Pauline Kael on the Auteur Theory and Martin Scorsese (Research)

Pauline Kale on the Auteur Theory and Martin Scorsese - link

A clip from an archive interview with Pauline Kael from the 'Saturday Night at the Movies' YouTube channel, arguing against the use of the auteur theory.

Well, I think it's perfectly obvious that the director is the key person who has to coordinate the elements of a movie, but it's also true that he needs great collaborators. Without a good script to stand on he can't get very far without good technicians and exactly the right actors he can't do what he wants. I mean, if you, say, wanted Bogart for a picture and prepared it for him and got Robert Cummings you were not able to make the picture you wanted to make and it doesn't matter how great a director you are, you may have a certain amount of style but it will still be probably a deadly movie. You need the right people and you need the right people around you in the crew and you need to keep perspective on what you're doing. A lot of very fine directors lose their perspective in the frantic mess of making a movie and trying to make it without going over-budget and a lot of terrible things happen to wonderful directors. I mean, you take a director like Martin Scorsese. 'Mean Streets' and 'Taxi Driver' are quite marvellously well made, I think 'The Last Waltz' is superlatively made. (Haven't seen that one.) It's a wonderful movie that did not get the showings it should have. 'Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore' was quite well done for what it was, but when he got into 'New York, New York' he lost track of what the script was saying. He started improvising in ways that wrecked the basic structure, he lost the theme, he lost the characters and the picture just went, you know, it dissipated on him. Well, see, the auteur theory doesn't help you there. I mean you have to be able to judge each individual work. I mean of course Scorsese is a talented director, but when he loses the structure of his story, when he loses his theme, he does not make a good movie. The auteur theory does not tell you 'how do we valuate a movie?', it only points up the fact that the director is the key element in movie making.

Key Quotes

"I think it's perfectly obvious that the director is the key person who has to coordinate the elements of a movie, but it's also true that he needs great collaborators."

"I mean you have to be able to judge each individual work. I mean, of course Scorsese is a talented director, but when he loses the structure of his story, when he loses his theme, he does not make a good movie."

"The auteur theory does not tell you 'how do we valuate a movie?', it only points up the fact that the director is the key element in movie making."

"Without a good script to stand on he can't get very far without good technicians and exactly the right actors he can't do what he wants."