Auteur

An auteur (/oʊˈtɜːr/; French: [otœʁ], lit. 'author') is an artist, such as a film director, who applies a highly centralized and subjective control to many aspects of a collaborative creative work; in other words, a person equivalent to an author of a novel or a play.[1] The term is commonly referenced to filmmakers or directors with a recognizable style or thematic preoccupation.[2]

Auteurism originated in the French film criticism of the late 1940s as a value system[3] that derives from the film criticism approach of André Bazin and Alexandre Astruc—dubbed auteur theory by the American critic Andrew Sarris.[4][5] The concept was invented to distinguish French New Wave filmmakers from studio-system directors that were part of the Hollywood establishment,[1] and has since been applied to producers of popular music as well as to video-game creators.

Film

Origin

Film director and critic François Truffaut in 1965

Even before the auteur theory was clearly defined, the director was considered to be the most important among the people working on a film. Early German film theorist Walter Julius Bloem credited this to film being an art for the masses, and the masses being accustomed to regard someone who gives the final product (in this case, the director) as an artist, and those who contribute before (i.e. screenwriters) as apprentices.[6] [7] Likewise, James Agee, one of the most famous film critics of the 1940s, said that "The best films are personal ones, made by forceful directors."[7]

Around the same time, the French film critics André Bazin and Roger Leenhardt became advocates for the theory that it is the director that brings the film to life and uses the film to express their thoughts and feelings about the subject matter as well as a worldview as an auteur. They emphasised that an auteur can use lighting, camerawork, staging and editing to add to their vision.[8]

Development of theory

The French magazine Cahiers du cinéma was founded in 1951 and quickly became a focal point for discussion on the role of directors in cinema. In François Truffaut's 1954 essay "Une certaine tendance du cinéma français" ("A certain tendency in French cinema"), he criticized the prevailing "Cinema of Quality" trend in French cinema, saying that filmmakers were being unadventurous by adapting literary classics into unimaginative films. Truffaut said that these films treated the director as only a metteur en scene, a "stager" who simply adds the performers and pictures to an already completed script.[9] Truffaut coined the phrase La politique des auteurs ("The policy of the authors") to describe his view, in which he expressed a clear preference for directors who operated with autonomy, vision and a signature style. These discussions were part of the beginning of the French New Wave in cinema.

From 1960, with his first self-directed film The Bellboy, Jerry Lewis was one of the earliest Hollywood studio-system actor-turned-directors to be critiqued as an auteur. His attention to both the business and creative sides of production: writing, directing, lighting, editing and art direction coincided with the rise of the auteur theory. He earned consistent praise by French critics in both Cahiers du Cinéma and Positif. His singular mis-en-scene, and skill behind the camera, was aligned with Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock and Satyajit Ray. Jean-Luc Godard said, “Jerry Lewis...is the only one in Hollywood doing something different, the only one who isn’t falling in with the established categories, the norms, the principles. ...Lewis is the only one today who’s making courageous films. He’s been able to do it because of his personal genius”.[10]

Popularization and impact

Andrew Sarris coined the phrase "auteur theory" to translate la politique des auteurs and is credited for popularizing it in the United States and English-speaking media. He first used the phrase in his 1962 essay Notes on the Auteur Theory in the journal Film Culture.[11] He began applying its methods to Hollywood films, and expanded his thoughts in his book The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929–1968 (1968). The impact of Sarris' work was that critical and public attention on each film focused less on its stars and more on the overall product.[7]

In the 1960s and the 1970s, the filmmaking industry was revitalized by a new generation of directors. Known as the New Hollywood era, these directors were given increased control over their projects.[12][13] Studios showed an increase willingness to let directors take risks.[14] The phase came to end in the 1980s, when high-profile financial failures like Heaven's Gate prompted studios to reassert control.

Criticism

The auteur theory had detractors from the beginning. Pauline Kael was an early opponent and she debated it with Andrew Sarris in the pages of The New Yorker and various film magazines.[15][16] Kael opposed privileging the director and instead argued that a film should be seen a collaborative process. In her 1971 essay Raising Kane (1971), on Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, she points out how the film made extensive use of the distinctive talents of co-writer Herman J. Mankiewicz and cinematographer Gregg Toland.[17]

Richard Corliss and David Kipen have argued that writing is more important to a film's success than the directing.[18][19][20] In his 2006 book, Kipen coined the term Schreiber theory to refer to the theory that the screenwriter is the principal author of a film.

