WITH SUMMARY OF THE DIRECTOR AS AUTEUR
"Though it’s a contentious subject," begins MovieFinatics in a "Director Series" post ranking the blogger's top ten Brian De Palma films, "I believe mainly in the auteur theory – which is a way of looking at cinema with the director as the 'author' of this work. It’s controversial because the film is one of the most notorious collaborative exercises one can get involved in. I don’t think the auteur theory disses the idea that cinema isn’t cooperative. Instead, it’s a theory that argues that a film reflects the director’s artistic vision. A movie directed by a particular filmmaker will have recognizable, recurring themes and visual cues that inform the audience who the director is. The French New Wave movement in the 60s popularized this. When you think of auteur theory, the number one director that comes to mind is Alfred Hitchcock, who the French New Wave and the Cahiers critics heavily championed. The career of Alfred Hitchcock had a significant impact on filmmaker Brian De Palma, who emerged out of the anti-war 60s with other New Hollywood figures like Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Paul Schrader. These filmmakers were the first generation to go to film school and study film. They would go on to redefine Hollywood cinema. Of all those filmmakers, perhaps the most underrated impact has to do with De Palma."
With that, the post delves into some background of the critical response to De Palma's work, and some of the director's themes and techniques, before a ranking of the blogger's top ten choices.