This has to be one of the best channels on youtube. Thank you so much.

I like Pauline Kael's take, as outlined here. The problem with hipster art, is it often becomes a reverb-chamber of a short list of acceptably cool styles. The best art is usually both innovative and appealing to the masses. The passage of time can be a great test of artistic merit.

because of you i might be able to pass my film degree!

This is the *only* YT channel that I'm willing to watch videos longer than a *few minutes*. Always entertaining and informative, thank you!

It's very interesting to watch this again after a year away. Again, I've primarily been a stage actor, but I'm trying to get into more screen roles. This year, I've been working on a film with a very strong vision from the director-writer (and probably editor). It was very interesting to me, though, how much input the DP has in this collaboration. Not wanting to be too big (always the theater actor's worry), I was constantly asking about framing, and it was usually the DP that answered me. He also gave me some acting tips (direction) that were more helpful than the those from the director - such as how much I can move, should I turn just a peck more to the right. He understood the characters and scenes as much as the "creator" (director), and their collaboration was fascinating to me. Which makes me wonder even more about the relationship between these two roles - in our film, the director had storyboarded everything, but it seemed the DP was making as many choices as possible, based on the original intent. (Side note: it's my first time working with green screen, compositing, miniatures, puppet-demons, as well as my first time attempt at some ADR - in French, a language I don't speak, and it was tough enough to do on set - in a couple days.) Thanks, again, John, for your wonderful insights!

John's passion and how well suited he is to make such presentations makes such a subject quite engaging.

I hope someone responsible for Filmmaker IQ reads this.. I subscribed about a minute in. Very nice, factual and down to earth, while still having enough graphics to make the points come across. It is so nice to see a channel, once in a while, that isn't just flashy fast-paced clickbait in video format. Pretty please do keep up the good work.

"...while systematically butchering the pronunciation of several French words." Love it. / Really fascinating breakdown. As always, guys.

Just wanted to say that I love your videos. I've been watching them for a long time now and they're great. Very explanatory, well edited, and of course chock-filled with great examples of both Film History and Theory. Hopefully you continue to produce them so I can continue to enjoy them for much time to come.

John, thank you for putting together such great lessons. I have used many of these to not only spur discussion in my high school film production course, but to inspire the upcoming generation of young filmmakers.

It's actually scary how much of a Paulette I was before even hearing about Pauline Kael.

14:41 THANK YOU for discussing the myth that Tim Burton was the creative genius behind The Nightmare Before Christmas. I loved the movie, but I've always had a love-hate relationship with Burton, largely stemming from my feelings that one of his major claims to fame was truly someone else's work that he gave the idea to then slapped his name on.

An excellent study material . I take my hat off for each new lecture. And I hope that this invaluable guide will continue for a long time .. Cheers !!

Thanks again for your great work. This is really a high quality channel. I hope you get a lot more subscribers. This channel deserves it. Keep up the amazing work.

This is so great, i literally learn more from you than from school.

When asked "So what do you do?" and the answer is "I make film" or "I am in the film business" one usually thinks of directors for they are the ones having to make all the crucial decisions and supervise everyone else's too. Consider making of a film just like the construction of the building. There is the person who pays for everything ,the one who makes sure everything is legal and paid for (producer), the architect who makes the initial drawings (writer), civil and mechanical engineers who work on those drawings (production planning team), the workers who carry out their orders ,while putting some of their own touch (technicians), the chief supervising engineer (director) who sometime is the architect himself and the materials or furniture that define what the building will look like (cast members). Changing just one of them the building will never be the same. So you see, making the building is a team's work but some people's work, but not all team members receive the same payment or credit.

Great video, as always. Please don't stop making videos!

Another great piece John! Keep them coming please!

I love this channel so much.

Great video, as always!

great video !! i love how in the end you say something really encouraging !!! thanks for that !

God, I love this channel!

Thank you, great as always.

That was very interesting, but my god, the pronunciation of those French words. I'm in pain right now.