Film historian Georges Sadoul pointed out that the main author of a film is not necessarily the director, but can be the main actor, screenwriter, producer, or even the author of the original story (in case of literary adaptations). Also, he argued that the film can only be seen as a work of collective and not as a work of a single person.[21] Film historian Aljean Harmetz, referring to the creative input of producers and studio executives in classical Hollywood, argues that the auteur theory "collapses against the reality of the studio system".[22]

Some criticize the auteur theory, and the practice of praising auteurs, for being male-dominated. Writing for IndieWire in 2013, Maria Giese noted that pantheons of auteur directors rarely included a single woman.[23] Some point to the broader lack of women directors; the under-representation of women in film has been called the celluloid ceiling. In 2016, just 7% of all directors for the top 250 grossing movies were women.[24] Others point to the lack of women in film schools, which has since changed. Now, Professor Martha Lauzen of San Diego State University says that women are represented in film schools.[25]

Law

There are references in law, where a directed film is treated as a work of art and the auteur, as the creator of the film, is the original copyright holder. Under European Union law, the film director is considered the author or one of the authors of a film, largely as a result of the influence of auteur theory.[26]

Record producer Phil Spector in 1964

The references of auteur theory are occasionally applied to musicians, musical performers and music producers. From the 1960s, Phil Spector is considered the first auteur among producers of popular music.[27][28] Author Matthew Bannister named him the first "star" producer.[28] Journalist Richard Williams wrote: "Spector created a new concept: the producer as overall director of the creative process, from beginning to end. He took control of everything, he picked the artists, wrote or chose the material, supervised the arrangements, told the singers how to phrase, masterminded all phases of the recording process with the most painful attention to detail, and released the result on his own label.".[29][30]

Another early pop music auteur was the Beach Boys' multi-tasking leader Brian Wilson,[31] who himself was mentored by Spector.[32] Before the progressive pop of the late 1960s, performers were typically unable to decide on the artistic content of their music.[33] Wilson became the first rock producer to use the studio as a discrete instrument,[32] thus making the Beach Boys one of the first rock groups to exert studio control.[34] Music producers after the mid 1960s would draw on his influence, setting a precedent that allowed bands and artists to enter a recording studio and act as producers, either autonomously, or in conjunction with other like minds.[31] The Atlantic's Jason Guriel wrote that Wilson "paved the way for auteurs like Kanye West ... anticipat[ing] the rise of the producer ... [and] the modern pop-centric era, which privileges producer over artist and blurs the line between entertainment and art. ... Anytime a band or musician disappears into a studio to contrive an album-length mystery, the ghost of Wilson is hovering near."[35]

Video games

In broadening the use of the terms associated with auteur theory, it has also been applied to the audio-visual environment as encountered in video games. Japanese developer Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear series) is considered to be the first auteur of video games.[36] Other auters include Tetsuya Nomura (Final Fantasy series), Fumito Ueda (Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, The Last Guardian), Jon Van Caneghem (Might and Magic), Hidetaka Miyazaki (Souls series),[37] and Ragnar Tørnquist.[38]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Santas 2002, p. 18.
  2. ↑ Min, Joo & Kwak 2003, p. 85.
  3. ↑ Caughie 2013, pp. 22–34, 62–66.
  4. ↑ The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica (n.d.). "Auteur theory". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  5. ↑ Sarris, Andrew (Winter 1962–1963). "Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962" (PDF). Film Culture. 27: 1–8.
  6. ↑ Bloem 1924.
  7. 1 2 3 Battaglia, James (May 2010). "Everyone's a Critic: Film Criticism Through History and Into the Digital Age". Senior Honors Theses: 32 – via Digital Commons.
  8. ↑ Thompson & Bordwell 2010, pp. 381–383.
  9. ↑ Thompson & Bordwell 2010, p. 382.
  10. ↑ Jim Hillier, ed. (1987). Cahiers du Cinema 1960–1968 New Wave, New Cinema, Re-evalutating Hollywood (Godard in interview with Jacques Bontemps, Jean-Louis Comolli, Michel Delahaye, and Jean Narboni). Harvard University Press. p. 295. ISBN 9780674090620.
  11. ↑ Sarris, Andrew (Winter 1962–1963). "Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962". Film Culture. 27: 1–8.
  12. ↑ David A Cook, "Auteur Cinema and the film generation in 70s Hollywood", in The New American Cinema by Jon Lewis (ed), Duke University Press, New York, 1998, pp. 1–4
  13. ↑ Stefan Kanfer, The Shock of Freedom in Films, Time Magazine, Dec 8, 1967, Accessed 25 April 2009,
  14. ↑ Schatz (1993), pp. 14–16
  15. ↑ A Survivor of Film Criticism’s Heroic Age
  16. ↑ Pauline and Me: Farewell, My Lovely
  17. ↑ Kael, Pauline, "Raising Kane", The New Yorker, February 20, 1971.
  18. ↑ Kipen, David (2006). The Schreiber Theory: A Radical Rewrite of American Film History, p.38. Melville House ISBN 0-9766583-3-X.
  19. ↑ Diane Garrett. "Book Review: The Schreiber Theory." Variety, April 15, 2006.
  20. ↑ Weber, Bruce (April 24, 2015). "Richard Corliss, 71, Longtime Film Critic for Time, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved May 17, 2015.
  21. ↑ Sadoul 1972.
  22. ↑ Aljean Harmetz, Round up the Usual Suspects, p. 29.
  23. ↑ Giese, Maria (2013-12-09). "Auteur Directors: Any American Women?". IndieWire. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
  24. ↑ "Study: Female Filmmakers Lost Ground in 2016". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
  25. ↑ Cochrane, Kira (2010-01-31). "Why are there so few female film-makers?". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
  26. ↑ Kamina 2002, p. 153.
  27. ↑ Eisenberg 2005, p. 103.
  28. 1 2 Bannister 2007, p. 38.
  29. ↑ Williams 2003, pp. 15–16.
  30. ↑ Williams 2003, pp. 15-16.
  31. 1 2 Edmondson 2013, p. 890.
  32. 1 2 Cogan & Clark 2003, pp. 32–33.
  33. ↑ Willis 2014, p. 217.
  34. ↑ Miller 1992, p. 193.
  35. ↑ Guriel, Jason (May 16, 2016). "How Pet Sounds Invented the Modern Pop Album". The Atlantic.
  36. ↑ "Hideo Kojima - video gaming's first auteur - Screen Robot". Screen Robot. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  37. ↑ Fahey, Rob (9 December 2016). "Final Fantasy XV and The Last Guardian: The Last of their Kind". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
  38. ↑ "How the creator of Dreamfall got back to his roots - Polygon". Retrieved 6 April 2017.

