Independent Spirit And Mainstream Consciousness The Reexamination Of The Director Theory Of Gus Van Sant And Film Author Theory

The psychic space of the movies is opposite to the real physical space of themovies, including "inner space" of the characters, such as memories, dreams andvisions. It has been a long time since the performance of psychic space appears inmovies, which can be traced back to the 《Le voyage dans la lune》that directed byGeorges Méliès.Film author theory, which originates from the French New Wave, endued thedirectors with unprecedented power and even turned films into the art of directors. Itshows a lot of emphasis on the unique and personality style of films in order to avoidthose becoming kitschy products. From the ‘Author strategies’ from France to the‘Author theory’ from the USA, the film authors impacted the historical trend ofmovies. However, after a period of brilliant history, the film author theory wasconfronted with the rock of reality. On the one hand, in the process of developing thefilm author theory, some extreme effects were caused by the excessive apotheosis ofpersonality, that is, the ignorance of outstanding directors and works which were notdirected by the original author. On the other hand, the wave of postmodernism culturechanged the development pattern of the theory of literature and art, which led the filmart in the new context into a way of fluidity and diversification. In this context, thecoherent theme and style required by the film author theory became difficult forpeople to adhere to. Consequently, the film critics found it irrational to critic thecontent of works in the new context and the outstanding directors with theirmultivariate styles, for instance, Gus Van Sant.Gus Van Sant is an innovative director with pioneer spirit. His works deal withsubjects as diverse as homosexuality, such as ‘Mala Noche’,‘My Own Private Idaho’,‘Even Cowgirls Get the Blues’ and ‘Milk’, adolescent crime, such as ‘DrugstoreCowboy’,‘Elephant’ and ‘Paranoid Park’, and youth growth, such as ‘Good WillHunting’,‘Finding Forrester’ and ‘Restless’. Meanwhile, his works also deal withstyles as diverse as documentary (‘Last Days’,‘Gerry’ etc.) and genre style (‘To DieFor’,‘The Promised Land’ etc.). The film creation was not rigid for Gus Van Sant.Not only could he create a separate school in the independent movie field, but alsocould he handle a butcher’s cleaver skillfully In mainstream culture. Therefore, hisfilms were characterized with fluidity and variability.From the visual threshold of film author theory to contemplate Gus Van Sant, it is found that there is a certain ‘author’ consciousness in his works, that is, he hasintegrated his own observation and expression of the world into his works (whether itis a commercial film or an independent film). He has also innovated and exploredconstantly to ensure the artistic esthetic value of films. However, even though GusVan Sant’ films have reflected the ‘author’ consciousness indeed, he is not the authorin the strict sense in terms of the traditional film author theory, because it is prettyhard to generalize coherent theme system and consistent style of his works. Therefore,aiming at this situation, I propose the objection towards the traditional film authortheory that film author theory has fell into a rut of calcification and rigidity and couldnot fit the development of the times.Thus, how to reinterpret the film author theory so that it can be reasonably usedin a new context?The first thing to do is to determine the ‘elastic scale’ of the film author theoryby retrospecting the spirits of film author theory----film is an artistic form to expressideas. So-called ‘elastic scale’ means the appropriate ease of standards andrequirements on the premise of not violating the spiritual core of film author theory.The original ‘author theory’ is just some sort of concept of film creation, after all.Reexamine Gus Van Sant after using ‘elastic scale’, and the ‘temperature’ and ‘soul’which are full of personal emotions could be found under the varied content of hisworks. And the two factors have just endowed films with ultimate glory as a kind ofart, which is the spirit and quality the ‘author’ should have.In conclusion, every theory could not develop with the ignorance of specifichistorical environment. Consequently, film author theory should be put in the newcontext being examined and adjusted in order to radiate new life. No matter whether itworks as a tool of methodology or a method of criticizing, film author theory shouldreturn to the period of ‘author strategy’ to review the concept of films then, that is,films are supposed to become a kind of art expressing the thought of directors. This isthe core of examining and adjusting film author theory. Once the reinterpreted filmauthor theory is applied, it will be effective for it to avoid being marginalized by thetimes and allow it to be the spiritual guide of film creation and criticism continually.