Sample Presentation Scripts (Partial) Danny Boyle & David Lynch

Can Danny Boyle’s reliance upon moral narratives qualify him as an auteur?

(Item 4) Play Sunshine DVD extra – “Web Production Diaries – Danny Boyle Introduction” (50 secs)

Speaker:
By definition, an auteur is said to have ‘an intended consistency throughout their work in either style or theme’ (item 14). With this in mind, can we consider Danny Boyle as an auteur by referring to the continued use of moral narratives that we see throughout his work?  This clip gives us an idea of what Danny Boyle wants to create through his films. This particular clip, I felt really introduces some of the themes that need to be recognised when looking at Boyle’s filmography e.g. religion and spirituality. This is suggested when he says ‘getting close to the source of all creation, which for us is that star.’

“I wanted the films to be life-affirming so that you leave the film more alive than when you went in” - Danny Boyle (Item 9)
- Quote displayed on slide

Speaker:
This quote from Danny Boyle, immediately gives some insight into the reasoning behind his narratives and characters. By suggesting that he wants his films to have a significant impact on its viewers, the use of moral narratives would make for a great starting point. If we begin by looking at Boyle’s most successful film, Trainspotting, we are able to see some ways in which Boyle tries to achieve this.

(Item 1) Play opening of Trainspotting – “choose life” sequence (1min20secs)

Speaker:
This ‘Ranted catalogue’ (item 13) that narrates this opening sequence, introduces the audience to main character Renton. It invites the idea that Renton is going to “choose Life” (item 1). Each part of the catalogue is a suggestion of what Renton believes a ‘normal’ life entails – “choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electric tin openers” (item 1). It is almost the humdrum aspects of life that reflects being ‘human’. This speech gives an almost Marxist view on what is seen to be ‘normal’. It is aspects of life that people must conform to in order to be considered a respectable part of society; it is what Marx might describe as ‘Capitalist Oppression.’ This gives the audience an array of ideas for the ‘meaning’ of the film.  As the films anti-hero, Renton’s rant is a major part in the moral theme of Trainspotting.   

Speaker:
The depth of Danny Boyle’s characters, however, has in fact been criticised. Ronan Bennett (novelist and screenwriter) describes the heart of Shallow Grave as’Cruel Emptiness’ and the ‘absence of any character to sympathise or engage with made it very hard to find an emotional response’ (item 11). Although this could be said to be a justified argument it could also be suggested that this ‘cold’ representation is exactly the point. Boyle may have been trying to show how such things (in this case, a large sum of money) can tear a friendship apart and completely change a person. This can also be said for the so called ‘largely unsympathetic’ (item 11) characters of Trainspotting. The representation may be exactly how the characters are supposed to be viewed by the audience in order to suggest the consequences of their life-style.  

This use of ‘cold’ characters helps to add verisimilitude to his works, which is another of Boyle’s techniques. Despite often using dreams sequences in his films, i.e. ‘The Worst Toilet in Scotland’ sequence from Trainspotting, Boyle still manages to create a feeling of truth in his films. If we look at A Life Less Ordinary, we can clearly see the fantasy element that is included right from the opening scene. (Takes place in the ‘heavens police department’) (Item 3).  However, Boyle is still able to create that feeling of truth that is so prominent throughout his films. It could also be suggested that Danny Boyle opts for a cinema verite style in some of his films, again helping to keep the films believable.

Play A Life Less Ordinary – Chapter 12, The Deal (Item 3)

Speaker:
It would seem that it is his themes, characters and locations that help to lend this verisimilitude. If we look at this scene from A Life Less Ordinary, we can see how the mise-en-scene helps to keep the narrative believable. The location is simply a road in America and none of the characters stand out particularly, this idea of being ‘ordinary’ is what makes the somewhat supernatural subplot remain believable.

Can David Lynch’s constant use of contrasting women define the director as an auteur?

