What are the advantages and disadvantages of authorship theo

Before the 1950s the idea of authorship was unusual as the, “industrial nature of film production prevented a single authorial voice making itself heard in film.” This meant the cinema was unable to be regarded as an art. However many companies used a logo before a film and this appeared as mark or authority and in some ways a guarantee of the films artistic value. With the emergence of the idea of the author this ensured that the product was m

Authorship theory has many advantages, this type of criticism allows one to view a director’s whole body of work and trace the recurring themes that are present throughout. It also allows the critic to make judgements as to what is a ‘bad’ and ‘good’ director. The criteria used for this is the idea of metteurs-en-scene versus the auteur. This theory was put forward by the critics who wrote for Cahiers du Cinema they believed that there were, “those directors who simply directed and those who were true auteurs” . In regards to The Palm Beach Story one could say that Preston Sturges was an auteur as he use many areas of mise-en-scene to imply sexual reference, and the amount of double entendre is shocking considering the time the film was made in 1942 when censorship of Hollywood films was very strict.

The advantages of authorship theory is that it brings forward Hollywood films and allows them to be worthy of critical acclaim as the director can be used as a criteria, this ties in with the film The Palm Beach Story which is a classical Hollywood film. Previous to auteur criticism the film would have been dismissed however in the context of Preston Sturges as an auteur the film can take on a new meaning as it would be studied amongst his other films and so authorship theory almost opens up the canon of what films are allowed to used and given critical success.

On the other hand there are many disadvantages to authorship theory. The main concern is the detection of a director’s individualist style over a whole body of work. It does not take into account that the author is just one of many who created the film. Also auteur criticism does not include the society and historical context of when the film was made. With regards to The Palm Beach Story all of Sturges’ use of clever mise-en-scene although apparent to the critic would not appear so extraordinary unless you took in the social context of the film and the censorship that surrounded Hollywood. The critic’s idea of authorship is almost that she/he must transcend history and ideology and this is a big disadvantage to the auteur theory.

The main disadvantages with genre are the problems of definition and demarcation many new films do not fall into a certain character which leads film theorists to the problem of where does

Some topics in this essay:
Beach Story, Judith Mayne, Preston Sturges, Story Sturges’, Capra Authorship, , Morgan Creek, beach story, Palm Beach, palm beach story, authorship theory, palm beach, Andre Bazan, genre theory, screwball comedy, regards palm, preston sturges, regards palm beach, auteur criticism, auteur theory, Lady Eve, disadvantages authorship theory, idea authorship, genre screwball comedy, authorship theory directors,