Authorship

Mass Communication and

Contemporary Society
Lecture 2
 All media is created by an individual or group of
individuals.
But not all media has an author or is felt to be a
creative act worthy of this “authorship” label.
A novel has an “author,” but much everyday
media does not (advertising, YouTube videos, etc).
When it comes to media products like films, TV
Authorshi shows, on-line videos, etc, they are usually
collaborative processes with many dozens or
p hundreds of workers.
However, authorship has become a key aspect in
how we understand and interpret many media
texts.
The Work of Art in the Age
of Mechanical Reproduction
1934 essay by Walter Benjamin
Argues that mass reproduction / mass media
has changed the idea of art
Paintings had an “aura”: there is an “original”
that cannot be completely reproduced (this is
why people go to art museums even though
they can see digital copies online)
This is not the case with mass reproduced art;
however, authorship is one main way in which
this aura gets reproduced in mass culture
 The Author in Media Culture
Today, however, the writer has a very different relationship
to society
Literature is no longer central to the culture
While authors and literary culture still exist, they have
become increasingly marginalized
As a result, many writers now work within other media
forms, even many authors, in order to get their work more
exposure
This is often seen as less authentic or artistic by other
writers and critics or even the writers themselves (“selling
out”)
The Auteur Theory

Auteur: A film director whose personal influence and artistic control over
his or her films are so great that he or she may be regarded as their
author, and whose films may be regarded collectively as a body of work
sharing common themes or techniques and expressing an individual style
or vision.
This theory develops in the 1950s, primarily to establish movies as an
artistic medium that was deserving of serious study.
To be considered “art” mediums are usually organized around a single
author, despite how collaborative the text may be.
A “masterpiece” needs a master (individual) (genius)
 Film is the first “new medium” to
achieve recognition as an “art
form”
However, this did not happen
History: immediately
Cinema as In 1915, the U.S. Supreme Court
determined that film was not
an Art Form protected as speech (unlike
writing)
Thus, it was not considered to have
an “author” but was simply a
consumer product (like cars, bars of
soap, etc.)
Rise of “Art Cinema”
After World War II (1945), there is the
rise of European art cinema in the
United States
Italian Neo-Realism: considered seriously
as art, as opposed to commercial
Hollywood
1952: Supreme Court grants films the
right to free speech for the first time; the
case involves an Italian art film, The
Miracle (directed by Roberto Rossellini)
Film beginning to be seen as an art form;
also, being replaced as popular culture
by television (which would not be taken
seriously as art until many years later)
 Origins of Auteur Theory
Francois Truffaut, “A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema”
(1954)
Argued for the director as the main creative force in film
“There are no good and bad movies, only good and bad
directors”
“camera pen” (Alexandre Astruc)
Became a significant approach to film and its history partly
because many of the French critics (Truffaut, Jean-Luc
Godard, Eric Rohmer) became important filmmakers (French
New Wave)
 Hollywood Cinema
One of the most radical ideas in Truffaut’s essay was
concerning Hollywood
Argued that many Hollywood directors (John Ford, Howard
Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock), often considered simply genre
filmmakers, were in fact great artists, many superior to the
prestigious “art film” directors of France
One of the first critics to take Hollywood seriously
(ironically, when Hollywood itself was beginning to lose
popularity, especially to television)
 Andrew Sarris
American film critic who brought the auteur
theory to American cinema
“Notes on the Auteur Theory” (1962)
The American Cinema (1968)
Ranked directors into various categories
“The Pantheon” “Far Side of Paradise” “Less
Than Meets the Eye”
Very influential on cinema taste in the
following decades
 (1) technical competence (“a
great director has to be at least

Three a good director”)

(2) distinguishable personality
of a director (“the way a film
Premises looks and moves should have
some relationship to how a
of Auteur director thinks and feels”)
(3) interior meaning (the
temperature or the soul of the
Theory director) (Romantic notion)
(difficult to define) (tension
between director and his
material)
 “It is not quite the vision of the
world a director projects nor quite
his attitude toward life. It is
ambiguous, in any literary sense,
because part of it is imbedded in
Sarris on the stuff of the cinema and cannot
be rendered in noncinematic terms.
“Interior Truffaut has called it the
temperature of the director on the
set, and that is a close approximate
Meaning” of its professional aspect. Dare I
come out and say what I think it is
to be is an elan of the soul?”
 Video Essays on the Auteur
The meaning Sarris was trying to express with the phrase “interior
meaning” is perhaps best expressed through the “video essay” form of
film criticism

Two examples:

[Link]

[Link]
#.VewByM7IKH8
Individuality and Mass Culture

The auteur theory was basically trying to find

the individual within mass cultural products.
Much of mass culture was standardized and
homogenous (the same) (the culture
industry) (Theodor Adorno)
The auteur theory argued that, with certain
films and filmmakers, you could see
individuality
Seeing the art within (certain) popular
culture
The Commerce
of Auteurism
Scholar Timothy Corrigan was one of the
first to suggest that authorship has
become a major commercial strategy
within film discourse Auteur as Star
(Brand Name)
Early example: Alfred Hitchcock
“Hitchcock” is now a recognized brand
name within film discourse; other films
are even described as “Hitchcockian”
Films are often marketed by their
director’s name, in both mainstream
cinema and, especially, art and festival
movies.
Critiques of
Auteurism
One of the most outspoken critics of auteurism was Pauline Kael.
Thought auteur critics were judging movies like “buying clothes by
the label: This is Dior, so it’s good.”
Felt a movie needed to be judged by its own merits, not its
author.
Also did not think being distinctive or recognizable was a positive:
“The smell of a skunk is more distinguishable than that of a rose.
Does that make it better?”
Argued film is a collaborative process and rarely the result of a
single sensibility. Kael also liked movies “low-brow” status and did
not want them to become “respectable”
Roland Barthes, “The Death of the
Author”
An even more fundamental challenge to the idea of
authorship, critiquing the idea of the author in literature.
Barthes felt western culture placed too much importance on
the individual creator; instead, he wanted to shift the
emphasis to the reader, who really give meaning to texts
through their interpretation.
“To give a text an author is to impose a limit on that text.”
For Barthes, texts should remain open and not fixed in
meaning.
“The birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of
the author.”
Case Study: Wes
Anderson

Wes Anderson makes his first feature film in 1996, and

has made 10 more features and many short films since
Has a very distinct visual style, to the point that there
are numerous online tutorials on ”how to Wes
Anderson” and even a website devoted to photos that
accidently look like images from his films
[Link]
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[Link]
Also tends towards certain themes, such as nostalgia,
grief, and dysfunctional family relationships
Homework Questions
Due on Sunday, March 16th
Watch the film The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and answer ONE of the
following questions. Also, ask a question about the week’s lecture and/or film.
[Link]
Choose a sequence from the film that best illustrates Anderson’s visual style (3-5
minutes). Do you think this style works well to convey the themes and meanings of the
scene, or is it purely formal?
Although Anderson is clearly an auteur, is this a positive? Do you think you enjoy the
film more because of its distinct style or would the story be better served by a more
conventional approach?
Ask a question about this week’s lecture and/or film.