What is AUTEUR THEORY?
Explaining the idea behind one of cinema’s most famous theoretical approaches.
Those of you who read my recent piece on the French New Wave will already be aware of some of the names in this piece, as the two go somewhat hand-in-hand.
The late Andre Bazin, one of the theoretical minds behind the French New Wave (and one of the minds most crucial to it in spite of the fact that he actually never made a film) was one of the two theorists behind the idea of auteur theory… but what is auteur theory? Where did it come from? And what films can this idea be applied to in the best way? Well, if you keep reading you’ll soon find out!
What is ‘auteur theory’? (The theory and its contexts)
Auteur theory derives from the concept, started by Alexandre Astruc, of the ‘camera-stylo’ — of course translating to ‘camera-pen’.
This concept suggests that the camera is to the director what the pen is to the writer/author. The director becomes the singular mind in control of the final product of a film, an idea which went quite directly against the ideas within the very studio-based Hollywood at the time — directors were seen as workers for hire most often, with a few exceptions such as Orson Welles (who was given a blank cheque/an effectively unlimited budget and creative freedom to make…
