In the 1950s, Cahier du Cinema critics were writing about “la politique des auteurs”, or “auteur policy”. The central concept of “la politique des auteurs”, as delineated by the Cahier du Cinema critics, is that “the cinema is an art of personal expression” (Buscombe 22). The Cahier critics believed that some directors should be recognized as artists, as their personalities were consistently found across a body of work. In his article, “De la Politique des Auteurs” written in 1968, Andre Bazin contemplates the validity of the auteur policy as the subject has become a matter of debate among film critics. He believes the final product, the film, is more important than the director (Bazin 20), while the politique des auteurs places the emphasis on the director, the author, the artist, and his personality, rather than one film in isolation. Bazin also speaks of the significance of the industry in which a director’s films are produced (22). The conditions under one must work impact the final product, and this must be taken into account. Bazin goes on to discuss films made completely by the director, stating that these films are indefinitely more personal (24). While Bazin teeters back and forth throughout his essay as to whether or not the politique des auteurs is a fruitful endeavor, he comes to a conclusion deducing that the policy is in fact useful as a concept, but it must be accompanied by complimentary approaches (28). He declares that the auteur policy is not a complete theory and must not be treated as one. In 1973, Edward Buscombe suggests three approaches to supplement the auteur policy: (a) the “effects of the cinema on society” must be examined; as well as (b) “the effect of society on cinema”; and finally (c) “the effects of films on other films” must be considered (32). Theorists, audiences and critics still exercise the term auteur today, applying it to directors whose work is recognizable as their own, both stylistically and thematically. Hayao Miyazaki is an auteur. While examining Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001) and Princess Mononoke (1997), I will argue that he is worthy of the title auteur according to the original auteur policy.
The importance of this topic is evidenced by the theoretical work of Buscombe and Bazin, as well as subsequent writers who remain obsessed by the phenomenon of the auteur, yet somehow remain mystified as to what this actually means. By returning to one of the original conceptions of the auteur, the politique des auteur, I will apply the central ideals to a director who lies outside of the typical discourse of auteurism. Most often, American and French directors were aligned with debates surrounding the auteur. Hayao Miyazaki is indeed a Japanese filmmaker, but not only that; he is the director, scriptwriter, animator, and/or producer for many of his productions, which are of course animated.
I will demonstrate how and why this director, Hayao Miyazaki, is an auteur, and also, that the auteur policy, left in its preliminary state, is more relevant to contemporary understandings of the director as artist.
John Caughie, writing in 1981, explains that the term auteur had originally been used to discuss either the “author who wrote the script”, or the “artist who created the film” (9). The Cahier critics came to use the term to champion certain directors who had successfully ingrained their own personalities within the film, dismissing the scriptwriter as a significant authorial presence in the realm of the cinema. Hayao Miyazaki is both scriptwriter and director of his films, and his personal expression shines through despite the collective animation filmmaking process. Therefore, according to this first statement, Miyazaki meets the challenge, and surpasses the outlined expectations and standard set for the recognition of an auteur.
Caughie provides a more detailed outline of the agreements perpetuated by the Cahier critics concerning auteurism in its preliminary stage. First, the critics believed that a film is more valuable when it is primarily a product of the director, even though filmmaking is a collective process. Second, an auteur expresses his personality in his films. Finally, his personality should be consistently present, stylistically and/or thematically, across the entirety of his work (Caughie 9). As previously mentioned, the auteur policy was not meant to be a complete and total theory, and although I will be applying these conceptions of auteurism concretely to Miyazaki in order to effectively argue that he is indeed an auteur, we must keep this is mind throughout this discussion.
In his text, “The Anime Machine: A Media Theory of Animation”, Thomas Lamarre explains how a director of animated films can be considered an artist, “for the vision of one artist to emerge (say, that of the director or producer) in the production of a feature-length animated film, the skills and operations of the other artists must somehow align with yet remain subordinate to the overall vision of the one artist” (87). Hayao Miyazaki demonstrates his elevated status as artist by putting his stamp on every aspect of production, as he is involved with writing the script, directing, animating, and producing. He even retouches or redoes images completely if they do not meet his standard (Lamarre 87). As a result, a Miyazaki style is developed; audiences become familiar with his artistic style, and they are able to recognize his films as “Miyazaki films” (Lamarre 87). Therefore, Miyazaki is an auteur as he is able to oversee every aspect of production, ensuring that his authorial presence is superior to those working alongside him, and ultimately maintaining his personal vision for each of his films.
