Re: RARA-AVIS: Pauline Kael and Pancake

From: JIM DOHERTY ( jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com)
Date: 02 Oct 2003


Mario,

Re your comment below:

> Gore Vidal thinks the auteur theory is a joke. He
> says
> that, if an "author" is to be found in a film, it's
> the
> screenwriter. Of course, he wrote scripts...

Cop-novelist Gerald Petievich agrees with Vidal. He talks about how little directors actually do in an interview he reproduces on his website.

My own take is that the auteur theory overstates it. Film is a collaborative medium. The director can't do anything without a script. The script doesn't mean anything if there aren't actors giving life to it. And none of them can do anything without a whole army of cinematographers, editors, technicians, etc. each contributing their own little creative bit.

However, to the degree that the director, like the captain of a ship, or the conductor of a symphony, puts it all together according to his own vision, he is the main creative force behind the film. I wouldn't go any farther than that, though.

JIM DOHERTY

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