Auteur -- M. Night Shyamalan

Director: M. Night Shyamalan Films: The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, The Village, Signs

The idea of auteurism is one which is heavily debated in regards to popular directors and popular screenwriters. Men like Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese are directors whose films are recognizable by numerous factors; however, screenwriters like William Goldman have balked at the idea that the director should get all the credit for the vision of the film.

That's why I chose to highlight M. Night Shyamalan. He has directed every screenplay he's ever written except for the film Stuart Little. His style is unique by today's standards of film in that he doesn't go for the quick cut or the close up. His shots are long and lingering like an old black and white -- they are beautifully framed, especially when there are three characters in a scene (a frequent characteristic of his movies). He is very good at filming in a triangle and filling up the depth of field with both people and things so that your eye is always tricked into thinking the space on camera is very deep.

Shyamalan has a way of moving into close-ups from very far away; for example, in the film Unbreakable there is a scene between actors Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis. We begin with a long take in a long shot: the frame at first includes a bleeding body in the foreground with Jackson and Willis talking far off in the background; but because they mention the body, we see the body. It is important to the conversation for Willis's character's sake and Shyamalan is very subtle in the way he engages his audience in this shot.

Slowly, we begin to move in on them and before we know it, we're in a medium shot. Then, we're looking at both men's faces. It's incredible how he does it without interrupting intimate moments with a cut.

Another one of his noticeable film traits is the fact that he always gives one character a moment to breathe and react at the end of an emotionally or physically dramatic scene. He never just cuts away -- there's always that reaction.

And of course, one can't watch an M. Night Shyamalan film without wondering "What's the twist!?" because nearly every single one of his films has a shocker in it.

*SPOILERS*
-- The Sixth Sense saw one character's realization that they were actually a ghost throughout the entire film.
-- Unbreakable saw one character discovering that he has harbored super powers his whole life.
-- In Signs, it was the fact that the aliens were allergic to water. (Why they came to a planet that was 75-80% water, I will never know.)
-- The Village had it's elders posing as terrible monsters in order to keep it's citizens in check.
*END SPOILERS*

The difference between the fact that every film has a twist and an M. Night Shyamalan twist is the fact that we are to expect that our entire idea of the film we are watching is subject to change in a Shyamalan film. People go to see his movies and speculate on it the entire time. They've come to look for hidden clues (in The Sixth Sense it was the color red) and even regard his films with a suspicious eye. I know I do...