Auteur Theory 1

“… As far as I know, there is no definition of the auteur theory in the English language, that is, by an American or British critic” (Sarris 1962) was the opening line to Andrew Sarris’s famous “Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962” essay. This essay is what brought the “auteur theory” in to the spotlight in the USA. And to today, this theory is still in hot debate. Trying to figure out whether or not the director is the lone “auteur” of a film is a tough claim to make. In an article for Slate Magazine, Doree Shafrir talks about why a writer cannot be an auteur in “Bored of Directors.” In his film blog, Fredrik Fevang posted an article about misconceptions of auteur theory critics titled “Dan Schneider and James Berardinelli's misconception of the auteur theory.” As a comparison article, A.R. Duckworth posted a comparison article in The Journal of Film, Art, and Aesthetics of the never-ending dispute between Andrew Sarris and Pauline Kael entitled “A Couple of Squared Circles.” This article cites much of Pauline Kael’s essay, in response to Sarris’s, “Circles And Squares.” Terrence Rafferty from NY Times wrote an article entitled “Now Playing: Auteur vs. Auteur” which follows a fight between a writer and director over the title of auteur on Babel. In a post from the University of Manchester, the author Jim covers a director that does not leave anyone out of the creative process in his post “The Case of Mike Leigh and the Missing Auteur.” While I believe that there are multiple creative minds that go in to a film and that in some cases, it is very possible to have someone other than the director be the auteur, Sarris summed it up by saying “Directors, even auteurs, do not always run true to form, and the critic can never assume that a bad director will always make a bad film. No, not always, but almost always, and that is the point” (Sarris 1962).

“The term auteur first entered the cinematic lexicon in French New Wave director François Truffaut's 1954 essay ‘A

Bibliography: Duckworth, A.R. A Couple of Squared Circles, Sarris and Kael – Part II. March 4, 2009. http://ardfilmjournal.wordpress.com/2009/03/04/circles-and-squares-pauline-kael/ (accessed March 6, 2012). Fevang, Fredrik. The Fresh Films. January 19, 2009. http://www.arnadal.no/film/blog/blog_dan_schneider_and_james_berardinellis_misconception_of_the_auteur_theory.htm (accessed March 5 2012, 2012). Jim. The Case of Mike Leigh and the Missing Auteur. November 8, 2010. http://culturalpractice.wordpress.com/2010/11/08/the-case-of-mike-leigh-and-the-missing-auteur/ (accessed March 6, 2012). Kael, Pauline. "Circles And Squares." Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings (Oxford University Press) 2nd Edition (1979): pp. 669-674. Rafferty, Terrence. "Now Playing: Auteur vs. Auteur ." The New York Times, October 22, 2006. Sarris, Andrew. "Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962." Essay, 1962. Shafrir, Doree. "Bored of Directors." Slate, October 2006.