Arteur Theory


Arteur theory is the idea of filmmaking that holds that a film reflects the directors personal creative vision.Auteur theory was first established in the late 1940s after the Andre Bazin and Alexandre Astruc was outgrown. The Auteur theory focuses on:
1- Indivudual stylistic features
2- How texts are determined by artists creativity
3- How texts emerge as part of an artists body of work


Some of the most well know for  using of developing the Autuer theory are Alfred Hitchcock, Brian De Palma  and FrancoisTruffaut. All three had an influence on thetheory.


Alfred Hitchcock was often acknowledged for his skill, some elements of Hitchcock's style consists of:

• The cool platinum blonde
• An innocent man accused
• Restricting the action to a single setting to increase tension
• Climax plot twist
• The presence of a domineering mother in her childs life
• Characters who switch sides and/or cannot be trusted.

Brian De Palma has directed many films including Carrie and The Untouchables. He sparked alot of controversy within the film industry with film critics and the public because he did many psychological films which had graphic violence. As well has his that he was also highly regarded my film critics for his obscure camera angles and compositions. Most well known would include the split screen technique, showing to seperate events at one time, another would be framing the characer using a canted angle against the background.


Francois Trufaut contributed to the origins of the theory and stated that directors should use the mise-en-scene to leave a mark on their work. He still remains an icon of the French film industry because of his long career and amount of films he worked on, acounting to 25 films. Trafaut wrote an article called 'une certaine Tendance du Cinema Francais', translated to 'A certain trend of French cinema'. This article was very controversial, because of the way traffaut talked about the state of French films and certain screenwriters and producers, not always talking about them positively.This was when the Auteur theory was born which simply said that the director was the 'author' of his work.