Goldman's Auteur Theory

In film studies, auteur theory amounts to a claim that the director of a film, despite the myriad talents that go into creating it, is in some sense the film’s primary author (Leblanc 19). For cinemaphiles devoted to the work of Hitchcock, Kurosawa, or the Cohen brothers, this claim feels both natural and obvious, given what they perceive as the common formalistic, stylistic and thematic elements in the films attributed to any given director. For film theorists, auteur theory similarly provides a convenient conceptual framework with which to parse and analyze these elements between films (as opposed to within the same film). For the average movie-goer the attribution of a film to a director may provide a helpful variable in the complex calculus of what film to spend their next $15 on. Yet to what extent does auteur theory accurately describe either the actual process of filmmaking or the final result? Does the director’s contribution to a film pervade and determine it so completely that she should be considered its author? William Goldman, veteran Hollywood screenwriter, answers this last question with a resounding “no.” Goldman believes that, at least for Hollywood-produced films, the prevalence of auteur theory in both commercial and academic discussions of films, marginalizes the work and talent of the countless other contributors to a film, and even degrades the director. Goldman views the attributional bias of auteur theory as a pernicious convenience that arose naturally and understandably from the realities of film production and distribution, but a convenience that inaccurately describes both films and the process of film production.

Goldman, notoriously candid about the mechanics behind filmmaking, directing and screenwri...

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Bazin, André. "The Evolution of the Language of Cinema." What is Cinema? Vol. 1. Ed. and trans. Hugh Gray. Berkeley: U of California P, 2005. Print.

Gerstner, David, and Janet Staiger, eds. Authorship and Film. New York: Routledge, 2003. Print.

Goldman, William. Adventures in the Screen Trade. Hachette Digital, Inc., 2012. Print.

Goldman, William. Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade. Random House LLC, 2013. Print.

LeBlanc, Julie M.-A. “Film Theory and Criticism.” Ethnologies (2007): n. pag. www.highbeam.com. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

Lieberman, Evan, and Kerry Hegarty. “Authors of the Image: Cinematographers Gabriel Figueroa and Gregg Toland.” Journal of Film and Video (2010): n. pag. www.highbeam.com. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.