Postwar film culture fostered the development of film journals. One of the most famous, Cahiers du cinéma, was founded by André Bazin in 1951. The magazine published the criticism of the young cineastes – François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, and Claude Chabrol— who would later shape the French New Wave film movement. The criticism published in Cahiers elaborated on the significance and patterns of mise-en-scène, auteurs, and genre. Rival journals in France, Positif and Cinéthique, also flourished, and the polemics between them energized film enthusiasts.

Auteur theory, which asserts that a film bears the creative imprint of one individual (typically the director), emerged in the 1950s when specific directors were vocally championed by the French critics. Debates arose over whether a particular director should be classified a true auteur or a mere metteur en scène (French for “director,” derived from theatrical usage), a label that conveyed technical competence without a strong individual vision.

Sometimes genre criticism is considered to be at odds with auteurism, but the two concepts can also inform each other, and both rely on cinephilia, a deep love of film. The term “genre film” designates a type of movie that is quickly recognizable, but it may also carry pejorative connotations of lacking originality.