In fabricating a Godard who satisfied her conception of a high European modernist, Sontag elided his critical perspective, the politique des auteurs (or "auteur theory"), which recognized the artistry of some commercial filmmakers working in relative anonymity in the studios and considered them the peers of any artists, in any art form.
But don't discount Mr. Haneke, an auteur's auteur, who may be recognized for a film that many consider the pinnacle of his career, though a foreign-language entry winning this prize is unlikely.
Evidently Richardson recognized the debt owed by modern auteurs to their predecessors.
"It's a good feeling that the festival still recognizes the value of auteur cinema," said Edward Yang, an American-educated director from Taiwan whose film "Yi Yi" is one of the Asian entries in the official competition.
The greatness of Hitchcock was first recognized and defined by the critics who became the New Wave directors, and their films are what ultimately confirmed the importance of their discovery — of Hitchcock as well as of other Hollywood auteurs, including Welles.
In short, what Truffaut had in mind was to become an auteur like those in Hollywood he so greatly admired a filmmaker who worked within an industry and accepted the commercial norms of that industry to make films that nonetheless were deeply personal and could, by perceptive viewers, be recognized as such.
If you're a fan of intelligent, auteur-directed European cinema, then you might recognize Milanese actress Martina Codecasa from Italian films I Am Love, Terraferma, and On The Sea.
If you've ever seen the vibrant, brutal films of Danish auteur Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Only God Forgives, Bronson), you'll recognize in his work a taste of inspiration from those genre films of yesteryear.
Pop-music snobs usually don't rank Dupri as high as they do auteurs like Dr. Dre and the Neptunes, and they fail to recognize his knack for isolating what is best about a trend and exaggerating it to wonderful effect; if Atlanta snap music is spare and weird, he'll make it positively barren and dissonant.
Being an auteur is essential to their identity (and, blech, brand) and to their relationship with their audiences, that have been taught to recognize that even the latest Batman movie carries a director's credit, his stylistic signature and meanings that the dedicated can take to with pickaxes and endless blog postings.
