A definitive guide to the theory of film that has influenced
generations of filmmakers and critics
Beginning in 2009, The Museum of Modern Art offered a weekly series of
film screenings titled An Auteurist History of Film. Inspired by Andrew
Sarris' seminal work The American Cinema, which developed on the idea
of auteur theory first discussed by the critics of Cahiers du Cinéma
in the 1950s, the series presented cinematic works from MoMA's expansive
collection with particular focus on the role of the director as artistic
author. Featured works included those by D.W. Griffith, Fritz Lang, Walt
Disney, Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini, Satyajit
Ray, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, Robert Altman, Werner Herzog, Stanley
Kubrick, Martin Scorsese and many more. For the five years that the
series was presented, film curator Charles Silver wrote a concise post
to accompany each screening. These texts described the place of each
film in the oeuvre of its director as well as its significance to wider
film history. Following the end of the series' long run, the Museum has
collected these posts for publication, bringing together Silver's
insightful and often humorous readings of the series' films into a
single volume. This volume is an invaluable guide to key directors and
works of cinema as well as an excellent introduction to auteur theory.
Charles Silver joined the Department of Film at The Museum of Modern
Art in 1970, and has helmed the Film Study Center for the past four
decades. Among his numerous exhibitions are retrospectives for Elia
Kazan, Roman Polanski, John Ford, Charlie Chaplin, Joan Blondell, The
Hubleys, Agnieszka Holland, Anna Mae Wong, John Wayne and Sessue
Hayakawa. Thanks to his dedication to access and belief in film as the
most influential art form of the 20th century, rare are the thesis
papers or books written on cinema in the past 40 years that do not thank
him for his expert guidance.
