Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...

point out the fact that it is only the authority of the director which is being enhanced,
whose name has sometimes become more important and relevant than the movie work
itself. This point was also made by screenwriters and producers who revolted against their
position of subordination since they felt they contributed as much as the director to the
film’s distinctive style, meaning and success. 66 I recognise that this theory continues to
hold some force; it enabled the reassessment of the “second” careers of cineastes that came
to Hollywood. Without it, one would perhaps never have seen due importance given to
masterpieces such as Scarlet Street or Rebecca.
Truffaut’s provocation when saying that “there are no good and bad movies, only
good and bad directors” further stresses that it is the director’s distinctive style or his use of
a consistent theme that impacts on the whole body of his work. For the theory, Cameron
argues that “on the whole, we accept the cinema of directors”, but also adds that it is very
difficult “to think of a bad director making a good film and almost impossible for a good
director to make a bad one” (in Wartenberg 2005:104). In this regard, these assumptions
may contribute to some misinterpretations about what it claims and turn it into something a
bit too vague. One should not ignore that “La Politique des Auteurs” was initially seen as a
coherent policy when it first appeared, couched in aesthetic terms. The term auteur was
indeed first perceived as a synonym for “artist” (which also led to much misleading
definition on the US side, as seen above), but the new conceptual framework had an
important influence on the French film criticism.
When referring to the auteur theory, the name of Alfred Hitchcock is instantly
mentioned. His legendary techniques in camerawork and storytelling and his themes are
accepted as bringing about a revolution in the thriller genre. The skilful ways he treated the
genre stamped a recognisable and distinctive mark in his filmmaking and attracting
audiences. All in all, this is exactly this type of control gained over the filmic statement
that constitutes the core of the auteur theory. About Hitchcock, Astruc effectively writes in
a special issue that:
Quand un homme depuis trente ans, et à travers cinquante films, raconte à peu près
toujours la même histoire : celle d'une âme aux prises avec le mal , et maintient, le
long de cette ligne unique, le même style fait essentiellement d'une façon
exemplaire de dépouiller les personnages et de les plonger dans l'univers abstrait de
66 This hostility was expressed in many different ways. When American novelist and playwright William
Goldman first heard about this theory, he is said to have asked: “What’s the punchline?”
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