I can’t believe it’s 2021 and people STILL don’t understand what the auteur theory was ever about, how it started or how it has evolved over time

I don’t want to explain it or defend it, but I will https://twitter.com/thetzechun/status/1357907456660226049

The idea of the director being the most important person working on a film existed loooong before the likes of Truffaut, Godard etc came along, and in Europe alongside with many places around the world, the directors already had significant status

Whereas in Hollywood the director was primarily a member of the crew. It was the producers who really had the power and control over films. You can’t say Gone with the Wind or Wizard of Oz were the visions of Victor Fleming cuz he was one of six people to work on each film

David O. Russell was the guy pulling the strings and making all the creative decisions on his films. And if we’re not talking independent producers like him we’re talking studio presidents like Louis B. Mayer etc, they called the shots

One of the reasons why Hitchcock butted heads with Selznick when he finally came over to make films in Hollywood was because they were both used to having final say in their respective fields, hence lots of conflict between the two

One of the reasons why Hitchcock started to produce his own films was exactly the reason to gain control over his films, without having to bow down to an interfering producer

Around this time the 1940s critics on both sides of the Atlantic theorized that the director was the singular most important member of the crew, the one with the ‘vision.’

So the director became to film what the writer was to literature and composer was to music

NOW the French New Wave comes in. All the iconic French new wave guys argued that films that actually had a personality were much better and much more interesting than so-called “author less” films

Then Andrew Sarris came along in the 1960s and introduced this idea to Hollywood and when Truffaut broke through with The 400 Blows he was shocked that most of Hollywood saw him as a mere entertainer as Truffaut saw him as a genuine artist

With the publication of Truffaut’s book on Hitchcock and Sarris’ translation of the French auteur theory, the idea spread rapidly that somehow the directors could be in control over their own films. This coincided with the fall of the classical studio system

Suddenly young and new directors were able to make whatever films they wanted to make as Hollywood became an open playground

But the original French interpretation of the idea of an “auteur” doesn’t mean exclusively that the director is the only one who does anything on a film, simply that the director was the one in control of the overall product

And not all films were auteur-driven films obviously, and many films were and still look like they’re made by a committee. THAT’s what the auteur theory was meant to combat, not to denounce the work of cinematographers, editors, writers etc

And frankly, I’d say the auteur theory has done way more good than bad. It allowed filmmakers in Hollywood to revitalize itself and step up to become as interesting as international cinema when it wanted to be

And it also led to filmmakers who weren’t taken seriously like Hitchcock or Hawks or Ford to be truly taken seriously around the world and allowed the film directors to more freely take control over their films

And call me crazy, but I’d much rather see a film represent the vision of someone trying to be creative and do something different than the guy paying the bills, because let’s face it then movies would be pretty damn dull

Now sure there are issues with the theory, like the fact that most of the “auteur” directors are male. But if anything I think the auteur theory can be used to validate women and minority filmmakers who otherwise would’ve been marginalized under a more tyrannical studio system

In the end, my favorite take on the auteur theory is Tarkovsky’s take. In Sculpting in Time he argued that cinema was indeed an auteur-driven art form and the director was the artist, but that it doesn’t mean the efforts of his collaborators are of less value

Seriously, all this requires is some basic Wikipedia-ing and you’ll see that I’m right

There, I just spend twenty minutes of my life defending this old-ass theory because dumb ducks still don’t get it

I’m done bye!!!