Another great video, very informative thx!

i thoroughly enjoy this series

Who needs film school when you have filmmaker IQ!

just rewatched these, still very good

Hry brother, thst was a lot of work. Nicely done and thank you.

John, I am impressed,,, ​your French is on point. Don't know how many bloopers you went thru to get to the final cut, no matter, you sir are a wealth of knowledge!

An absolutely fantastic video, pieced together well and great references.

thanks a ton!

You´re always making great stuf man!!! :D

Great video, and break down, of a topic that many up and comers need to learn, to grow on they're journey to what ever they wish to master...

In my opinion I believe that a director can only be an Auteur when he had a strong hand in the other aspects of film making e.g writing, story boarding, music etc. Someone like Miyazaki would fit into this category as he does many roles in the film making process, even collaborating with Joe Hisashi on the music.

Another good video! I liked the history part of this video

Thank you for this. Truly helpful. Sadly, I got more information on this topic by watching this video than listening to 3 one-hour lectures at the best filmmaking degree course in Britain. Again, thank you.

this was such pleasurable 17:37 minutes! I did not expect the end and embarrassingly, I teared up :) keep up the good work!

Great video!

Merci ! Great video !

Honestly, that notion of "no good or bad films only good or bad directors" is utter trash.

Kael has it right, and you have the best filmmaker channel on youtube, by far.

Very good vidéo, as usual. Thank you. Merci à vous, monsieur Hess. ;-)

Love ❤️

Love the simplicity of this channel

Thanks for the heads-up about you butchering the French language! Though you had some of them right, the majority was kind of gibberish to a French guy like me, but as you always write concepts and names, it was kinda funny to compare how we would pronounce it here and how you tried to do so there. Great video, as always, and impressive archives too! Was that hard to find those early French films excerpts? ;)

Je prends l'examen final pour le cinéma français demain...facile à comprendre, très utile : merci !

12:05 I saw you holding back laughter there. Anyway, did you know a few of your videos are being presented as a resource by my film history college professor? These are really good.

John, you did again! Great work!!

How in the hell dont you have hundreds of thousands of views or even millions? Great work...

Brilliant as ever!

My brain is blowing ....I'm so grateful for your research...thankyou so much

I do a film education in The Netherlands and some of the things we already learned about. it's nice to know more details about it!

I didn´t know there was a term for this, but I understand the "theory". I know alot of people who won´t see a film or must see it just because of someone. Not necassary because of the director, it´s as mentioned in the end of the video maybe more of some of the cast for the casuals and some of the crew for the die hards like me. To be honest, there are alot of movies that I have watched "just because" this way, Harryhousen movies for starters.

Very informative

Wes Anderson was distracting me with his style when I seen the skiing chase scene, from the movie 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' imposing his style to look like a scene from the puppet TV show Thunderbirds. That was the first idea that came to mind about a director style influence. I hope the new site will come back soon. Facebook is fine and all but it's not the same.

Great video! subscribed :)

Excellent work! Your lecture really demystifies several questions I had on auteur theory.

I understand what you mean when you describe early French silent film as Avant Garde, but to be considered Avant Garde would that not mean established methods and ideas would have to have be subverted or twisted? And with it being so early in the life of film as an art form were there already established methods and ideas to be experimented with?

John Hash is superb. He is the rare man, who can produce confidence in one's heart as well as describes the history so well. Great.

Stylo = Steelo lol great video

Excellent effort on pronouncing French words. Of course excellent details, I don't know how you are able to research all this and bring it across in a way that we can understand. Is this "auteur"? Keep it up.

Another video I enjoyed watching. Thank you. You need to set up an interview with Osborne or Mankiewicz on TCM for some film segments. :) Thanks for not showing the slicing of the mule’s eye in UN CHIEN ANDALOU scene. After suffering through 2 World Wars and Nazi occupation, the French were certainly entitled to some pleasant distractions Like Sarris’ theory. Especially ‘distinguishable personality’ Pauline Kael acted like a professional Troll. Kael never made a film, but was convinced she knew how to make a ‘good’ film. Hawks, Hitchcock, and Welles worked with their own tight knit group of actors and crew. Hawks, in an interview, said he would get good ideas from his crew on set whenever he encountered a scene that wasn’t working.

