Truffaut's Auteur Theory

In chapter two of The Cultures of American Film, the main focus is the establishment of studios. As demand for films rose in the early 1900’s, production companies needed to expand; this lead to the creation of large scale studios.

I will talk about how auteur theory can be applied to the study of Hitchcock’s North by Northwest and vertigo.

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.

Alfred Hitchcock is widely regarded as a prime example of an auteur, a theory that emerged in the 1950s by Truffaut, in the ‘politique des auteurs’ of Cahiers du Cinema (Tudor 121). The auteur theory, as defined by Andrew Tudor, is premised on the assumption that “any director creates his films on the basis of a central structure”(140) and thus, if you consider their films in relation to each other, commonalities can be found within them. These commonalities work to demonstrate the view of the director as “the true creator of the film” (Tudor 122). Evidence of an auteur can be found in examining a director’s creative tendencies, in their distinctive themes and motifs, stylistic choices,

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

A film director controls a film's dramatic and artistic aspects, and over a number of their films, they produce recurrent themes or characteristics of style seen throughout their creations by the use of repeated subject matter, being referred to as their 'preoccupations'. When a director's style is recognizable, they are considered an ' auteur', denoting that they influence their films so strongly, to the extent that they are considered a kind of author of their movies. This is supported by the quote "Over a group of films a director must exhibit certain recurrent characteristics of style, which serve as his signature.”, from Andrew Sarris, a Prevailing Film Critic of the Late 1900's, whom pioneered the auteur theory. Many directors were reviewed by Andrew Sarris, namely established and popular director Tim Burton, who is deemed as an auteur, particularly for his preoccupation with Gothic Horror literature, and its common elements. Some of his famous movies of the last fifty decades, include 'Alice In Wonderland', 'Edward Scissor Hands' and 'Big Fish'. Burton's preoccupations are prominent in all previously mentioned films.

The studio system was an arrangement of craft services and talent that made movies dictated by contractual terms. Through this system, studios could easily move from project to project, producing like that of a factory. Creating movies in this arrangement eliminated the need to raise money or finances; directors usually created movies in the style of the studio which lessened artistic creativity (Lewis, p 104). The studio system was dominant in Hollywood through the 1920’s well into the 1950’s.

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

DreamWorks studios co-founders Steven Spielberg is a director and is consider an auteur as he influences films with his personal attribute in such a way that the film appears to be his own. There are arguments against auteur theory that directors don’t solely make films, example a movie has to have a producer screenwriter and editor. The film Jaws has been directed by Steven Spielberg based on Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel .The theory places responsibilities and praises on the director, in a case where a film is poorly done the director is blamed. It also seeks to focus on the director leaving out other crew members, it’s evident a film cannot be perfect without good actors and actresses Auteur theory also influences audiences and critics, film

In order for to find out if Alfred Hitchcock can be considered a film auteur, one must first find out what is the true meaning of a film auteur. The term film auteur was coined from a theory developed by Andrew Sarris, a film critic for which was the auteur theory, a theory in which the director is viewed as the creative force in a motion picture. This means that the director has to have a distinguishable personality as a criterion of value. Over a group of films, the director must exhibit certain recurrent characteristics of style, which serves as his signatures. This also means that a how a film looks and moves have some relationship to the way the director

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.

The film industry has always been somewhat of a dichotomy. Grounded firmly in both the worlds of art and business the balance of artistic expression and commercialization has been an issue throughout the history of filmmaking. The distinction of these two differing goals and the fact that neither has truly won out over the other in the span of the industry's existence, demonstrates a lot of information about the nature of capitalism.

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 romantic idea of the auteur is described by film theoretician, André Bazin, observing the film form as an idealistic phenomenon. Through the personal factor in artistic creation as a standard reference, Bazin primarily refers to an essential literary and romantic conception of the artist as central. He considers the relationship between film aesthetics and reality more important than the director itself and places cinema above paintings. He described paintings as a similar ethical creation to film stating a director ‘can be valued according to its measurements and the celebrity of the signature, the objective quality of the work itself was formerly held in much higher esteem.’ (Bazin, 1967: 250). Bazin contemplates the historical and social aspects that indeed hinder a director’s retribution to their own personalised film, thus en-companying their own ideological judgement upon the world ‘more so in cinema where the sociological and historical cross-currents are countless.’ (Bazin, 1967: 256)

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.