In the short section on Roland Barthes and his piece “Death of the Author,” Judith Mayne and her discussion on the role of the spectator came to mind, as I’m sure it did for most people. At the end of the insert, it states that “whereas the passive reader allows information to be absorbed without any conscious effort, the active reader will question and challenge the text. This allows an endless play of meaning; the text is no longer closed but instead remains open. The ‘death of the author’ leads to the ‘birth’ of the reader” (11). In her piece, Mayne argues that films can be read different between viewers and that readings can change over time. However, these readings still work within a specific framework, as the filmmaker still has a specific idea of what the film will look like and what message he wishes to convey. Thus, while readers can challenge a film’s ideological message or examine it from different angles. For example, looking at a film from a feminist perspective will most likely lend a different meaning than looking at it from a queer perspective. Nonetheless, the filmmaker still had a specific vision and ideology when making the film. Thus, I find the notion that the “death of an author” leads to the “birth of a reader” to be problematic. Instead, I would argue that understanding auteur theory lends itself to a smarter audience. Viewing a film as the work of an auteur alerts the viewer to the potential bias of that film. Either consciously or unconsciously, one will walk into a Tarantino film expecting certain things (mainly bloody and violent things) to occur. By being consciously aware of the style of a director, a viewer can be smarter and more critical about the message the film conveys. I don’t mean to make this sound like all viewers should be suspicious of all filmmakers based on style alone. Oftentimes the idea of “identifying bias” can have negative connotations. I think that it is important to identify bias, whether based on background or ideology, in order to gain an understanding of why a filmmaker made certain decisions in a piece of work.
