Is the auteur theory applicable anymore?
- Overall, I believe that because of the amount of collaboration involved in video production nowadays that auteur theory is no longer applicable.
- I think that the only distinguishable thing that can determine authorship now are different leitmotifs which are used by individuals.
- Although, as pointed out by Emily Caston (2015:151) ‘if auteurism is the study of recurrent themes and elements of film style…, then attention needs to focus on the recurrence of these themes across canons of work produced by individual video commissioners, editors, cinematographers, choreographers, production designers, and costume designers.’
- However, this could make analysis difficult because, as also later pointed out by Caston (2015:152) ‘Using the concept of ‘author’ with such widely flexible rules of application dilutes its analytic power.’
- Use of this to determine a good production doesn’t work either because following Andrew Sarris’ criterion of auteur theory, the second of which is ‘the distinguishable personality of the director’ (1974:512), because, as pointed out by Pauline Kael (1963:15), ‘Often the works in which we are most aware of the personality of the director are his worst films- when he falls back on the devices he has already done to death.’
- This is why I believe criticism should not use Sarris’ methods of criterion for auteur theory as it makes criticism a rigid formula.
- I do agree with Sarris on auteur theory could apply ‘to a small number of artists who make personal films, not to the run-of-the-mill Hollywood director who takes whatever assignment is available’ because I think people who make personal films are more auteurs than people who do not, since their experience could be more evident in the final product, but with the amount of collaboration occurring, this is again too difficult to determine.
- It does apply to film more than TV, because the director is involved in most of a film production, from making changes to a writer’s script, determining framing and composition of shots, and sitting with an editor to edit.
Does it apply to television?
(If so, where and if not, why not?)
Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, showrunners of 30 Rock, an NBC sitcom based on Tina Fey's own experience as a writer on Saturday Night Live
- It could be argued to apply to some extent because of the showrunner (writer-producer and creator).
- ‘Some showrunners spend most of their time in the room with the writers; others (particularly those who also star in their series or juggle multiple shows) assign head writers to manage the process. On some sets, the procedure is organic and communal; on others, the showrunner (or sometimes the head writer) takes the raw material generated in the room and rewrites it to give the scripts a uniform voice.’ (Press, 2018:10)
- The extent to which the auteur theory applies depends which of these methods is used, but it applies to the writer as the author, rather than the director. This might be because the TV screen is smaller, so visuals are more compact when compared to cinema.
- In the case of writers/creators such as Stephen Poliakoff, he can be seen as more of an auteur than typical showrunners, because of how ‘the extreme care taken in his authorial practice- scripting, casting, directing and overseeing the editing-aims to secure on screen as precisely as possible images and sounds which carry the distinctiveness of that vision’ (Nelson, 2006:124). Although, this sounds more like practice which is typical of cinema rather than TV.
- In TV, as pointed out by Robin Nelson (2008:123), especially in America, the writing is credited more than the individual writer because of the amount of collaboration involved in writer’s rooms.
References:
Caston, E. (2015) ‘Not Another Article on the Author! God and Auteurs in Moving Image Analysis’ In: online.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk Volume 9, Issue 2 [online] At:http://online.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/pdf/10.3828/msmi.2015.10 (Accessed on 20 March 2018)
Kael, P. (1963) ‘Circles and Squares’ In: Film Quarterly 16 (3) pp. 12-26
Nelson, R. (2006) ‘Locating Poliakoff: an Auteur in Contemporary TV Drama’ In: euppublishing.com 05.2006 [online] At: https://www-euppublishing-com.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/doi/pdfplus/10.3366/JBCTV.2006.3.1.122 (Accessed 20 March 2018)
Press, J. (2018) Stealing the show: How Women Are Revolutionizing Television. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Sarris, A. (1974) ‘Notes on the auteur theory in 1962’ In: Mast, G. (ed.) Film theory and criticism: introductory readings. London: Oxford University Press. pp.500-515.
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