FTV30006 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Cahiers Du Cinéma, Andrew Sarris, Alexandre Astruc
Week 6
Auteur Theory 101
Alexandre Astruc proposed the concept of the camera-stylo, the camera-pen in 1948,
beginning a discussion of authorship relation to cinema.
He suggested that”cinema is quite simply becoming a means of expression, just as all the
other arts have before it, and in particular painting and the novel”
The camera-stylo becomes the way that a director inscribes history – just on film, not paper.
He saw film language in many ways as analogous to written language – and the writer was
essentially the director: the one who’wrote’ on the film
Truffaut’s article “A Certain Tendency of the French iCinema” in Cahiers du Cinema
suggested the raising of the director over the screenwriter as the prevailing ‘artist’ of the
cinema – the author, or auteur.
The Auteur was distinctively cinematic – not literary, hence the distinction.
French Auteruism
The French iteration of auteruist thought favoured those directors that exploited the visual
resoursces of cinema, the mise en scene, moves away from the literary cinema which was
more closely connected with writing skill
The ‘politique des auteurs’ argued that no matter the industrial conditions, a direcotr’s true
personality and voice would shine through.
Emphasis on the style over content; it was purely thorugh the visual strategies that an
auteur could be uncovered
No matter the condition, the director’s personal stamp was evident visually
Auteur could take material no matter the industrial ocnditions and bend it to their own
personal vision
The spectator was then bound to detect the traces of the director within the work, as
opposed to other directors who did not have personality
These directors, those without were known as metteurs en scene – possible skilled, but not
a cohesive vision across their body of work
American Auteurism
Americans was not happy with the French
Adapted who renamed it as auteur theory by Andrew Sarris in 1962
His position was that masterpieces can only be judged within their historical context, not
beyond it as the French suggested.
Thus the limits of the production period – and the director’s capcity to go beyond it, was
also a value of note
Sarris centred on several central claims
First, excellent director was a mstery of technique
Second, has a distinguishable style, a ‘personality’
Third, a clear ‘world view’ implicit in their work – the director’s relationship to the culture in
which they live
Thus – technique, style, meaning
