Section B - Challenging Auteur Theory

Starter
List as many roles within film production as you can. Be as specific as possible, there will be a lot of variation!

Be ready to share and carousel round to formulate an extensive list.

Reading

“Debating the Auteur Theory: An Argument Against”

While reading, consider the following questions...
  • How can we challenge authorship?
  • How can we criticise it as a theory?
  • What holes are there in its premise?

Subjective in nature

Allows the critic to be inventive, to evaluate a wide variety of evidence and to combine that evidence in ways that are difficult in more ‘scientific’ approaches to criticism.

There are no objective measures of the quality of such an analysis

Open to criticism because there are no clear objective standards

One criticism of auteur theory is the undermining of the collaborative aspect of shooting a film, and the theory's privileging of the role of the director (whose name, at times, has become more important than the movie itself).

In Kael's "Raising Kane" (1971), an essay written on Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, she points out how the film made extensive use of the distinctive talents of co-writer Herman J. Mankiewicz and cinematographer Gregg Toland, which challenges the idea that directors are more authorial than screenwriters.

Film historian Aljean Harmetz, supports this challenge, when referring to the creative input of producers and studio executives in classical Hollywood, and argues that the auteur theory "collapses against the reality of the studio system"

In The Schreiber Theory, David Kipen argues that a writer is responsible for creating the world of the movie and should be considered the author of a film.

Move to include or acknowledge the contributions of a wider range of personnel—actors, producers, screenwriters

More attention to editing (with newer technologies editors have greater control)

Interest in sound as part of creative production rather than focusing entirely on visual


Task


Identify a film that is famous/well known/critically acclaimed for a role other than it’s director.

Find…

  • (At least) one article that supports this
  • A video extract to highlight your point

Be ready to discuss and share your findings (seminar style)






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