soul nor personality.  If the hack who made GI Joe secretly switched jobs with Michael Bay and directed Transformers, nobody would notice, nor would they notice GI Joe being directed by Michael Bay.   
    I would also argue that Bay has a unique vision, it's just not one that I care for all that much.

And therefore not an auteur?... Just asking.
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