I wish this video was uploaded this time last week, when I was writing an essay about the auteur theory.

thank you sir for helping me with my A level film homework. Never thought Al from Al's Toy Barn would be such an important part of my life

Great once again, your french wasn't too bad ! ;) Just : François = Fran-ss-ois The "ç" means the "c" sounds like "ss", and not like "k".

So informative

Love it

One could argue that the communication to a team of people is what makes a great film. As you say in your excellent summary and history of the auteur theory the vision may come from many places not just the director. However, if you are unable to communicate and share that vision then the chances are the film will suffer. This was a great film on a wonderful subject, thank you.

Very nice how you tied it up with the question "why can't that person be you?" Nice bit of inspiration. Thanks as always for these great videos!

Hi Filmmaker IQ , I would love u guys to make a video on history of productions house and their workings and their different conflicts i absolutely love the videos you post its very educational i would love if u did that.

Thank you for very nice and cohesive comment on auteur theory. I´m grateful especially for the second part about Sarris and Kael, because it is not so well known (outside usa) - on the other hand the french story is little bit simplistic. The problem with Truffaut + the rest of Cahiers was that they were too young to be the measure of things. The pamphlet - Certain tendency… was trying to provoke reaction attacking the best cinema + used the poor guys as Autant-Lara etc. (naming them „cinema of quality“) as a contrast to people as Bresson, Cocteau or others „darlings“ of Cahiers. But if you watch Truffaut´s movies since the late 60s you´ll see that there is not much of experimenting and he actually makes hommage to „metteur en scene“ in Day for Night (73), which has been famously criticezed by Godard. Mr. Godard is other case - he was actually againts mise-en-scene even as a critic - not mentioning he was (and is) compeletely nuts and since the 70s almost unwatchable. Chabrol was actually making no experiments and all the time mainly crime stories as all the „cinema of quality“ guys did years before him - because there is huge tradition of crime cinema in France. Maybe the only guy who stuck with mise-en-scene was Rivette - but he was completely forgotten till the early 90s. But these 5 guys (+Rohmer) were not the main strain of french cinema even during the hype of nouvelle vague in the early 60s - there are tons of directors that has been forgotten - actually beacause they make the Cahiers-nouvelle vague-point of view too complicated - thus skip them (I mean - Malle, Lelouch or Deville + many others). Other problem with Cahiers is that there not much known about the criticism they caused in their time and rejective reactions as in case of revue Positif / Cahiers also went completely nuts during the 70s New Hollywood era - actually rejecting majority of movies produced in Hollywood that actually worshipped the cult of Cahiers. On the contrary they have been praised by Positif + Michel Ciment. I pressume you´re read the Cahiers volumes translated by Hillier - and for myself I have to say that 70% that Cahiers wrote is utter rubbish - and auteur theory - at least in the classical sense as being created by Cahiers - is huge misunderstanding and is causing nowadays lot of damage for cinema history. I understand that it caused huge turmoil and changes in the thinking of many directors but in the essence it was (a) very superficial and with many logical gaps + (b) betrayed by the founding fathers as Truffaut

before watching this I had totally dismissed auteur theory as the work of self-important directors and clueless critics, but now I see it's merits in the context of it's history, thankyou.

Its true that more credit should to be given to the rest of the teem, with some films the director is mere management. For example, the later epics by David Lean ( Lawrence of Arabia, Dr Zhivago, Ryan's daughter) mostly resound the talents of the cinematographer and writer (Freddie young & Robert Bolt) more than Lean himself.

Is it possible to suggest a topic for the next video or is there a set curriculum? If so, could you guys do a video on the use of handheld cameras through the history of cinema?

