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FTV Examining the Auteur: Contemporary Directors

Midterm

While you may respond to these questions using paragraphs, there is no need to have thesis

statements. （ex. Truffaut said bulabulabula in page 40）Make sure you answer all of the prompts within the question.

Try to answer it more like your own thought, your understanding and your ideas, how your thought connected with these authors, not just quotes and don’t write like a research paper.

1. Auteur theory is initially attributed to François Truffaut. Explain the cinematic traditions that Truffaut found problematic in “A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema.” In your response, clarify how the terms “Tradition of Quality,” and “psychological realism” play a role in Truffaut’s essay. Mention where he stands on auteur cinema and the “Tradition of Quality” cinema and his description of auteurs.

2. Andrew Sarris brought auteur theory to the United States. List his three premises of auteur theory and then mention how his explanations are lacking. In your critique of Sarris, use at least two authors – Pauline Kael, Graham Petrie, and Angela Martin.

3. S. V. Hartman and Farah Jasmine Griffin analyze Julie Dash’s Illusions (1982) and they consider the projection scene a significant part of the film. Describe why the authors feel that Esther Getter’s voice was violently appropriated and the reason they feel that Esther’s

relationship with Mignon Dupree is a farce.

4. Patricia Mellencamp argues that Illusions shows how Hollywood erased Black women

historically and in representation. Discuss how Mellencamp views on Illusions are different than

Hartman and Griffin. Also note the ways Mellencamp exposes how whiteness in film was not

neutral and used as a type of continuity of style along with the Production Code.