Alan, nice summary of the auteur theory, but picking up on
miker's specific question about Kael and Citizen Kane: Andrew
Sarris imported the theory to the US in an article in Film
Culture which he later expanded into the very influential
book American Cinema. Pauline Kael took great umbrage at the
valorization of the director alone and wrote a book about
Citizen Kane, which most credit entirely to Welles, to
"prove" that everything in the movie is in Herman J
Mankiewicz's shooting script, making him the true auteur, or
at least deserving of equal credit. Continuing that line of
thought, Richard Corliss wrote the book Talking Pictures:
Screenwriter in American Cinema, which attempted to do for
screenwriters what Sarris had done for directors; and he got
Sarris to write the preface.
Mark
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