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Auteur Theory
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Auteur Theory
The worth of this theory has been questioned by some
critics. But, it is particularly useful as a starting point
for the interpretation of some films.
Auteur Theory suggests that a director can use the
commercial apparatus of film-making in the same
way that a writer uses a pen or a painter uses paint
and a paintbrush. It is a medium for the personal
artistic expression of the director.
Do you agree?
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Auteur Theory
In 1954, François Truffaut wrote an essay entitled A
Certain Tendency in French Cinema. In this work he
claimed that film is a great medium for expressing the
personal ideas of the director.
He suggested that this meant that the director should
therefore be regarded as an auteur. In fact, Truffaut once
provocatively said that: "There are no good and bad
movies, only good and bad directors"
François Truffaut
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Auteur Theory suggests that the best films will bear their
maker’s ‘signature’. Which may manifest itself as the
stamp of his or her individual personality or perhaps even
focus on recurring themes within the body of work.
Truffaut and the members of the Cahiers recognized that
moviemaking was an industrial process. However, they
proposed an ideal to strive for: the director should imprint
his or her vision on the work (conversely, the role of the
screenwriter was minimized in their eyes).
While recognizing that not all directors reached this ideal,
they valued the work of those who neared it.
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The film theorotician, André Bazin,
explained that: auteur theory was a way
of choosing the personal factor in artistic
creation as a standard of reference, and
then assuming that it continues and even
progresses from one film to the next.
Bazin promoted the idea that films should reflect a
director's personal vision and who also championed such
filmmakers as Alfred Hitchcock
André Bazin
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However, Bazin remained wary of its excesses
He also objected that other factors, such as
social context are passed over in auteur
theory and thought it overlooked a film in
favour of its creator.
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Ian Cameron
Cameron was a British film journalist. He argued
that auteur theory was worthwhile, but must
consider:
•That a director’s intentions don’t make a good
film: the critics can be right and a director
wrong about a film’s merits.
•Films are collaborations, not the sole
responsibility of a director
•Social factors are as important in reading a film
as its director – ‘what does this film tell us about
its context?’ Don’t know what he
looks like, so here’s
a picture of Cookie
Monster
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Andrew Sarris’ three ‘competences’
Technical
competence
Personal
signature
Interior
meaning
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Other critical theorists who can be used to analyse auteurs.
Claude Levi-Strauss was a structuralist critic. He would look at
how binary oppositions could be used to define a text’s
structure. His ideas have been adapted from criticisms of written
texts to films
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Roland Barthes said:
•The author of a text (& therefore the
auteur of a film, if we agree such a thing
exists) is not the authority over meaning.
The reader/spectator creates the meaning
of a text.
•It is fine to decipher a film’s meaning
entirely differently from the one intended.
•A writer cannot be original, but only
someone who ‘mixes’ conventions and
formula.
Roland Barthes
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Let’s try
out theory
on
Hitchcock
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Key themes in his films?
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SAME ACTORS
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Tippi Hedren – The Birds
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Priscilla Lane - Saboteur
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Tippi Hedren - Marnie
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Grace Kelly – Rear Window
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Janet Leigh - Psycho
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Doris Day – The Man Who Knew Too
Much
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Grace Kelly – To Catch A Thief
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Anny Ondra - Blackmail
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Kim Novak - Vertigo
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Grace Kelly – Dial M For
Murder
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Karen Black – Family Plot
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Eva Marie Saint
- North By North West
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Uses the same themes:Suspense, guilt, murder
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Vertigo
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Saboteur
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Psycho
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Young And Innocent
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Strangers
On A
Train
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Rear Window
Rear Window
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North By Northwest
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Man in
unexpected
trouble
Typical Hitchcock Ingredients
Blonde love interest
Domineering
mother
character
Authority is unhelpful or
not to be trusted
Horizontal travel
Danger
is
vertical
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Technical competence
Elaborate set in Rear WindowMeticulous pre-planning
Inventive use of sound
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The MacGuffin
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BAZIN – would agree :
Hitchcock is in charge. He
would also probably look at
his body of work as reflective
of the period of maturing
cinema, mid-twentieth
century political attitudes, the
influence of psychoanalysis,
etc.
All the aforementioned themes etc Truffaut would point
to grand body of work, recognisable style etc.
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As we have seen, Hitchcock controls a lot of
things in his film, and has a lot of creative
control, hiring fresh screenwriters until they
achieved his cinematic vision, instructing his
camera operators in fine detail etc.
In terms of Sarris, Hitchcock hits all
three ‘circles’
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A structuralist reading
would look for binary
opposites:
•Guilt vs. innocence
•Isolation vs. love
•Surface appearance vs.
deceit
•Horizontal vs. vertical
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Roland Barthes would say that it doesn’t
matter what Hitchcock intended; true
‘meaning’ comes from what you, the
spectator ‘decodes’.
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Against?
• Ian Cameron argues larger factors such as society need
to be considered.
• Following on from this, even though Hitchcock is
ultimately in charge, he still hires people and has a
continuity in hiring (Bernard Herrmann, James Stewart,
Saul Bass, Robert Burks, etc).
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Contributors to North by Northwest:
Music by Bernard Herrman
Cinematography by Robert Burks
Roger Thornhill played by Cary Grant
Artwork by Saul Bass
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With close reference to Vertigo,
argue whether auteur theory can
be usefully applied to
Hitchcock’s work.