The Auteur Theory
The auteur theory, in short, is the idea that a film will reflect the director's personal creative vision. The term auteur originates from French directors such as Francois Traffaut in the 1950’s who advocated a focus on the contribution directors made on style and form as a film.
“A true film auteur is someone who brings something genuinely personal to his subject instead of producing a tasteful accurate but lifeless rendering of the original material”
Sometimes due to the production of a film as part of the industrial process, an author's creative voice is distinct enough to still be recognisable even through all kinds of studio interference. It is considered that film producers exert a similar "auteur" influence on films they have produced. An auteur is a film maker whose style and practice is distinctive that creates a signature status for themselves. It is the film makers with a signature style who maintain creative control over their work.
This method of film analysis was originally associated with the French New Wave and film critics who wrote for the French film review periodical Cahiers du Cinéma. Auteur theory was further developed a few years later in America by Andrew Sarris through the writings of The Village Voice critic. He used auteur theory as a way to further the analysis of what defines serious work through the study of respected directors and their films.
In law, film is treated as a work of art, and the auteur, as the films creator, is the original copyright holder. Under European Union law, the film director is considered the author or one of the authors of a film, largely as a result of the influence of auteur theory.
