Notes on the Auteur Theory
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Related e |
Featured: |
"Notes on the Auteur Theory" is an 1962 film theory essay by Andrew Sarris on the auteur theory. It was inspired by critics writing in Cahiers du Cinéma and published in the Film Culture issue of winter 1962/3.
The essay is where the half-French, half-English term, "auteur theory", originated. To be classified as an "auteur", according to Sarris, a director must accomplish technical competence in his or her technique, personal style in terms of how the movie looks and feels, and interior meaning (although many of Sarris's auterist criteria were left vague). Later in the decade, Sarris published The American Cinema: Directors and Directions, 1929–1968, which quickly became the unofficial bible of auteurism.
Pauline Kael attacked the auteur theory in her essay, "Circles and Squares".