Film Theory - Auteur

According to film critics the auteur film theory defines a director who has complete creative control over the film he is directing and that the film is realizing his personal creative vision, that a director can use the commercial apparatus of film-making in the same way that a writer uses a pen or a painter uses paint and a paintbrush. It is a medium for the personal artistic expression of the directorThe word auteur comes from the French word for 'author', suggesting that the director is the author of the film.

It was drawn from the idea in a French magazine, Cahiers du cinema, founded by Andre Bazin.

Many found the auteur theory to be disagreeably, insisting that filmwork was a collaborative effort and that if the role of auteur were to diminish or even make redundant the role of the script writer or cinematographer, then that collaborative effort was also no longer there. Alfred Hitchcock discussed the auteur theory.

Alfred Hitchcock is often considered an auteur director because of his pioneer role in film and creative visions he realized, described in the video as 'the last word' in the direction of the films he makes.

Hitchcock’s story telling techniques were famous for their intelligent plots, smart dialogue, and the themes of mystery and murder. He has been credited with revolutionizing the thriller genre. The reason for his success, however, was not the genre that he was working in, but rather the skill which he exhibited in the film-making. One of Hitchcock’s best-known screen moments is the terrifying shower scene in Psycho. This shot features 70 distinct shots in less than 1 minute. This combined sequence of shots makes it difficult to establish the mise en scene from a montage of shots. He also pioneered a shot known as the Dolly Zoom / Vertigo Shot, also known as the Hitchcock Zoom, that works by pulling the camera back whilst zooming in, changing the size of the background of the characters in the shot whilst our perspective of the characters remain the same size. This shot is from a French film called La Haine.