2. AUTEUR THEORY
Auteur is the french word for author. Furthermore in film criticism, auteur theory holds that a
directors reflect the directors personal creative vision. However sometimes the auteurs
creative. We as a group think that auteur theory specifically seems to be the most sensible area
of theory for our group to look at because auteur theory is to do with the immediacy of their
production which relates with our narrative as it is independent too. Furthermore our auteur
signature is to blend auteur signatures of previous directors for example Steven Spielberg idea
of having to deal with ordinary characters searching for or coming in contact with extraordinary
beings or finding themselves in extraordinary circumstances, this relates to our narrative of our
protagonist finding himself in an extraordinary circumstance of his partner dying and having
unnatural events occur. Also another auteur signature from director Alfred Hitchcock of the use
of mirrors, this links to our narrative as we have a mirror scene when the protagonist finds
himself looking at himself in the mirror and sees his partners hand in the bath. Finally another
director Wes Craven of the idea of the killing off of a seemingly character in the opening scene,
again this interlinks with our production because we kill off one of our big characters almost
straight away in the second scene.It's also important to note that looking at individual directors
as an auteur is an alternative to looking at the importance of genre
3. ANDREW SARRIS
Our theories that we looked at were developed
from people such as Andrew Sarris, developed
auteur theory through his writing of ‘the village
voice’. He also used this theory as a way to
further analysis of what defines serious work
through the study of respected writers and
directors. Auteur theory was imported to the
United States in the 1960s by Andrew Sarris.
He wrote "Notes on the Auteur Theory in
1962”.Where he explains the French notion of
what he called "auteurism" for an American
audience.
4. The auteur theory was introduced in France in 1896. Furthermore the theory
became popular in film theory, Due to the work of François Truffaut in the
1950s.Truffaut was part of a group of film critics who wrote for the journal Cahiers
du Cinéma.Truffaut was a also a director.In 1954, Truffaut published an article
called, “Une certaine tendance du cinéma français.” In this he discussed a variety
of European film directors, including Jean Renoir, Robert Bresson, Jean Cocteau,
Jacques Becker, Abel Gance, Max Ophuls, Jacques Tati, and Roger Leenhardt,
where François said that these directors were auteurs of their films. Moreover
Truffaut also talks about how he believes American film makers have succeeded
and where French film makers have not. He also believed that directors should
use the misé en scene to portray their vision on their work.
FRANÇOIS
TRUFFAUT
