The Auteur Theory

The New Wave's most lasting contribution was the auteur theory: the idea that a film's director is its primary author, just as a novelist authors a book. Argued in the pages of Cahiers du Cinéma, it transformed how critics and audiences understood filmmaking.

Before the theory, directors were technicians hired by studios. After it, they became artists with personal visions — a shift that shaped the careers of Scorsese, Coppola, and Spielberg. The idea has limits, though: films are collaborative, and crowning the director can erase the work of writers, editors, and cinematographers.