I will discuss the second two branches of auteur policy (outlined by Caughie) in conjunction with one another, as they will inevitably overlap. Miyazaki is an artist, and as a result, his artwork is an “expression of his individual personality” (Caughie 9). In addition, Miyazaki’s personality is undoubtedly embedded within each and every film he creates, both stylistically and thematically. Not only do various motifs, character types, and story arcs recur from film to film, Miyazaki also puts forth an opinionated, critical commentary on a range of topical issues in each one of his films, including Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke.
Dani Cavallaro offers an exhausted list of issues Miyazaki tackles in his body of work: “environmental depletion, the horrors of war, the iniquities of totalitarian regimes and people’s enslavement to commodity fetishism, to the setback entailed by personal development, the loss of innocence and the cultivation of the values of loyalty, gratitude, courage, self-sacrifice and love” (1). In the film Spirited Away, several of these issues are raised, including totalitarianism, which is depicted mainly through the antagonistic character Yubaba, who governs the mystical bathhouse. Similarly, a totalitarian figure is portrayed in Princess Mononoke. Lady Eboshi, also a dominant female character, exercises her control over the industrialized Iron Town.
An area of focus for Miyazaki has been to look critically at the human condition. In addition to the totalitarian nature of his antagonists in Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, he also presents elaborate worlds inhabited by both humans and gods. In Princess Mononoke, Lady Eboshi and her human followers strive to industrialize beyond the gates of Iron Town, as they eagerly prepare to take on the forces of nature with full force. Miyazaki presents two opposing sides that refuse to live harmoniously: man and nature. This particular aspect of the film tackles issues concerning environmental depletion, and the horrors of war, in addition to the previously mentioned totalitarian government. Meanwhile, Spirited Away shows humans working alongside the bizarre creatures in the bathhouse. Both the humans and creatures provide services for the bathhouse guests, including powerful and respected gods.
While focusing on a wide array of issues in each one of his films, Miyazaki is able to revisit topics he is interested in and personally invested in again and again without becoming redundant or repetitive. One of Bazin’s concerns with the politique des auteurs was that championing directors for being consistent from film to film would result in unoriginal and uninventive films. Hayao Miyazaki successfully engages with issues that interest him personally without recreating the same story again and again. Each film he creates is unique and thought provoking in its own right. What remains consistent is his ability to engage with serious issues critically, while simultaneously offering audiences escapist journeys into enchanting realms of the fantastic. Miyazaki has successfully wedded his intelligent, critical commentary concerning very real and serious issues with a childlike, wondrous perspective.
Prominent themes and/or recurring motifs Miyazaki is known for include identity, flying/floating/movement/speed, panoramic shots, work/labour, to name a few. Many of these elements are found within Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. Identity plays a key role in both of these films. Spirited Away’s Chihiro must venture into unknown territory on her own, leaving her parents behind. She is stripped of her name, and is told that her memories will also soon be lost. Chihiro must abandon her immature and stubborn persona immediately if she ever wants to save her parents. Throughout the film the young protagonist must face a number of challenging obstacles and ultimately blossoms into a confident and determined heroine. In addition to names, memory, and identity formation (Osmond 9), Miyazaki’s characters also undergo identity transformations as they stray from their original perception of their own identity into new terrain. The main character we are aligned with in Princess Mononoke is Ashitaka, the young, selfless prince who is on a mission of self-sacrifice in order to save his fellow humans back home from the deadly and rapidly viral curse. The second character we are to connect with is San, the young woman raised by wolves who has grown to despise the humans. In this epic story San is a human that has become disassociated from the other humans, and instead strongly identifies with the wolves. Ashitaka quickly becomes infatuated with San and does not understand how she has abandoned all humanity. Soon he too sees the evils of war, power, and greed pulsing from the humans as he tries to bring peace to the war torn land.
Bazin and Buscombe agree that the auteur policy is a useful concept, but since it is not (and should not be considered) a complete theory, it must be accompanied by complementary approaches. Bazin discusses the need to address the industry and the culture, and Buscombe articulates similar beliefs into three necessary approaches, which will fortify the auteur policy. First, Buscombe declares that the affect of cinema on society must be examined. Second, the affect of society on cinema will be considered. Finally, the affect films have on other films will be accounted for (Buscombe 32).
The first approach Buscombe puts forth concerning the impacts cinema has on society accounts for the reception of the filmmaker’s work. Hayao Miyazaki’s films are first released in Japan, and as Osmond has discussed, the films are popular blockbusters in Japan. The same films are released in Western countries once the films have succeeded in Japan. The Japanese voices are translated and dubbed over with English voices, often featuring the voices of famous Hollywood actors. The dubbing invites a wider audience to engage with the film, as a Japanese film with subtitles will attract fewer viewers, and would be considered a foreign film. While Miyazaki’s films are popular blockbusters in Japan, they do not have quite the same appeal in the West. They are often considered to be part of Western subculture. Disney had witnessed the success of Miyazaki’s films as they finally harnessed the international market it had been hoping to capture. Disney has assisted in bringing recent Miyazaki films to Western audiences.
