Auteur Theory media n. an approach to film criticism that emphasizes the role of the individual director (the Auteur or author) in giving particular aesthetic shape to a film, or to a body of film work, in terms of its visual style, thematic concerns, scripting and acting, so that it becomes an expression of their personal vision. The approach was associated with French New Wave criticism and in its stress on the individual director emphasized the role of the autonomous artist over the constraints of Hollywood’s studio production line approach and its associated commercial pressures. mmo
