It is interesting to consider how a film is flavoured by its director; auteur theory explores the essence of a film in terms of how the director employs his/her idiosyncratic techniques within the film. Auteurism shifts interest from the 'what,' which concerns the plot and theme, to the 'how,' which concerns style and technique. According to Grossberg, the question becomes less what the text communicates than how it communicates." The focus in auteur theory is how a director ultimately takes a screenplay, and manages to create a finished product that is distinctly his/her own.
Over the years, director Stanley Kubrick has created a number of films; regardless of the subject matter, a distinct personal style has emerged. The two films that exhibit his personal style are The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut. Although Kubrick died while directing the latter, the film proved to be distinctly Kubrick. One could argue that every director has a personal style, but auteur theory suggests that it is more than merely having a personal style, it is such that the film comes alive with the personality of its director. In fact, the way a film looks and moves has some relationship to the way a director thinks and feels. In this way, there are positive and negative aspects in creating films that are characteristic of the director.

 

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Michelle Tirkalas