Part III: Do Films Have Authors?

9. La Politique des Auteurs by François Truffaut
10. Auteur Theory and Film Evaluation by Andrew Sarris
11. The Idea of Film Criticismby Pauline Kael
12. Against Authorshipby Stephen Heath
13. DVDs and the Director's Intentions by Deborah Parker and Mark Parker

 

The issue raised in this section is the extent to which films can be seen as the product of a single authorial intelligence. They should watch films that clearly fall into this camp.	Rules of the Game (Régle du jeu) (Jean Renoir, 1939)
Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde inseglet) (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)	There are a wide variety of films that fit this description, including European art films--such as Truffaut's Jules and Jim or Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal-- to American independent films--such as Quentin Tarrantino's Reservoir Dogs. Sarris lists his top twenty directors--these range from Max Ophuls to Jean Vigo, so any of their films would also be useful to include here.
One could also include the work of director working outside of Europe and the USA in order to ask how useful the concept of auteur is in that context. One good example might be Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, since it raises interesting philosophical questions about relativism. In addition, it might be useful to look at the additional material included on the DVD of a film like Fight Club to make the Parkers' claims intelligible.	Clueless (Amy Heckerling, 1995)