Bibliography

  • Bannister, Matthew (2007). White Boys, White Noise: Masculinities and 1980s Indie Guitar Rock. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7546-8803-7.
  • Bloem, Walter Julius (1924). The Soul of the Moving Picture. E.P. Dutton.
  • Caughie, John (2013). Theories of Authorship. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-10268-4.
  • Cogan, Jim; Clark, William (2003). Temples of Sound: Inside the Great Recording Studios. Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-0-8118-3394-3.
  • Edmondson, Jacqueline, ed. (2013). "Producers". Music in American Life: An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories that Shaped our Culture [4 volumes]: An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories That Shaped Our Culture. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-39348-8.
  • Eisenberg, Evan (2005). The Recording Angel: Music, Records and Culture from Aristotle to Zappa. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09904-1.
  • Kipen, David (2006). The Schreiber Theory: A Radical Rewrite of American Film History. Melville House Pub. ISBN 978-0-9766583-3-7.
  • Miller, Jim (1992). "The Beach Boys". In DeCurtis, Anthony; Henke, James; George-Warren, Holly. The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll: The Definitive History of the Most Important Artists and Their Music. New York: Random House. ISBN 9780679737285.
  • Min, Eungjun; Joo, Jinsook; Kwak, Han Ju (2003). Korean Film: History, Resistance, and Democratic Imagination. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-275-95811-4.
  • Sadoul, Georges; Morris, Peter (1972). Dictionary of Film Makers. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-02151-8.
  • Thompson, Kristin; Bordwell, David (2010). Film History: An Introduction. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. ISBN 978-0-07-126794-6.
  • Kamina, Pascal (2002). Film Copyright in the European Union. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-43338-9.
  • Santas, Constantine (2002). Responding to Film: A Text Guide for Students of Cinema Art. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-8304-1580-9.
  • Williams, Richard (2003). Phil Spector: Out of His Head. Music Sales Group. ISBN 978-0-7119-9864-3.
  • Willis, Paul E. (2014). Profane Culture. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-6514-7.

Further reading

  • Ashby, Arved, ed. (2013). Popular Music and the New Auteur: Visionary Filmmakers After MTV. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-982734-3.
  • Diver, Mike (October 8, 2014). "The Return of the Video Game Auteur". Vice.
  • Maule, Rosanna (2008). Beyond Auteurism: New Directions in Authorial Film Practices in France, Italy and Spain Since the 1980s. Intellect Books. ISBN 978-1-84150-204-5.
  • Shuker, Roy (2013). "Auteurs, Stars, and Music History". Understanding Popular Music. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-56479-8.
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