Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962

In Andrew Sarris’s article, “Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962”, he lays out three important premises of auteur theory. The first premise relates to the technical competence of the director. The second premise I found to be the most interesting, it relates to the distinguishable personality of a director. This premise must be looked at over a group of films by a single director, not just a single masterpiece. The second premise talks about the director’s signature on his or her films which is created through recurrent characteristics of style that can be seen throughout all the work of a single director. When you watch the Wes Anderson films, it is easy to see this premise throughout his work. His visual style remains constant throughout the majority of his films. The third premise of auteur theory revolves around interior meaning. Sarris says that this is the ambiguous because it his hidden inside the cinema and cannot be rendered in non-cinematic terms. But, I believe that this is the most important premise. Without a director’s internal meanings, the film contains very little reflection of their personal ideals. At the end of the chapter, Sarris notes that auteur theory is in constant flux, as new directors emerge on the scene the list of great auteurs continues to grow, shift, and change.