Let’s talk about “those kinds” of director such as Wes Anderson, Christopher Nolan, Edgar Wright and Quentin Tarantino. They are the special ones, aren’t they?
Yes, “the auteur director”—a concept to explain how their signature could be instantly recognized in the process of film making—is a term to call them. Auteur theory (originally from French: auteur; author, explained in “A Certain Tendency in the French Cinema” by François Truffaut in 1954) illustrates how a film is crafted “handmade” by the director, leaving the stain of the their fingerprints.
It’s like how you know it’s Wes Anderson when you see a movie with his unique aesthetic sense and symmetrical shot; or Christopher Nolan with his mind-bending, non-linear storytelling, and a sprinkle of brilliant twist; or Edgar Wright and his smart transition, self-reflective music and post-modern perspective; or, of course, Quention Tarantino, as the classic example of auteur theory, with his morally ambiguous characters, revenge plot and extreme violent scenes.
(The auteur theory had sparked some critiques, though. Mine is how I think a film is never made only by the director. Film making is a complex process with so many people involved, thus it’s not only owned by one person. Also, how the audience often trusts the quality of a film only based on the director’s name blindly had definitely triggered some people.)
By the way, do Joko Anwar and Timo Tjahjanto count as the auteur directors of Indonesian cinema?
kaleidoscopic phantogram. 