Does it Really Matter Who Authors a Movie?

Have you ever taken a second to think just what it means when you read the words A _______ ________ Movie, with the blanks being filled in by the director's first and last names? If you pick up a novel and read that it is A Stephen King Novel, aren't you pretty sure that just about everything word and idea in the book came from the mind of just one man, Stephen King? Do you ever stop to think that every word and idea in a movie came from the mind of the director?

Up until the late 50's and early 60's the average moviegoing American could probably name only one film director. That man was Alfred Hitchcock and many of those who could name him probably knew him better as the host of his own TV anthology show than as the director of one of their favorite movies. For the first 50 years of filmmaking the director was probably about as well known among most of his audiences as the cinematographer, editor or writer of his movies. This began to change in the late 50s and early 60s as a result of what came to be known as the auteur theory.

The auteur theory was born in France in the 50s as a collection of film critics began to rebel against the French view that the screenwriter was the author of the film. This was a literary view widely held among French critics of the time. The "new wave" of critics sought to establish that since film was a moving image, it was actually he who was in control of the image who was the real "author" of the film. They turned their attention to Hollywood and lauded such film directors as Alfred Hitchcock and Howard Hawks as true visionaries who were the authors of their film despite not having a hand in the actual screenwriting. The auteur theory was born in an attempt to establish the director as more than just another hired hand, but as the true guiding light behind the entire filmmaking enterprise. It should come as little surprise that these critics would move beyond mere criticism and actually become directors themselves.