FILM 1502 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Jean-Luc Godard, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson
The auteur theory - auteur as the French word for author; commonly recognized as the director
Rise of the recognition of film as an art form following World War II and the export of American
film to postwar Europe
Originates from François Truffaut’s 1954 essay “A Certain Tendency of French Cinema”, in
which he argued that the mark of an auteur can be detected in their body of work (ie. Alfred
Hitchcock, John Ford, Orson Welles, Howard Hawks); bodies of work exist as wholes
independent from any conventional control (ie. the studio system)
Further examples include Wes Anderson, David Lynch, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Jean Luc
Godard
In order to make an argument for a particular director to have auteur status, one must identify
both technical and theatrical elements of their work
Inherently flawed in that only directors can be labeled as auteurs (must have a large body of
work with some qualifiable greatness attached to it, must contain an internal message that is a
statement of the auteur’s world view)
Arguments against auteur theory include the following:
- The genesis of a film is too complex to ascribe to any single person
- Cinematographers, actors, producers, screenwriters, and composers are at least as much,
if not more, of auteurs than directors
- Many films bear the stamp of the studio system more predominantly than their director
- Privileges the contributions of white male directors, thus marginalizing the contributions
of women and minorities
Spike Lee (1957 - present)
