Filmmakers who benefited or suffered from the current zeitgeist:
When the spirit of the times changed, they lost their touch with audiences tastes
Mel Brooks, short career, small output, one genre, director of late 60s and early 70s
Arthur Penn, benefited in 60s and 70s (Bonnie), but his last 6 films, in the 1980s, felt as if they were made by another director.
Hitchcock suffered too in the 60s as a result of the James Bond film
Lesson: auteurship is no sure protection or safeguard; great directors can also go bust
