Seminar Three: Auteurship and the Avant-garde

Okay, so I'm left completely confused, yet again, by today's seminar and its topic of auteurship and the avant-garde.

From my extremely minute understanding I get that auteurship is a theory that suggests that film directors are artists in their own right. If they have their own style that is recognisable across all of their works and their work is then recognised by the public for this style and their work is distinguishable because of aesthetics and the running themes, then the directors can consider themselves an auteur. I also managed to grasp the idea that auteurship is a response to Hollywood cinema. Directors take risks to break from the 'norm' of what is considered culturally acceptable at the time, which allows for others to follow in wake if they like to. At first their work is criticised, but once it becomes something that is recognised others begin to imitate the style.

Towards the end of the seminar we touched upon avant-garde, which just confused me further, but from what I understand is the implication that progress is always a result of a rebellion against an entrenched establishment. So to me this seems like the same theory as auteurship. The creator or director of a film will purposefully create work that is out of the cultural norm at the time and present it as an art piece that others will latch onto and follow in stride (if that even makes sense).

Overall, what I gleaned from this seminar is that auteurship and avant-garde are simply ways for directors to get themselves noticed for the work they do. Personally I don't see why there is such a fuss over having terms like these. If a director hasn't completely ripped off someone else's ideas then I feel that the work should simply be appreciated for what it is. However, I feel that people are wanting recognition for what they have done more and more, which is why such terms are being used despite the fact that they seem ridiculous. Most people don't want their work to be mistaken for someone else's work but I feel that no one's work is truly original particularly in the film industry, as the stories are created from what they see in the world and more than often a piece of literature.