Research Paper: Exploring Auteur Theory

In a 1954 essay, “Une Certaine Tendance of Cinema Francaise” (“A Certain Tendency of French Cinema”), French film critic and director François Truffaut introduced his Auteur Theory. In essence, it held that that a director should be regarded as the primary creative force behind a film. As the “author,” a director’s sensibility so permeates a film that it ultimately bears his or her distinctive mark. This, of course, flew in the face of the collaborative nature of filmmaking, which involves everyone from scriptwriters to actors to makeup artists. Later, critic and director Alexandre Astruc contributed his “caméra-stylo” (“the camera-pen”), the notion that a director and camera are akin to a writer and pen. Still, not all directors were considered auteurs. As American critic Andrew Sarris put it, “The strong director imposes his own personality on a film; the weak director allows the personalities of others to run rampant.” Thus, auteurship was reserved for those directors whose artistic vision leaves a distinct and indelible imprint on their oeuvre, or body of work.

For your research paper, you will examine the selected work of one of the following directors. After briefly explaining Auteur Theory, you must present your argument for or against your director meeting the definition of an auteur. You may focus on any aspect of your director’s personal or professional life, as well as any technical components of his or her films (e.g. mise-en-scène, theme). Additionally, you may consider other films by your director (as well as short films, television series, commercials, and music videos), but your primary focus must be on these four films.

Choose one director from the following list:

Woody Allen:

1. Annie Hall
2. Broadway Danny Rose
3. Crimes and Misdemeanors
4. Midnight in Paris

Wes Anderson:

1. Bottle Rocket
2. Rushmore
3. The Royal Tennenbaums
4. Moonrise Kingdom

Judd Apatow:

1. The 40-Year-Old Virgin
2. Knocked Up
3. Funny People
4. This is 40

Kathryn Bigelow:

1. Blue Steel
2. Point Break
3. The Hurt Locker
4. Zero Dark Thirty

Tim Burton:

1. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
2. Edward Scissorhands
3. Big Fish
4. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Bill Condon:

1. Gods and Monsters
2. Kinsey
3. Dreamgirls
4. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Parts 1 & 2

Alfonso Cuarón:

1. A Little Princess
2. Y Tu Mamá También
3. Children of Men
4. Pan’s Labrynth

Jane Campion:

1. Sweetie
2. The Piano
3. The Portrait of a Lady
4. Bright Star

Frank Capra:

1. It Happened One Night
2. You Can’t Take It with You
3. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
4. It’s a Wonderful Life

Charlie Chaplin:

1. The Kid
2. The Circus
3. City Lights
4. Modern Times

The Coen Brothers:

1. Raising Arizona
2. Barton Fink
3. Fargo
4. No Country for Old Men

Sofia Coppola:

1. The Virgin Suicides
2. Lost in Translation
3. Marie Antoinette
4. Somewhere

Guillerno del Toro:

1. Cronos
2. The Devil's Backbone
3. Hellboy
4. Pan's Labyrinth 

Clint Eastwood:

1. Unforgiven
2. Million Dollar Baby
3. Flags of Our Fathers
4. J. Edgar

Nora Ephron:

1. This is My Life
2. Sleepless in Seattle
3. You've Got Mail
4. Julia & Julia

Asghar Farhadi:

1. Beautiful City
2. Fireworks Wednesday
3. About Elly
4. A Separation

Bob Fosse:

1. Sweet Charity
2. Cabaret
3. Lenny
4. All That Jazz

Lasse Hallström:

1. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
2. The Cider House Rules
3. Chocolat
4. Salmon Fishing in Yemen

Curtis Hanson:

1. L.A. Confidential
2. Wonder Boys
3. In Her Shoes
4. Chasing Mavericks (co-directed with Michael Apted)

Todd Haynes:

1. Poison
2. Safe
3. Far From Heaven
4. I’m Not There

Alfred Hitchcock:

1. Rear Window
2. Vertigo
3. Rope
4. Psycho

Stanley Kubrick:

1. Lolita
2. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 
3. A Clockwork Organge
4. Full Metal Jacket

Alejandro González Iñárritu:

