THEORETICAL: AUTEUR THEORY

AUTEUR THEORYAuteur is the french word for author. Furthermore in film criticism, auteur theory holds that a directors reflect the directors personal creative vision. However sometimes the auteurs creative. We as a group think that auteur theory specifically seems to be the most sensible area of theory for our group to look at because auteur theory is to do with the immediacy of their production which relates with our narrative as it is independent too. Furthermore our auteur signature is to blend auteur signatures of previous directors for example Steven Spielberg idea of having to deal with ordinary characters searching for or coming in contact with extraordinary beings or finding themselves in extraordinary circumstances, this relates to our narrative of our protagonist finding himself in an extraordinary circumstance of his partner dying and having unnatural events occur. Also another auteur signature from director Alfred Hitchcock of the use of mirrors, this links to our narrative as we have a mirror scene when the protagonist finds himself looking at himself in the mirror and sees his partners hand in the bath. Finally another director Wes Craven of the idea of the killing off of a seemingly character in the opening scene, again this interlinks with our production because we kill off one of our big characters almost straight away in the second scene.It's also important to note that looking at individual directors as an auteur is an alternative to looking at the importance of genre

ANDREW SARRISOur theories that we looked at were developed from people such as Andrew Sarris, developed auteur theory through his writing of ‘the village voice’. He also used this theory as a way to further analysis of what defines serious work through the study of respected writers and directors. Auteur theory was imported to the United States in the 1960s by Andrew Sarris. He wrote "Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962”.Where he explains the French notion of what he called "auteurism" for an American audience.

The auteur theory was introduced in France in 1896. Furthermore the theory became popular in film theory, Due to the work of François Truffaut in the 1950s.Truffaut was part of a group of film critics who wrote for the journal Cahiers du Cinéma.Truffaut was a also a director.In 1954, Truffaut published an article called, “Une certaine tendance du cinéma français.” In this he discussed a variety of European film directors, including Jean Renoir, Robert Bresson, Jean Cocteau, Jacques Becker, Abel Gance, Max Ophuls, Jacques Tati, and Roger Leenhardt, where François said that these directors were auteurs of their films. Moreover Truffaut also talks about how he believes American film makers have succeeded and where French film makers have not. He also believed that directors should use the misé en scene to portray their vision on their work.

FRANÇOIS TRUFFAUT