Martin Scorsese's Auteur Theory

Auteur theory is one of the most argued theories in relation to film. It suggests that a director can have so much control and influence on varying aspects of a film, that they are considered to be the “author” of that film, even more so than the screenwriter themselves. Directors are often only considered to be auteurs if there is a similar theme or style in relation to any aspect of film across several of their films. In Theories of Authorship: A Reader’ (1981) Caughie stresses the use of a director's own style or particular theme

“…a director who is genuinely an artist (an auteur) a film is more than likely to be the expression of his individual personality; and that this personality can be traced in a thematic and/or stylistic consistency
He was born on the 17 November 1942 in New York and was raised by Sicilian-American parents in an Italian neighbourhood in Manhattan. You can see the influence of his Italian-American upbringing throughout his films. As a child Scorsese’s asthma prevented him from engaging in sports and other activities. Instead he spent his time in movie theatres and watching films on TV. He went on to attend New York University’s film school and graduated with a B.A. in English and a M.F.A. in film. Soon after he released his first feature length film “Who's That Knocking at My Door” in 1967. We can already start to see some of his authorship characteristics in this early film. We see Scorsese’s early experimentation with techniques like freeze frames which he goes on to master in later films. The film also features a troubled, dislikeable protagonist, J.R, which we often see in Scorsese’s films. One of J.R’s most defining moments is when he rejects his girlfriend after she tells him she was raped by a previous boyfriend. He evolves this type of character in later movies, pushing mental instability while evoking
Scorsese often does not have any interest in achieving this effect at all. Scorsese used a cutting technique called a flashbulb cuts which makes use of the flashes created by photography. We see this cutting technique in Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), The Aviator (2004). It is used particularly well in Raging Bull and The Aviator. In Raging Bull it helps to emphasise to the audience how aggressive the media were and how much scrutiny Jake LaMotta was under from the public eye. The technique was also well applied in The Aviator to create a disorienting effect when Howard Hughes walks down the red