Spectator’s trust as an indicator of film authorship. Is Vinterberg a film auteur?

Abstract

In this article, the Trust Model is presented as a new theory to tackle the old film theoretical problem of distinguishing film directors from film auteurs. The model proposes that in certain films, the spectator becomes problematically engaged to the fiction and to certain characters. During the viewing process, the spectator experiences moral emotions like shame and guilt. Those are at first denied as a result of cognitive dissonance; but, in the end, the spectator has to face his or her own moral emotions. It is at this final phase that the spectator actively begins to search for the auteur, as the person seemingly responsible for causing those moral emotions. The auteur is then ‘questioned’ about the sincerity of his intentions and ‘asked’ for dissolving those emotions at the end of the film. The spectator accordingly begins a trust relationship with the auteur. The proposed model is applied to four films in the oeuvre of Thomas Vinterberg, a famous film director on the brink of being acknowledged as a film auteur.