PLAY:
>CLIP OF THE TWO FEMALE PROTAGONISTS IN MULHOLLAND DRIVE (ITEM3)

SPEAKER:
Again this trademark is present within this film, Mulholland Drive (item 3), where the two female protagonists are polar opposites at the start, and then switch around to be polar opposites differently within the ending. Betty and Rita are the polar opposites of each other within the fact that their ambitions and situations are completely different. Another example of polar opposites is back at ‘Wild at Heart’ within (item 10), as Sailor and Lula are at a metal concert, then Sailor asks them to play Elvis, and they do. This is extremely polar opposite, as you would not expect a rock band to blast out Elvis on demand. Therefore this is another example, which contributes towards the fact that this constant use of the polar opposite technique being linked to the auteurism of David Lynch. 

SHOW: 
>QUOTE FROM (ITEM 8) WWW.THECITYOFABSURDITY.COM
-"She [his sister Margaret] was afraid of green peas. I think it had to do with the consistency and strengths of the outer surface, then the softness of what was inside when you broke the outer membrane. It was a big thing in our family. She'd have to hide them."

SPEAKER:
Now we have seen examples of Lynch’s auteurism, we then go into question the influences for this technique, for example, we question whether Lynch has always been surrounded by the behaviour he envisions within his films. Here we see the depth he has gone into about his sister’s dislike for green peas, an obsession that she seems to have, and he has latched onto. Another example of this is in (item 11) where in an interview Lynch actually states that he ‘laches onto wonderful ideas’; it is as if Lynch bases his films around the obsessive ideas he gets within his head, which refuse to go away. ‘"I didn't have a script. I wrote the thing scene by scene, without much of a clue where it would end." (item 15) This makes us question into how much depth he goes into regarding the contrasting women within his films, and if the subtlety, or maybe it’s an obsession, of the difference of hair colour stands for so much more in Lynch’s auteuristic visions.

SHOW:
>CLIP FROM 'WILD AT HEART' (ITEM 2)
"Absurdity is what I like most in life, and there's humor in struggling in ignorance. If you saw a man repeatedly running into a wall until he was a bloody pulp, after a while it would make you laugh because it becomes absurd. But I don't just find humor in unhappiness - I find it extremely heroic the way people forge on despite the despair they often feel. Like the character in 'Eraserhead' -he's totally confused, yet he struggles to figure things out and do what's best. Isn't that fantastic?" 

SHOW:
>CLIP FROM ERASERHEAD (ITEM 19)

SPEAKER:
We see here that Lynch has gone into more detail about ‘Eddie’ in his film ‘Eraserhead’, it seems that Lynch has an obsession with other peoples obsessions, or idiosyncrasies, and this is what is reflected mostly within his auteurism making it a signature of Lynch’s work. This obsession is also represented within ‘Wild at heart’ (Item 1) where Sailor talks about the man who put cockroaches in his underwear, the world being shown as ‘wild at heart and weird on top’ (item 4) these strange obsessions are those that Lynch litters within his films, obsessions which have no meaning and are there to make the audience question them. 

SHOW:
>CLIP FROM LYNCH INTERVIEW. (ITEM 7)
‘This is a man who has kept his house in the Hollywood Hills largely unfurnished for years so that he "wouldn't have to think about it." He also didn't want people to visit him there. "I was doing things I didn't want them to see," he says. Pressed about what those might be, he will say only: "Things."’

SPEAKER:
Lynch’s behaviour is shown to have always been odd, and he relates the obsession within his films to the obsessions he has with himself.  However, although he uses contrasting women as a signature within his work he also uses ‘many small USA towns, French names, language and culture, red curtains, strobe lighting, references to dreams.’ (Item 9) His films have also been compared to the theories of Lacanism, which is the difference between the real, the symbolic and the imaginary (item 13). 


Therefore, Lynch’s use of contrasting women contributes towards his definition as an auteur, however it is not the only factor that defines him. The fact he was an artist before he started working within the film industry contributes to his auteuristic qualities within making films, and also his idiosyncrasies within his personality add together to make his individuality within his auteurism also.

* These are to be used as guidelines for the structure and content of a good Presentation Script - referencing & arguments are very strong