'The Director is Always The Most Important Influence on a Film.' Compare how far your two chosen films support the statement.

'The Director is Always The Most Important Influence on a Film.' Compare how far your two chosen films support the statement.

A director tends to be the most important role working on a film, as they are the ones who control actors/actresses, the sound technicians, cinematographers etc. And so they are the obvious choice on who has "made" the film in terms of creative control and endeavour, so we can call said director an Auteur. Auteur derives from the French word "author" and was coined by Andrew Sarris in 1962, but had been discussed decades before with the French magazine "Cahiers Du Cinema" by Andre Bazin and Francois Truffaut, who were directors of the French New Wave. The theory states that the director is the "author" of the film as they are the ones who have the most control, much like an author who is in control of the pen, this concept of the "camera-stylo" was introduced by Alexandre Astruc in 1948.  Returning to Sarris, he created a list of three essential things that a director must have to be classed as an auteur:

1.  Technical competence
2.  Signature aspects - whether that be stylistic, thematic, ideological or all three
3.  Their personality and tendencies, consciously or unconsciously, integrated and evident throughout their work.

Many of the French New Wave hailed Orson Welles as the "ultimate auteur" as he went against the common-style of filmmaking that was present in the 40s-60s and implemented techniques and clichés for years to come, such as the Hall Of Mirrors scene, seen in John Wick, Enter The Dragon and The Man With The Golden Gun. He also starred, produced and wrote many of his films. His style of filming often includes deep focus shots, long takes, and unusual camera angles. All these things make an Orson Welles film easily noticeable, and also resemble his personality: unique and not willing to conform to the barriers there once were, until he came along and ushered in a new era of filmmaking. However, his films have been heavily edited and taken out of his control, due to his heavy spending and ambitiousness. In fact, the main reason he made The Lady From Shanghai (TLFS) was to pay off debts with the IRS and his spending on his version of Around The World In 80 Days. TLFS was Welles 7th film and like the rest was taken out of his hands in some aspects, such as the soundtrack, which was originally planned by Welles but was tarnished. For example, in the scene of Grisby proposing his own death, the music makes the audience assume that he has just jumped off a cliff, when really he hadn't, and so confuses the audience as to what is happening. Nevertheless, the film is stamped with Welles' auteurship.

 Orson Welles is by no doubt an Auteur, but his style has been constantly pushed to the side thanks to interference of the studio. James Naremore; a film scholar, and trained eye, has stated that TLFS is 75% of Orson Welles work, with the 25% being the studio. One example of studio meddling is that of Harry Cohn, the head of Columbia pictures, who insisted on close ups of Rita Hayworth, as he had an infatuation with her, these close ups ruined carefully composed shots and sequences, and confused the audience even more. Orson Welles could've been described as a "control freak", but that is what made him the definitive auteur, and although he may not have had full control, the control he did have overshined any disruptions of his films.

Similar to Welles, Ridley Scott is a renowned director with a specific style and approach. He is known for his films Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise and many more, he also has a very successful career in advertising. The reason I bring this up is because whether the film is a road trip movie, a sci-fi horror, or an advertisement for an Apple computer, Scott's style is obvious: 

1.  Large, detailed sets bring life to the words created by Scott, for example: Blade Runner had an entire town titled RidleyVille designed for many of the exterior shots of the movie.
2.  His attention to detail is also brought to life in the way he gets involved with his films, having a degree in the arts, Scott not only designs many sets and models but personally paints and makes them, an example of this is his personal painting of the Replicant Rachael's lips.
3.  Rain, fog and darkness constantly fill Scott's films, he even directed a film called Black Rain.

Blade Runner is a fine example of Ridley's auteurship, as it has many of the conventions of a Ridley Scott Film, and shows that he has true control over the films vision. Firstly, in many of his films, Scott implants his feelings and personality. Fathers and Sons are a theme found buried in many of his films, and this can be explained thanks to Scott's distant relationship with his father, and the close bond he had with his mother, which leads on to the next convention: strong female leads. Although Blade Runner has a male lead, the female characters are not weak, and constantly beat Deckard down, for instance, the penultimate scene shows Deckard losing to Pris. Rain is also seen in many of his films, even indoors it is wet and damp. This is due to his upbringing in the north of England where it rained constantly. Scott is also known for his visual effects, such as the process of making the replicants eyes, which innovate.

However, it can be argued whether an Auteur is actually always the director, as film is a collaborative artform. Actors may improvise or be executive producers, cinematographers may create shots personal to them, like in Tarkovskys Stalker, with Rerberg, the cinematographer, filming his version of the film. With Blade Runner, Rutger Hauer wrote his final speech "tears in the rain", which was different to the original speech, and so leaves us to wonder who actually is the auteur, is there even an auteur to begin with, and if not, who has the creative control on a film, if there is any?