I am doing a study at college on Zhang Yimou as an auteur.
What do you think about directors as Auteurs?
Although i disagree with some of the theory, i think Zhang Yimou defineately has his own visual style that can be seen in all his films.


A French term; the auteur theory holds that the director is the true creator, or author, of a film, bringing together script, actors, cinematographer, editor and molding everything into a work of cinematic art with a cohesive vision.


I would really appreciate help with this, as it is my Primary research for my exam.
Thanks.

I had a copy of Andrew Sarris' book American Cinema - Directors & Directions 1929-68. This was one of the key books in the development of the auteur theory and is still available. It considers many key directors (only upto the 60's) and places them in various rankings. An extremely opiniated book, but quite interesting.

I think the BFI website has some material which may be of interest to you, though probably not on Zhang Yimou.

Francois Truffaut, amongst others, delevoped the theory in the early 1950s and started directing films to prove the theory.

I think that the theory may be valid for a few directors but only a few. For a director to be an auteur, he or she must have complete control over the film at all stages. So the average Hollywood director cannot be an auteur. Sarris did not rate Stanley Kubrick as much of an auteur, basically just pretentious. But Kubrick more than virtually any other director had control over his films.

Can a modern director using CGI be an auteur when much of the raison d'etre for the film may be the CGI?

I'm not sure that being an auteur equals being a great film director. One could argue that Ed Wood was an auteur as he was heavily responsible for his films, but hardly great results.