Critics at Large | The New Yorker

Episode: "How to Watch a Movie"

Date: August 21, 2025
Hosts: Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, Alexandra Schwartz
Featured Guest: Richard Brody (New Yorker film critic)

Overview

This episode delves into "auteur theory"—the idea that a film’s director is its true author, shaping every aspect with a unique vision. Host Vinson Cunningham welcomes legendary New Yorker film critic Richard Brody to trace the history of auteurism from the French New Wave through to today's streaming era, exploring how audience expectations, industry structures, and the politics of taste have redefined what it means to watch—and appreciate—movies. The conversation spans film history, genre theory, Hollywood economics, and the debate between critics, all while offering practical insight into what elevates a movie to art.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Origins of Auteur Theory

[03:00–07:55]

• Brody explains that "auteur" is French for "author," a concept first adopted by French critics in the late 1940s and 1950s. These critics (Godard, Truffaut, Rivette, et al.) viewed directors as artists, even those working under the strict confines of the Hollywood system.
• Notable Quote:

  "They connected with filmmakers... saying, these are our people, these are the people whom we want to emulate." (Brody, 03:51)

• The radical idea wasn’t just that directors could be artists, but that Hollywood genre directors (e.g., Hitchcock, Hawks) could be as artistically significant as European arthouse auteurs.

2. The Transatlantic Impact: French Cinema’s Influence on America

[05:20–08:07]

• The French critics admired American filmmakers and brought Hollywood genres into French film criticism, forming Cahiers du Cinéma.
• Their biggest validation came when these critics made films themselves, notably Truffaut’s The 400 Blows and Godard’s Breathless.
• Notable Quote:

  "In effect, what they gave America and the world was a permanent floating film school. You want to be a filmmaker? Your school is the movie theater." (Brody, 07:57)

3. Genre, Personal Vision, and the "Bathwater"

[08:08–13:14]

• The French New Wave directors saw genre—Westerns, gangster films—not as constraints but as vehicles for personal expression, even while recognizing Hollywood’s commercial mechanisms.
• Notable Quote:

  "The baby is the director, and the bathwater is the industry of Hollywood... In embracing the babies of Hollywood, future filmmakers and critics have swallowed a whole lot of bathwater." (Brody, 08:36)

• Godard, for example, realized he was making an homage to Hollywood tropes, not just representing "reality."

4. The Americanization: Andrew Sarris and Pauline Kael

[16:03–22:36]

• Andrew Sarris imported auteurism to America, dubbing it "auteur theory" and formalizing it into a taxonomy that critics could debate.
• Pauline Kael pushed back, championing the collaborative, often studio-driven, aspects of filmmaking and challenging the rigid focus on directors alone.
• Notable Quote:

  "[Sarris] created a sort of massive taxonomy... but the best way to do that is to do it essentially freely as a critic, rather than... to canonize and assume that this theory is something that can be demonstrated empirically." (Brody, 17:53)

• Kael argued for the value of "well-made" movies and the artistry of popularity, rather than just the personal imprint of the director.

5. The Studio System, Independence, and Modern Auteurship

[22:36–29:19]

• As studios regained control in the blockbuster era, the "director as brand" arose, with independent producers and companies (e.g., A24) offering directors (like Scorsese, Anderson, Coppola, and Spike Lee) more creative freedom, albeit often with smaller budgets.
• Streaming platforms (e.g., Amazon, Apple) now act as new financiers, more focused on attention and recognition than box office.

6. How to Experience a Movie: The Five-Minute Test

[30:22–33:55]

• Brody’s philosophy: a truly great film’s artistic soul is often revealed in its first five minutes—or even in an isolated moment.
• Notable Quote:

  "Synecdoche is the fundamental experience of art. The sense that a random fragment contains a lifetime of experience." (Cunningham quoting Brody, 32:06)

7. Case Study: Spike Lee’s Highest to Lowest

[33:55–43:00]

• The hosts and Brody dissect the opening panorama of Spike Lee’s new film as a textbook example of immediate auteurist style: personal, direct, and emotionally potent.
• Notable Quotes:
  • "Style is a funny thing in movies. If it's any good, it's not inseparable from substance. It is substance." (Brody, 35:06)
  • "Spike Lee is simultaneously both... modernist and classicist. The text is the subtext." (Brody, 38:29)
• They also discuss the tension between artistic freedom and the means of production, as Lee works with A24 and Apple TV after stints of self-financing and crowdfunding.

8. The Future: Streaming Studios, Producer-Directors, and Artistic Legacy

[43:02–45:40]

• Critical question: Do the new "mini-majors" (A24, Neon, MUBI) signal a new golden age for auteurs, or just repackage commercial priorities?
• Brody notes that the "auteur business" is not always about "a steady string of great movies"—sometimes it’s commerce that supports future artistic breakthroughs.
• Notable Quote:

  "It isn't the mere fact of identifiability, of distinctiveness, of having a directorial personality that makes a director good." (Brody, 43:17)

Memorable Moments & Notable Quotes

• On the magic of great moments in film:

  "That kind of spark... comes to me pretty quickly when I'm watching a movie. There's a huge gap in my experience between an enjoyable movie and the movie that I considered to be... the expression of a director's higher inspirations." (Brody, 32:31)

• On the push-pull between art and industry:

  "In the studio system, a director was slotted into a production. But most of the great filmmakers are also untitled great producers... they're creating their own method." (Brody, 40:34)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Origins of Auteur Theory – 03:00–07:55
• French & American Dialogue – 05:20–08:07
• Genre & the Personal – 08:08–13:14
• Sarris vs. Kael – 16:03–22:36
• Studio System & Modern Director – 22:36–29:19
• The Five-Minute Theory – 30:22–33:55
• Spike Lee’s Auteurist Signature – 33:55–43:00
• Art vs. Commerce: The Future – 43:02–45:40

Conclusion

This episode reframes "how to watch a movie" beyond plot or stars, urging listeners to attend to moments of directorial vision—those flashes of style, substance, and sensibility that announce an auteur’s hand. The critics carefully balance reverence for directors with awareness of collaborative constraints, tracing a lively line from Godard to Spike Lee, Hollywood to A24, and theory to screen. Whether you’re a cinephile or a casual viewer, the conversation pulls back the curtain on the mysteries (and realities) of film artistry.

For further reading: Look up Richard Brody’s essay "A Great Film Reveals Itself in Five Minutes" and Pauline Kael’s "Circles and Squares" for deeper dives into these debates.