Auteur Theory

The interesting thing about auteur theory is that it encompasses a wider variety of artists and writers who have a hand in producing film. Auteur theory lead film critics to take a more critical look at American Hollywood films, rather than dismissing Hollywood cinema as a factory-style production line helmed by a director. In reality, there is a whole team of people who have a hand in creating the film. This is an approach that one can take when analyzing films today, where the director often plays an important role but there are many helping hands. The director leaves their own distinct mark on the films that they create, and the audience comes to expect certain features or characteristics when watching hat film. Some modern examples include Baz Luhrmann, Wes Anderson, and Christopher Nolan. Much in the way that audiences have a specific taste in genres, similarly, audiences can have a preference for a certain director's style over another. Auteur theory, according to Andrew Sarris, has three premises: the technical competence of the director as a criterion of value, the distinguishable personality of the director as a criterion of value, and the third is concerned with interior meaning (the tension between a director's personality and their material). While these three premises are taken as a criterion of value, these could also be seen as individual preferences amongst film audiences.