Camera Stylo. Looks like there's too much Camera Toilet.

God i love this channel!

Could someone elaborate more on the interior meaning part Thanks!

I'm with Pauline Kael 100% on this one. Another great video, John.

so should i go to film school or just watch all of filmmaker IQ's videos?

The really important thing that auteur theory brought us is the recognition of a movie as the effort and vision of a individual, many people steel dont know that is someone behind the camera

I love your videos so much.

Nice

The "ç" in "François Truffaut" is pronounced like a "s". Great video anyway.

Oh, come now! EVERYONE knows "The Big Bus" was the greatest film ever made! The greatest line ever spoken in the history of the cinema has to be; "I don't care what anyone says! I DID NOT eat one hundred and ten passengers! It was my co-driver, Benidx! I only ate a foot!" The depth of that statement alone could lead one to a life of inner reflection and enlightenment! See what I did there? My point is that the film stands on its own merits in the end. I love your channel!!!!

Another very informative video - thank you! After just watching your take on acting (which, as an actor, is a good refresher), I've been through my social media thread, and there's a theater director friend who is constantly going on about the importance of the director in theater, which in my opinion is different than the importance of the director in film. I understand that, in film, a director's wishes will probably win out over a writer's, whereas, in theater, I think the writer is the "author" and the rest of us are interpretive artists. It's a fascinating idea, but I think I'm on the side with the Paulettes (and John's side - a lot of people have to work together to make a movie).

Could someone plese explain by what Kael meant by Judge the artist by the movie not the movie by the artist

Thanks for this academic piece. It is enlightening for budding artists and craftsmen. I enjoy movies alot and aspire to be an author one day, this topic certainly puts art into perspective. Paulettes and Sarristes' thoughts were both important with both having their own merits. I especially liked how you tied it all up in the end. Good job and keep it up!

Who would be considered a modern auteur? John posted a list of the classic auteur, but how about a list of modern auteur?

Good and informative video, but i noticed one mistake. Truffant wrote about "ceirtain tendency in french cinema" in 1954 and Andre Bazin wrote aboute "les politique des auteurs" in 1957

So the appearance of Truffaut in Spielberg's Close Encounters is quite interesting.

so you're telling me that Michael Bay can be regarded as an auteur?

Really appreciate this! Helped me so much for studying Fincher's work for A Level Film Studies.

Yeah, so you just did in 17,1/2 min. what some college professors spend a whole semester doing. Great job on this one.

what a wonderful video, so sir to make it clear to me, can we consider you auteur?

This seems to me not that hard to keep straight. You can talk about a film ONLY . . . or you can talk about a film AND its Director. They're two different conversations, each having its own standards. Don't confuse the two . . . and there's no conflict or contradiction.

Great video! Yeah, a lot of words mispronounced (some not even French) Actually in the early days of French cinema before the Cahiers de Cinema it was thought that when reproducing material such as books and plays the author of the film was not the director but rather the original author of the book or play. Until the Cahiers crowd stood up against that notion, and encouraged directors to take hold of the material. Andrew Sarris, like you mention, then took the French idea of Auteur and expanded upon it creating what the term is today. Also "mise en scene" is much more than just what you mentioned. "Mise en scene" is the look and feel of the scene. It involves everything from decor, costume and blocking, all of which the director has the final say on.

I absolutely adore your work. I'm learning so much, even though I'm not even close to the film or media industry. Note: Ç is usually pronounced like an S, not as a K. Not the Z version of tye S mind you. François is thus more like Fransois, with the last S silent.

Unless the director funds the entire project, studio films are investment vehicles expected to appeal to a mass audience and generate a return on the investors who fund the project. i.e. Blade Runner was a classic battle between book author, director, and studio footing the bill. Those with the money had no artistic interest in the outcome, they were simply worried about getting their money back via ticket sales. They are the ones who demanded the narration because they couldn't follow the story -- this is what happens when socially disconnected sociopaths with money are running the show.

how did he just pronounce Coraline .. im baffled