Auteur

The terms auteur (from the French for “author”), auteur theory, and auteurism signify an approach to film study that values the input of a single overall “author” in the development, production, and realization of films. In this context, films are assessed as statements of the auteur’s distinct style, which can be tracked across his or her oeuvre. With auteur theory, film study adopted the concerns of literary criticism of the time, which provided a suitable frame to consider film authorship. Later, as authorial criticism developed across literary and cultural studies, the concept of film auteur reached a moment of crisis, as broader issues were raised outside the film text and individual agency in film production. Nevertheless, the critical resources employed by proponents of auteur theory ...