Auteur Theory

This theory is interesting because it holds the director, not the screenplay writer, as the author of the film. Many theories within film analysis seem to blatantly disregard the director at all when analyzing film and to read about this particular theory made a lot of sense to me as a viewer. Whenever I watch a film I tend to think about the director and their vision for the piece-- what was their intention? Is there a bigger meaning? Does this follow along with the rest of their work?
Reading about the Autuer Theory prompted me to think about another class I'm in this semester, Authors & Genres. It's a class that focuses on two directors per semester and requires the class to view most of their work in chronological order. In addition to analyzing their films from multiple theoretical perspectives, it occurred to me that more often than not we are viewing their movies through the autuer theoretical lens because the class is based around the two directors who created all the films. This semester in particular we are focusing on George Lucas and Ridley Scott-- two directors who have changed the way we view Science Fiction cinema as a whole. It would be difficult to analyze their film without at least touching on who they are as directors.