Part of the trouble with auteur theory—the idea that a director is the primary “author” and creative force of a movie—is that (apart from the fact that many great films from great filmmakers are a collaborative process in which the director is less a composer than a conductor) the level of authorship has a tendency to go to the head of the auteur in question.

When you see a film as your endeavor, some questions naturally arise. Do you, as the artist, serve the story, or does the story serve you? How much do you assume the audience is there for your ideas, artistic history, vision and opinions, and how much do they just want to see a good story that makes them think? The biggest question isn’t about how much of yourself you put into your work—perspective is what sets one piece of art apart

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