The director of the film was Arthur Hiller, a Canadian-American director who is most famous for Love Story itself. The director's influence is most obviously seen in the way the story in the film is presented. While the film implies a love story, the events presented are as much about death and the way we deal with death as it is about love. The film and way it was directed is also unique because of its vague presentation of personal details.
This decision to leave out certain information about the characters was decided by the director of the film who wanted to focus more on the story and on the characters as a whole rather than to get lost in details. Because of this, the viewer is uncertain of the illness which eventually killed one of the main characters ,the reasons why Jenny did not chose to pure her dream of becoming a piano player and why she became a teacher instead and why Jenny's mother was absent in the movie.
The director also puts a lot of emphasis on the way in which the characters interact with one another especially when we look at the relationship between Jenny and her father and Oliver and his father. The director analyzes these relationships as much as he analyzes the relationship of the two main characters, Jenny and Oliver, making the narration of the film feel at times chaos.
Another place where the influence of Arthur Hiller is clearly seen is towards the end of the movie when Jenny is nearing the end of her life. In this instance, the last months of Jenny's life are presented in a short few minutes and the attention falls more on the need to move on after a traumatic event rather than the way in which the end of a loved one can sometimes push a person to desperation.
Because of these elements, the film, while still dealing with death, focuses a lot more on the idea of life and how one has the obligation to move on rather than become stuck in the past. This way of presenting the events is the device through which the director's influence comes through and makes itself be visible to the viewers of the film.
