1. Film Genres

2. What is genre?
“Audiences know the genres of their culture well, and so do filmmakers. The intriguing problem comes in defining just what a genre is.”

3. What is genre? No definitive rules
Some genres based on subject matter or themes
gangster film
science fiction
Western
Others based on presentation:
Musicals
Comedy

4. What is genre? What is a thriller? 100 Years…100 Thrills includes:
The French
Connection
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Bonnie and Clyde
Chinatown
Psycho
Jaws
The Exorcist
North by Northwest

5. What is genre? Critics, filmmakers create sub-genres:
Gross-out comedy
Teen romance
Many films combine categories:
Is a film like “The Wall” a musical?
Is the Sixth Sense a detective film or a supernatural thriller?
How do you classify “Being John Malkovich”?
-- Biographical Film
-- Period Drama

6. What is genre? Go in and out of fashion
For movie studios, way to publicize a film
For viewers, way to choose a film to fit a “mood”
Sometimes dismissed as formulaic
Some of the best films are genre films.

7. Analyzing genre
Often, identity provided by repeated use of genre convention.
Plot elements
Mystery  investigation
Western  revenge
Sci Fi  new technology
Common Themes
Film Techniques

8. Iconography
Common, recurring symbols that carry meaning from film to film
Stars can also become iconographic
Can also make your point by violating conventions.

9. Genre History Seldom remain unchanged for long
Genres change over time:
Conventions change
Conventions combine from other genres
Filmmakers create new twists on conventions

10. Genre History Examples:
Western – The Great Train Robbery (1903)
Science Fiction – A Trip to the Moon (1902)
Gangster – The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)
Horror/Vampire – Nosferatu (1922)
Each genre communicated something about the place and time when created.

11. Genre History Life span of a genre: Established in another medium
Often earliest are considered the “purest’
Become successful
Widely imitated
Compared to others
Well established
Can be mocked, parodied

12. Social Functions of Genre
Ritualized drama
Reaffirm cultural values with little variation
Potentially exploit social attitudes
Display the doubts, attitudes, anxieties of audience
Science Fiction – Fear of “the other”
The Western – Self-determination
Gangster Film – Money can not buy happiness.
Called “reflectionist” views of genre
They reflect society

13. Film Noir “The past is not dead. It isn’t even past.”
--WILLIAM FAULKNER, The Sound and the Fury

14. What is Film Noir? Again, easier to recognize than define.
Many books, but critics undecided.
Is it:
a period?
a genre?
a style?

15. Film Noir – standard history
Originated in America
Generally
Why the French name?
From crime fiction (both cinematic and literary)
Visually influenced by German Expressionism

16. Visual Features of Film Noir
Low-key lighting
Great contrast of light and dark
Lots of Black and White – little gray
Use of shadow
Paints familiar landscape in dark colors
Reflects philosophy of the films

17. Narrative Features of Film Noir
Dark view of the human and social condition.
Thematically, often about:
vice
corruption
unrestrained desire
loss of American dream –
hope,
prosperity,
safety from persecution.

18. Narrative Features Use of voice-over narration.
Heavy use of flashback.
Subjective Camera
Documentary Style
Often a very subjective telling of story.
Privileged access to mind of our narrator.

19. Neo-Noir Cohen Brothers Lawrence Kasdan Martin Scorsese
Blood Simple (1984)
Barton Fink (1991)
Lawrence Kasdan
Body Heat (1981)
Martin Scorsese
Taxi Driver (1976)
Quentin Tarantino
Pulp Fiction (1994)

20. Narration
“Instead of writing his story, the hero tells it to us directly, and the combined techniques of first person narration and flashback enhance the aura of doom. It is almost as if the narrator takes a perverse pleasure in relating the events leading up to his current crisis.”
-- Robert Porfirio