The decisions to transfer the Japanese versions of Miyazaki’s films into Americanized, English dubbed versions, can also be discussed in regard to Buscombe’s consideration of the effects society has on cinema. The second approach Buscombe puts forth considers the impact society has on cinema. Since Western audiences are less inclined to watch a foreign film and/or read subtitles, the films are changed in order to suit the society. Also, Miyazaki’s films are fueled by his critical stance on the ideologies perpetuated by society (i.e. capitalism, totalitarianism, consumerism, industrialization, war, and so forth). Ideological perspectives drive the narratives of his films. In addition to the subject matter of these films, we must also consider the technologies being utilized to create these beautiful masterpieces. The evolving animation techniques Miyazaki employs throughout the production process now include computer-generated images in addition to conventional hand drawn animation. Miyazaki’s career in animation began long before CGI had come to dominate the world of animation. He had been praised for his mesmerizing artistry, but eventually he sought after a way to “integrate new technologies into the conventional animation process” (Cavallaro 120) while maintaining the level of quality expected. Furthermore, with each film’s success, Miyazaki is able to invest more into the proceeding films’ budgets. “The production costs incurred by Princess Mononoke ultimately amounted to a record-breaking figure in the history not merely of Studio Ghibli but of Japanese animation overall, the acquisition of software and hardware for the creation of computer graphics having caused the expenses to soar to a total of $19.6 million” and the film grossed over $150 million “in a country with one-half the U.S. population and less than one-tenth the number of screens” (Cavallaro 120). In 2001, Spirited Away “outdistanced Princess Mononoke and became the highest-grossing Japanese film in history, as well as the recipient of a slew of international film awards” (Cavallaro 135). The film grossed approximately $230 million, which Cavallaro explains is “comparable to a movie grossing $1 billion in the U.S.” (135). Andrew Osmond says, “Spirited Away succeeded internationally where Princess Mononoke did not because it had the hybrid qualities of a popular crossover, poised between East and West, familiar and exotic” (43).
Osmond says that Miyazaki’s films, “like Disney’s, are a genre in themselves” (25). The third approach Buscombe emphasizes concerns the impact films have on other films. Miyazaki borrows from many seemingly disparate genres, innovatively blending together unique narratives and corresponding visuals. He seamlessly binds “science fiction, action adventure, romance, comedy, horror, the fairy tale, the folktale, the epic saga, the thriller and the war story, as well as myriad allusions to mythology, religion and philosophy” (Cavallarao 2). Like many notable filmmakers, Miyazaki has been influenced and inspired by his predecessors in the filmmaking industry, but he also explicitly references influential literary texts and children’s books in his films. Buscombe suggests that the effects films have on other films may play a pivotal role in the analysis of a director as artist, but he does not include any other media in his three proposed approaches, and other textual sources may have had significant effect on the filmmaker. For instance, Miyazaki’s film Spirited Away features the tyrannical antagonist Yubaba, whose appearance is a direct quotation of John Tenniel’s illustrations of the Queen of Hearts in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. Furthermore, the train scene in the film is alluding to the classic novella “Night of the Milky Way Railway” by Miyazawa Kenji (Osmond 15).
While returning to the original conceptions of the politique des auteur, two key notions have been confirmed. First, it has become clear that auteurism is a useful concept, but only in its preliminary state as a policy. Second, the contemporary, Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki exercises creative control, invests personal expression, and offers a consistency which appears fresh and innovative throughout his filmmaking career, which Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke have effectively demonstrated.
Works Cited
Bazin, Andre. “De La Politique des Auteurs.” The New Wave. Ed. Peter Graham. London: BFI, 1968. 19-28. Print.
Buscombe, Edward. “Ideas of Authorship.” Screen 14.3 (1973): 22-33. Print.
Caughie, John. “Introduction.” Theories of Authorship. Ed. John Caughie. New York: Routledge, 1981. 9-15. Print.
Cavallaro, Dani. The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki. North Carolina: MacFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2006. Print.
Denison, Rayna. “Hayao Miyazaki”. Ed. Yvonne Tasker Fifty Contemporary Film Directors. New York: Routledge, 2011. 288-295. Web.
Lamarre, Thomas. The Anime Machine: A Media Theory of Animation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009. Print.
McCarthy, Helen. Hayao Miyazaki Master of Japanese Animation: Films, Themes, Artistry. California: Stone Bridge Press, 1999. Web.
Napier, Susan J. Anime From Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2005. Print.
Osmond, Andrew. Spirited Away. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008. Print.
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