1. Theories of film authorship emerged in France after World War 2 as critics were able to identify thematic and stylistic links in films from Hollywood directors whose work had previously been unavailable. 2. French critics like Francois Truffaut and Andre Bazin suggested understanding films through their cinematographic properties and film style, focusing on the director as the central source of meaning. 3. The concept of the "auteur" refers to directors who imprinted their personal vision and style onto films, even within the Hollywood studio system, with Andrew Sarris identifying technique, personal style, and inner meaning.

1. AS Film Studies
Film Authorship
Discussions about film authorship draw on the question of whether film should be seen as a
commercial medium or as an art form. Theories of film authorship are an attempt to
distinguish between art and commercial product.
Before the 1950s it was assumed that the industrial nature of film production prevented a
single authorial voice being heard. Theories of film authorship emerged in France in the
period after the Second World War. A large number of Hollywood films were released in
this period which previously had not been shown in France due to the German occupation.
As a result French critics were perhaps able to identify thematic and stylistic links in the
work of filmmakers.
French critic AlexandreAstruc argued that ‘cinema is quite simply becoming a means of
expression, just as all other arts before it, and in particular painting and the novel’. Astruc
suggested the idea of cinema as a means of expression through a new artistic language.
French critics such as Francois Truffaut and Andre Bazin suggested that film needed to be
understood through the elements specific to the medium – the cinematographic properties
of film style, especially the way mise-en-scene was used by filmmakers. They developed the
notion of ‘la politique des auteurs’ and focused on the idea of the artist (director) as the
central source of meaning.
Auteur – French term used to refer to directors who infused their films with their distinctive
personal vision through the use of film style. Auteurs were seen as genuine artists. In the
context of Hollywood cinema auteurs were the directors who could stamp their identity on
a film which was a product of the studio system. Auteurs put forward a clear world-view
and a uniquely individual style. Andrew Sarris identified three key area of a director’s work
– technique, personal style, and inner meaning.
Auteurs were contrasted with metteurs-en-scene – technically competent directors who
execute the filmmaking process without stamping their personality on the film.
Peter Wollen takes a structuralist approach to film authorship and focuses on identifying
antinomies (binary oppositions) in the work of filmmakers.
There are a number of criticisms of approaches to filmmaking. These include the idea the
question of the extent to which it neglects the industrial origin of film production. A further
problem is that filmmaking is an obviously collective activity with a large number of people
contributing to the production of a single film.
Critical approaches to culture have challenged the Romantic notion of the author as the
source of meaning. Roland Barthes argues for the ‘birth of the reader’ and the ‘death of the
author’. He is suggesting meaning is only made in the momentary interaction of reader and
text, and as a result the role of the author is secondary to that of the audience member.
This can be related to the idea of the intentional fallacy which suggests that ‘the design or
intention of the author is neither available nor desirable as a standard for judging the
success of a work of literary art.’