A True Film Auteur: Francois Truffaut

An auteur is a singular artist who controls all aspects of a collaborative creative work, a person equivalent to the author of a novel or a play. The term is commonly referenced to filmmakers or directors with a recognizable style or thematic preoccupation.

An auteur is a director who personal creative vision and style is expressed through films. The term auteur is originated in France and is French for author. There are different ways in which a director can express their vision in films and show who they are. There are many directors that are considered to be a auteur such as: Quentin Tarintino, Tim Burton, Kathryn Bigelow, Stanley Kubrick and Woody Allen. The director I have chosen as an auteur is Spike Lee.

David Bordwell wrote his article ‘The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film’ in an effort to convey the main idea that “art cinema” can be considered as a distinct mode of film practice, through its definite historical existence alongside other cinematic modes, set of formal conventions, and implicit viewing procedures. Rather than searching for the source of the art, or what drives the art in film, Bordwell compares art cinema to the classical narrative cinema, and highlights the differences in narrative structure. Bordwell makes the assumption that it defined itself against the classical narrative mode; especially with the way it deals with space, time, and the cause and effect link of events.

In the film industry, there are directors who merely take someone else’s vision and express it in their own way on film, then there are those who take their own visions and use any means necessary to express their visions on film. The latter of these two types of directors are called auteurs. Not only do auteurs write the scripts from elements that they know and love in life, but they direct, produce, and sometimes act in their films as well. Three prime examples of these auteurs are: Kevin Smith, Spike Lee and Alfred Hitchcock.

In 1962, an American film critic, Andrew Sarris, wrote the “notes on the auteur theory.” He stated that the “first premise of the auteur theory is the technical competence of a director as a criterion of

Anyone who is even vaguely aware with film usually has a favorite director. Why? What distinguishes one director from another? A director is “the person who determines and realizes on the screen an artistic vision of the screenplay; casts the actors and directs their performances; works closely with production design in creating the look of the film…and in most cases, supervises all postproduction activity, especially editing” (Barsam and Monahan 496). Clearly, the director of a film is lead visionary in how the film is made. But what makes some directors truly memorable and instantly recognizable? Those directors take advantage of all different kinds creative possibilities and signatures to become the true “author” of the film, also known

Being one of the world’s most popular art forms, it was inevitable that these archetypes would find their way into film as well. In this essay I will argue that the

Writers, directors, actors and producers, they all play a part in the film making process. However an Auteur is someone whom has a very distinct artistic influence in his or her films and is well known for their particular style. When it comes to having a reputation in the film industry, Tim burton is at the top of the list. Burton is known for his peculiar characters and mysterious themes that he features in his films. Born and raised in California, Burton began his film career in 1981 and produced some of the biggest hits in the entertainment industry such as Alice In Wonderland, Edward Scissorhands and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Together these films alone made almost 2 billion dollars. Growing up Burton’s parents were very efficient

Wes Anderson, an American director widely known for his idiosyncratic films, is the epitome of an auteur. However, what does being an auteur entail, and why are directors like Anderson (and e.g. Woody Allen, Akira Kurosawa or Alfred Hitchcock) separate from metteur-en-scenes or those simply regarded as filmmakers? To even begin justifying Anderson’s auteur status, prior knowledge of the history of auteur theory and its intended function is essential. Authorship was introduced by filmmaker Francois Truffaut, a catalyst of the French New Wave (1958 – 1962), to advocate that “...a great director speaks through his films no less than a master novelist speaks through his books...” (Powell, 2010, para 8). It is also used to address the

The term Auteur seems to bless a privileged group of filmmakers with an almost messiah-like legacy. Men such as Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford and Fritz Lange are believed to inhabit the ranks of the cinematic elite, and not surprisingly most critics are more than willing to bestow upon them the title of Auteur. By regarding filmmaking as yet another form of art, Auteur theory stipulates that a film is the direct result of its director's genius. With the emerging prominence of auteur based criticism in the 1950?s, the role of the director became increasingly integral to a film's success. However most would argue that this form of criticism didn't reach its apex until 1960s, when Andrew Sarris released his

Auteur is sourced from the French word “author”. The idea centered on the auteur theory is that a filmmaker maneuvers and authors over his work. His authorship can be exhibited in his or her established film. The theory was developed with a cinema which is recognized as the French New Wave Cinema from 1958 to 1962. This essay will apply the auteur theory to Wes Anderson who is a director and a modern. For the past years, Anderson has directed eight films without including any of his short films. He is an ultimate example to demonstrate the necessity of the auteur theory. Some collaborators who have worked with the director that can be acknowledged are Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, and Owen Wilson among others. Such collaboration favors the auteur methodology because they believe that a great director can marshal the events of a creative ensemble. Besides, he can influence the artistic team to achieve their vision. Nonetheless, Anderson has always stuck to his themes, technical and entertaining styles. Being an independent filmmaker, he does not create margin which he is supposed to contain himself. His film has characters who are often frontal

An auteur is a filmmaker whose movies are characterized by their creative influence. Garry Marshall is an American filmmaker, he has directed more than 15 films in his career. Garry Marshall’s films The Princess Diaries, Valentines Day and Overboard share a common theme of love and a genre of romance and comedy, he likes to use the same actors in his films and have the common plot of a double twist. Garry Marshall likes to keep to the same character persona and film techniques but these generalized similarities are not obvious to the audience, therefore Garry Marshall is not a recognizable Auteur.

Auteur Theory is based on three premises, the first being technique, the second being personal style, and the third being interior meaning. Furthermore, there is no specific order in which these three aspects must be presented or weighted with regard to a film. An Auteur must give films a distinctive quality thus exerting a personal creative vision and interjecting it into the his or her films.

The intention of this essay is to discuss the romantic notion of a film director who has etched their own cinematic vision into the body of their film work, and whether the theory and practice is dead and an infringement of the spectator’s imagination and is it the spectator who finds meaning in the film. I will be closely looking at critical material, primarily André Bazin and Roland Barthes and applying them to several case study films directed by Christopher Nolan including The Following (1998), The Prestige (2006) and Inception (2010), to examine whether Nolan possesses the qualities of an auteur and if so, does that imply an ideological view of what the auteur resembles or an artistic one.

When it comes to movies, many directors are good at their jobs. However, other directors are great in the art of film making. There is no doubt such statement is considered utterly subjective, but what would life be without subjectivity, for it is our differences that make us thrive against a monotonic existence. By the same token, Alfred Hitchcock and Christopher Nolan utilize their singularities to create films that for decades have impacted the movie making universe. In fact, it is their differences that provide us with a high contrast to compare and scrutinize their job and find what made them great at it.