Conclusion

My aim of these series of blogs was to study the auteur film theory and to see how it and if it relates with the work of director Jean-Luc Godard. Earlier on in my CRS work I Studied the Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962 essay written by Andrew Sarris, it was written around the time of emergence of the theory and gave me an accurate look at the criteria that the film critics deemed you needed to suffice in, in order to earn the tag of auteur. In my opinion it was a necessity to use a guide written at the time to judge if someone is an auteur or not rather than one written in contemporary times as it seems to me the criterions to be known as one now seem to have slacked some what. It seems fairly easy these days to tag someone as an auteur.
The Guidelines in the essay mainly related to the quality of the films and the interior meaning. I then used Godard films such as A bout de Souffle, Vivre sa vie and Soigne ta doite, and paralleled them to criteria in the essay and in my opinion Godard should undoubtedly be known as an Auteur.
I then looked at criticism of the auteur film theory, I tried to use one of the more prominent opposes of it, and I felt that the film critic Pauline Kael was quite well known so I decided to use her. For her criticisms I made references to her book Circles and Squares, one of arguments was that you shouldn’t applaud someone for just having their own particular style as it is a universal thing to have your own style. I felt that this did not relate particularly to Goddard, as although he does have a strong personal stylistics it is the interior meaning of his film that is applauded. Another of her arguments was that filmmaking is a collaborative effort that involve a big team of people. This is very true and I agree that it does take a number of very skilled people to create a quality film, but because Godard writes, directs and sometimes produces and edits his own film In my opinion he side steps this criticism. In conclusion after my findings I believe that Goddard should be known as an auteur and a genre in his own rights.