As we come to a close for the semester, we end with auteur theory and a taste of art cinema.  And yes, the journals have been read already (which is why the post is late). because of many individual contributions, i.e. music, writing; the idea of auteur becomes the combining force & the catalysts for the individual parts leaves room for auteur as individual (final determining creative force) & as combining force in “new” Hollywood, defining auteur is difficult if even possible – auteur names are thrown around as labeling for cataloging & marketing (a film by James Cameron) other kinds of auteurs

studios – a particular house style | Warner Bros. in 1930’s producer – certain visions in each work | Jerry Bruckheimer star – takes over film, a “star” signature | Kevin Costner, Johnny Depp spectator – meaning is only created in act of reading – an encoded message (text)

remains only as potential meaning until it’s decoded by a reader (or spectator) different readers come to a text with own specific social, cultural, & psychological formations as individuals text is “authored” by the reader rather than by text’s originator

auteur based critical approach

auteur director regarded as “persona” his role must be excavated through critical analysis emphasis on biographical is common need to have available generic structure of auteur to evaluate film to even if spectator ignorant of auteur structure, simple power of naming remains significant

power of name recognition name as trademark or guarantee name-tag commodity (Spielberg)

auteur study attempts to establish set of thematic & stylistic features (a signified) for the auteur name (the signifier)

more so done by auteur who quite consciously puts in place components of an identity which his name can then be said to signify

today, director of strives self-consciously to construct recognizable auteur identity to confirm commercial & critical existence of name they bear

real challenge is examining work of directors whose work is so varied we are tempted to artificially limit range & scope of work for purpose of critical neatness

such as developing a check list to apply to all films of specific director

auteur structure doesn’t offer itself as schema for audience to work with although additional layers of meaning & response can emerge when a body of films which have shared auteur origins Remember that we have a make-up class on Monday!  Any suggestions for a topic of interest or anything you would want to discuss more from class?  We will also review for the final exam.