Translated from the French, auteur simply means "author," but use of the term in relation to cinema, has caused much controversy and critical debate. Does a film need to have an author? Perhaps, to qualify as "art".
There's all-sorts of hyperlinks on the website so I had a look at the mise-en-scene section and found a really interesting quote;
http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Academy-Awards-Crime-Films/Auteur-Theory-and-Authorship.html
"the originality of the auteur lies not in the subject matter he chooses, but in the technique he employs, i.e., the mise-en-scène , through which everything on the screen is expressed..." (Hillier, 1986, p. 142).
Originally conceived in France, the idea of the filmmaker as auteur was never thought of as a theory until Andrew Sarris brought it across the Atlantic in the 1960s. Sarris applied the newly formulated theory to American film history, focusing on the careers of specific directors and classifying them by their successes and talents. His version of the auteur theory placed constraints on the classification of directors and filmmakers.
“over a group of films a director must exhibit certain recurrent characteristics of style, which serve as his signature”
https://eng3122.wordpress.com/auteur-theory/
In 1954, François Truffaut wrote an essay entitled A Certain Tendency in French Cinema. In this work he claimed that film is a great medium for expressing the personal ideas of the director. He suggested that this meant that the director should therefore be regarded as an auteur.
"There are no good and bad movies, only good and bad directors" - Truffaut
Auteur Theory suggests that a director can use film-making in the same way that a writer uses a pen. It is a medium for the personal artistic expression of the director. Auteur Theory also suggests that the best films will bear their maker’s ‘signature’, which may act like the stamp of their individual personality or perhaps even focus on recurring themes within the body of work.
This website then goes on to talk about Hitchcock as a case study.
http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/staffhome/siryan/screen/auteur%20theory.htm
The “auteur theory” embodied by the famous French New Wave directors gave the films the ability to be innovative yet familiar. The vision allowed the audience to see stories that were usually more of a comment on the traditional than something in the realm of confusing.
La peau douce aka The Soft Skin (François Truffaut, 1964) as a case study.
http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/10-overlooked-french-new-wave-films-that-are-worth-watching/2/
Truffaut developed a reputation for the passionate way he advocated for or condemned a film under his review, gaining the nickname “the grave-digger of French Cinema”. His first feature length movie, Les Quatre Cent Coups (The 400 Blows), ushered in the French New Wave. Armed with an auteur theory and a lighter camera, New Wave films became idiosyncratic (peculiar) and free to shoot on location. They had in-jokes for the cinematically educated. Many experimented with unconventional styles of production. Truffaut was at the centre of this movement, and arguably his work outlasted it.
“Truffaut’s passion for cinema, the desire that it stirred in him, animates every movie he ever made, every scene, every shot."
A few films by Truffaut as case studies.
http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/10-films-that-had-the-biggest-influences-on-the-cinema-of-francois-truffaut/
Style-Over-Substance
However, some filmmakers try too hard to make a film look artistic and forget about plot and characterisation. A film delving in style over substance would be one that heavily overlooks the quality or legibility of the content it presents to a viewer. A filmmaker might deem flashy sets, quick, fast-paced editing, and an innovative soundtrack to substitute for a narrative that, for instance, might contain flat characters, unrealistic relationships and an embrace of horrible cliché.
A few filmmakers that do this as a case study.
http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/10-famous-filmmakers-regularly-accused-of-style-over-substance/
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