I'm not up on my classics, but I sure as shit know my nerd culture.  I know when I'm hearing a Joss Whedon dialogue or reading a Neil Gaiman story or taking in a Tim Burton flick; these are auteurs.  It's harder to think of what you call "stagers," since by definition they vanish into the larger body of the work, like a casino dealer or maybe a defensive lineman, forgettable vessels for fulfilling a memorable purpose.  Maybe a good example of a stager among actors would be Russell Crowe.  If you tell me a new movie has Jim Carrey in it, I already know what the movie is like; if you tell me Russell Crowe is in it, I have no idea.  John Nash is not much like Maximus.  If Crowe were wearing a mask you wouldn't guess it's the same guy.  He vanishes into the character.

As an aside, I think I would have enjoyed both Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind better if Russell Crowe had been wearing a V mask throughout the performances.

For me, I guess an auteur is a brand.  I haven't seen Cabin in the Woods or read any reviews of it, but it's by Joss Whedon, so I confidently expect that it will be subversive; that it will have really funny dialogue; that it will take camp, angst, or both to hilariously unnecessary levels; that its female characters will be well-written by the standards of the genre; and so on.  I usually enjoy Whedon-brand media, so I'm likely to see Cabin in the Woods.  But I also know that the movie is unlikely to really surprise me, because I have Joss Whedon pretty well pegged.  Unless he chose that movie to pull a Picasso and enter a different era of his career, it's not going to blow my mind.

The auteur brand has a subtler effect, too, just like supermarket brands: my experience of the media is colored by the brand.  I saw and liked Edward Scissorhands By Tim Burton and The Nightmare Before Christmas By Tim Burton.  Then I saw Big Fish By Tim Burton, and I liked it, but I'm not sure I would have liked Big Fish By Anonymous McGee.  Knowing it was a Tim Burton movie made it a better movie, just like knowing that Coke is Coke makes it better than generic cola.  But there must be a limit, because I hated Planet of the Apes and I hated Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and after that I didn't even bother to see Sweeney Todd, because it was a Tim Burton movie.  (Also a Johnny Depp movie, which carried similar brand baggage.)  To complete the circle, I speculate that I would probably enjoy Sweeney Todd By Anonymous McGee more than Sweeney Todd By Tim Burton With Johnny Depp.  Chicken McNuggets actually taste okay if you don't know that they're Chicken McNuggets.

As a further aside, I think I would also have enjoyed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory better if Johnny Depp had been wearing a V mask throughout it.  Thought exercise: is there any movie that would not be improved by putting the main character in a V mask?

And I'm out.