Overview

An accessible introduction to the concept of the auteur (author) in film theory. Robert Kolker and David Wyatt provide readers with a history of auteur theory, from its initial origins in France in the late 1940s as an outgrowth of the cinematic theories of the French film critics and theorists André Bazin and Alexandre Astruc, to the canonizing work of American film critic Andrew Sarris in the 1960s. After a streamlined account of the various postwar renaissances in film - the shock of “Neorealism”, the “New Wave,” and “New American Cinema” - the book features detailed examinations of the work of forty-eight auteurs, including F.W. Murnau, Jean-Luc Godard, Ida Lupino, Alfred Hitchcock, Yasujirō Ozu, Stanley Kubrick, Spike Lee, Pedro Almodóvar, and Jane Campion. In its focus on a limited number of auteurs, this book aims to offer a map of representative figures rather than an exhaustive or comprehensive list, providing an informative entry point to the study of the auteur. Essential reading for any students of film theory and film studies, particularly those taking classes on the auteur.

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9781032502465

Table of Contents

Reviews

Kolker and Wyatt’s The Film Auteur: Angles of Vision offers an immensely readable and often surprising curation of international directors. With precision and wit, the authors take us on a tour of film history through genres, big ideas, production contexts, and feelings—theirs as well as those inspired by the films they so adroitly discuss. In any given chapter, their tremendous knowledge allows them to navigate an impressive range of topics that varies from one chapter to the next: from behind-the-scenes production stories and selective biography, to formal analysis and interview-style conversations, to insightful birds’ eye view assessments. These are seasoned and serious scholars of film who know their subjects deeply and write about it in a fashion that feels effortless. This book will reward any reader wanting to experience writing about film at its very best. Marsha Gordon, Professor and Director of Film Studies, North Carolina State University, USA.

Author Information

Robert P. Kolker is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Maryland, College Park, United States. He is the author/editor of several books on film including The Oxford Handbook of Film and Media Studies (2008), The Cultures of American Film (2014), The Extraordinary Image: Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and the Reimagining of Cinema (2016), Film, Form, and Culture, 5th edition, with Marsha Gordon (2024), Eyes Wide Shut: Stanley Kubrick and the Making of his Final Film, with Nathan Abrams (2019) and Kubrick: An Odyssey, with Nathan Abrams (2025). David Wyatt is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Maryland, College Park, United States. He is author of several books, including, Five Fires: Race, Catastrophe, and the Shaping of California (1999), Secret Histories: Reading Twentieth-Century American Literature (2010), Hemingway, Style, and the Art of Emotion (2015), and Afterlife: The Strange Fate of Literary Remains (2025).

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