Auteur`s Subjectivity and Film Objectivity

Abstract

As a film director (auteur), I have always been concerned with the form one can choose to represent a story on screen. And to what extent a personal vision can be enhanced or, why not, diminished by the intrinsic objectivity of the film. When I use "objectivity" I mean the inherent actualness of the film image projected on screen (along with its soundscape). How does this actualness ultimately determine the reception of the proposed film (vision), but more importantly, how does the stylistic choice influence the filmmaker's anticipation of this reception? The rules, narrative conventions, structure, cinematography (framing, angles, camera movements, lighting, etc.), sound, editing, etc. do they help or not the speech desired by the auteur (director) of the film? [When I use "auteur" I know that I can be attached to la politique des auteurs (François Truffaut) or the auteur theory (Andrew Sarris). However, I cannot deny the fact that the film is also a joint work, a collaboration between its main auteurs (director, screenwriter, cinematographer, actor, scenographer/costume designer, composer, editor...) – as Pauline Kael and Georges Sadoul.] In this article I will try to briefly analyze this twinning and interdependence between the subjectivity of the auteur (the character) and the objectivity offered by the projection of his vision on screen.