1. Amores Perros
2. 21 Grams
3. Babel
4. Biutiful

Jean-Pierre Jeunet:

1. Delicatessen
2. La Cité des Enfants Perdus (co-directed with Marc Caro)
3. Alien Resurrection
4. Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain

Ang Lee:

1. Sense and Sensibility
2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
3. Brokeback Mountain
4. Life of Pi

 Spike Lee:

1. Do the Right Thing
2. Jungle Fever
3. Get on the Bus
4. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts

Jerry Lewis:

1. The Nutty Professor
2. The Bellboy
3. The Ladies Man
4. Cinderfella

Baz Luhrmann:

1. Strictly Ballroom
2. William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet
3. Moulin Rouge!
4. Australia

Nancy Meyers:

1. What Women Want
2. Something's Gotta Give
3. The Holiday
4. It's Complicated

Hayao Miyazaki:

1. Kiki's Delivery Service
2. Princess Mononoke
3. Spirited Away
4. Ponyo

Mira Nair:

1. Salaam Bombay!
2. Mississippi Masala
3. Monsoon Wedding
4. The Namesake

Mike Nichols:

1. The Graduate
2. Silkwood
3. The Birdcage
4. Closer

Alexander Payne:

1. Election
2. About Schmidt
3. Sideways
4. The Descendants

Satyajit Ray:

1. Pather
2. Panchali Aparajito
3. The World of Apu
4. Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne

Robert Rodriguez:

1. El Mariachi
2. Spy Kids
3. Once Upon a Time in Mexico
4. Sin City

John Singleton:

1. Boyz in the Hood
2. Higher Learning
3. Poetic Justice
4. Baby Boy

Julie Taymor:

1. Titus
2. Frida
3. Across the Universe
4. The Tempest

  Lars von Tier:

1. Breaking the Waves
2. Dancer in the Dark
3. Dogville
4. Melancholia

James Whale:

1. Frankenstein
2. The Old Dark House
3. The Invisible Man
4. The Bride of Frankenstein

 Robert Wise:

1. West Side Story
2. The Haunting
3. The Sound of Music
4. Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Requirements:

• A minimum ten pages in length
• MLA Style, including parenthetical citation
• A minimum of six outside sources (not including films)—at least three sources from peer-reviewed academic texts 
• Works Cited page

The best research papers will:

• Have a clear thesis to guiding its examination
• Stay within the parameters
• Contain an in-depth analysis of your director's films
• A conclusion that illustrates an understanding of Auteur Theory and the oeuvre of your director

Guidelines:

• Keep in mind that not all of a director’s “imprints” might be left consciously. It is said that a work of art is often a subconscious reflection of the artist. Therefore, a study of your director’s personal life is key.
• Feel free to take risks. You will not be penalized for a theory that doesn’t ultimately pan out if you lay it out logically and with appropriate evidence. Playing it safe, however, may cost you.
• Auteur Theory is exactly that, a theory. Therefore, it is fair to question it—and many critics and filmmakers have. Many have taken issue with the notion that a director should get full credit for a film that dozens, if not hundreds, have contributed to. While you may question Auteur Theory, be careful not to make that the focus of your paper. You are tasked with demonstrating why your director is or isn’t an auteur, not questioning the legitimacy of Auteur Theory. 
• When discussing films, keep the summary to a minimum. This paper should be more about deconstructions than overviews.

Here are a few articles to help you understand Auteur Theory, as well as how to “read” a film:

• “Francois Truffaut and Auteur Theory” (Notes on Short Film)
• “Strengths and Weaknesses of the Auteur-Structuralist Theory of Film Authorship with Application to David Fincher’s ‘Fight Club’" (Film Shaun)
• "The Case for Michael Bay as Visionary Auteur" (Film School Rejects)
• “How to Read a Film” (Roger Ebert)
• "Some Suggestions on 'How to Read a Film'" (Michael Goldberg)

Due:

Week 06
Th 07.11: Draft 1—Up to approx. p. 4 (bring two copies)

Week 07
Th 07.18: Draft 2—Up to approx. p. 6 (bring two copies)

Week 08
Th 07.25: Draft 3—Up to approx. p. 8 (bring two copies)

Week 09
Th 08.01: Final draft