Circles and Squares

Abstract

In 1957, in the Paris monthly du Cinema, Frangois Truffaut proposed for the magazine a des auteurs--a policy of focussing criticism primarily upon directors, and specifically upon certain chosen directors whose individuality of style qualified them, in the eyes of the team, as auteurs'--creators in the personal sense we accept for other arts. This doctrine galvanized the Cahiers polemicists, and lent some of the impetus which helped Truffaut, Godard, and many other young men break through as film-makers (and aspiring auteurs). In the years since then, the doctrine has gained adherents in England, chiefly around the magazine Movie, and to some extent in the United States, through the New York Bulletin and Film Culture. In its homeland the politique has led to many peculiar judgments, especially of American film-makers: it is Samuel Fuller, Nicholas Ray, and Otto Preminger who figure as the gods of this new pantheon. The results upon export are turning out to be even more peculiar on occasion. The time seems ripe, therefore, for a direct examination of the Anglo-Saxon version of the des auteurs. Is it, in fact, a new and stimulating approach to films, which ought to displace the tradition of criticism developed by the Sequence and Sight & Sound writers? Pauline Kael offers a resounding negative view; and we anticipate in our next issue a rejoinder by Andrew Sarris, in whose writings the politique has had its most extended and thoughtful American presentation.

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