Auteur House presents…Auteur House

This column walks a fine line.  The word ‘advertorial’ is an ugly one and there can be no denying the fact that I’ve got a vested interest in promoting my own business.  What I will attempt each week is to do so in an oblique, informative and hopefully digestible manner.  The plan is not to talk about Auteur House directly, rather to discuss the cinema.

Given the introductory nature of this piece I feel compelled to begin in the breach.  Auteur House is an independently owned, specialist DVD rental store situated at the north end of Victoria St.  We’ve got over 4,000 titles, many of which you will not be able to find anywhere else.  Festival features, classic films, silent movies and the avant garde are our forte.  We emphasise and invest specifically in a back catalogue in the same manner a library does and over the four years we’ve been open we’ve built a collection to rival any in the country.

Clearly we appeal to hardcore buffs and students of the celluloid medium be they formally enrolled in the Screen & Media programme or foolishly spending government money elsewhere.  However, we’re not intellectual - or film - snobs.  Many a commercial blockbuster sits upon our shelves as well.  As long as a movie is a good one we aim to acquire it.

The word ‘auteur’ is French.  It means ‘author’.  Taking our inspiration from from Gallic critics who once thought that a movie’s director is its ‘author’ in the same sense that a writer of prose authors a novel, Auteur House arranges its collection according to the surname of the film’s  maker.  We also have staff on hand to help the majority for whom this idiosyncratic organisational principle is something of a challenge.

In the coming weeks I will talk about the work of one or two of the directors we stock.  Or maybe an actor.  Or a veteran of the film business whose just died.  Anything but the store itself.