Notebooking Cinema
Notebooking Cinema
Dir22
Pauline Kael on Auteur Theory
23 minutes Posted May 11, 2025 at 8:45 am.
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This discussion is from another foundational article T titled "Circles and Squares" by Pauline Kael, published in Film Quarterly in 1963. Kael critically examines the "politique des auteurs," or auteur theory, particularly as adopted in England and the United States. She argues against its core premises, including technical competence, distinguishable personality, and interior meaning as criteria for evaluating a director's work, using examples and analogies to illustrate her points. Kael posits that the theory often leads to misplaced praise for commercial, formulaic films and dismisses the importance of story content and overall artistic vision. She suggests the theory stems from a potentially anti-art stance and a desire by some critics to justify their focus on "trashy" films.