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Film Genres. Week 6. By Mathias and Roy. Why do we go to cinema ?. We like their stars (directors, actors, …) We like certain types of films Types of films are commonly referred to as a genre. A genre is easier to recognize than to define. Genre is originally french and means kind or type
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Film Genres Week 6 By Mathias and Roy
Why do we go to cinema ? • We like their stars (directors, actors, …) • We like certain types of films • Types of films are commonly referred to as a genre
A genre is easier to recognize than to define • Genre is originally french and means kind or type • Genre is related to genus : used to classify group of plants or animals • Defining a genre lacks that sort of scientific precision
What a genre is ? Genres stand-out by their : • Subjects or themes (Science Fiction, Western, …) • Manner of presentation (Musicals) • Emotional effect on the audience (Comedy, horror film…)
Classification limits • A film can straddle many genres • Genres change over time • Some films are so distinct that they can’t be assigned to a genre
Who classify films ? A genre is based on a tacit agreement among filmmakers, reviewers and audience.
On witch coventions is based a genre ? • Conventional element (Western, gangster film, …) • Thematic conventions (comedy) • Characteristic film techniques (horror film) • Iconography : • Objects • Stars
Genres and audiences Audiences expect the genre film to offer something familiar but they also demand fresh variations on it.
Origin of a genre • Many film genres originate in part by borrowing existing convention from the other media (novels, …) • A genre become established when one film becomes successful and is widely imitated • A genre can also come from the mix of existing ones
Mixing genres On of the commonest ways in which genres change is by a mixing of convention and iconography. • Comedy and musical can be mixed with almost any subject matter • Horror film and science fiction (Alien) • Science fiction and detective story (Blade Runner) • ...
Evolution of a genre Because filmmakers frequently play with conventions and iconography, genres seldom remain unchanged for very long.
Genres and success • Almost all genres do not remain constantly successful • A genre becomes established when one film becomes successful and is widely imitated • A genre can also come from the mix of existing ones
The Western • Partly based on reality • Central themes : conflicts between cowboys, outlaws, sherif and tribes of native americans • Huge importance of inconography : • Costumes, horses, trains… • Stars : Jonh Wayne, Enio Moricone, Sergio Leone • Duality of the typical western hero
The horror film The horror film is most recognizable by its intended emotional effect on the audiences. It aims to horrify.
What can horrify us ? • A monster • Someone violates the boundary between the dead and the living • The reaction of a movie character • Iconography : old dark house, cemeteries… • Music and sound (Carrie)
The Musical • Contrary to the Westerns and the Horror films, the musicals came into being in response to a technical innovation • Musicals may be films where : • Characters sing and dance because it is their job in the film (« backstage » musical) • Characters sing and dance in situations of everyday life (Grease) • Children stories (Walt Disney)
The Musical • Characteristic techniques of musicals : • They are brightly lit • Cheerfull costumes • Camera very mobile • « Playback »
What is Film Genre--Kaminsky, stuart M • A body, group or category of similar works, defined as sharing of a sufficient number of motifs so that we can identify works that properly fall within a particular kind or style of film. • -Broad Forms of popular expression are identifiable • Various works are related that are worth examining • Gain knowledge about individual films
Genre approach does not need to make any qualitative judgement • Examniation of popular forms • If a film is popular, it is a result of the fact that the film corresponds to an interest of the the viewing public. • Understands the milieu and background of the work through relationship with religion mythology, social sciences, psychology, anthropology. • Examination of form and what it means
Genre Analysis • Devote entire study to particular genre. • List large number of genres and examine their elements or categorize them.
Authorship and Genre • Writers, directors, producers, and cinematographers who have not produced enough work to consider them in terms of authorship. • In general, one must consider a work in terms of understanding its Genre. • Then attempt to discern what author has added to genre.
Genre must have limited scope, limited definitions • Genre is purely descriptive- examination of the validity of particular symbols with the history of connotations • I.e. what a white horse means? And has symbolized in the past
Realism, Naturalism and Genre • Documentary reality, cinema verite • Fictional but ‘real’ • Tradition of naturalism that is accepted as more real; I.e raging Bull. Socialist comments
Documentary Reality • Film which, through convention creates illusion that events depicted are taking place or have taken uncontrolled by those engaged in making the film. • Film is often authenticated by the long take, grainy images resulting from A.S.A, film which must be used in poor lighting conditions, variable sound quality and lack of conventional narrative.
Assumption of Verified Experience • That the film be ‘Realistic’, “logical’ in the way we understand it through our everyday lives. • Yet, plausibility of fiction films is a contradiction of reality we experience. • Movies are more likely to carry illusion of reality if artificial elements are minimized. I.e. shot of man being chased by lion in the same scene.
Naturalism and Film • All human action was the result of material causes. • All existent phenomena are in the nature and thus within the sphere of scientific knowledge • No Supernatural • Depictions of social problems • Negativity as reality • Example: D.W griffith, Raging bull
Importance of film Genre • Has basic formal and thematic importance for viewers who return to see it. • Contain basic elements of the original but with variations or development. • Each genre has its roots in myth (structural?) the way we tell stories in real life
Understanding of the work in question and explore reasons for persistence and change of myths, types, formulas, and forms. • Popular generic works are treated by critics as low art. I.e titanic, independence day, etc. • Concept of high Art is an elitist concept • But Popular generic work can be analyzed and has significant meaning too.
The monstrous feminine • What is it about woman as monster that is shocking, terrifying? • Castration anxiety? • Oedipus complex? “There is a motif occurring in certain primitive mythologies, which is know to folklore as ‘the toothed vagina’- the vagina that castrates.”-Joseph Campbell.
Stephen Neale: “Woman’s sexuality, that which renders them desirable-but also threatening- to men, which constitutes the real problem that horror cinema exists to explore and which constitutes ultimately that which is really monstrous.” • Monster signifies boundary between human and non-human • Male fear of castration which ultimately produces and delineates the monstrous. • Horror film offers abundant display of fetishistic effects whose function is to attest the perversity of the patriarchal order founded on the erroneous belief that woman is castrated.
But • Lurie says: Men fear Women because they are not castrated. Woman is physically whole. • Notion of castrated woman is to ameliorate the Phantasy of what women might do to him. • Imagines Castration “ when penis disappears inside women’s ‘devouring mouth’”
Linda williams • Monster and woman are constructed as ‘biological freaks’ whose bodies represent a fearful and threatening form of sexuality. • Potent threat to vulnerable male power.
Woman as witch, carrie • Association of blood, especially menstrual blood as source of powers. Part of the female reproductive system • Association of woman with pig and pigs blood. Negative associations. • Witch sets out to unsettle boundaries between rational and irrational. Symbolic and imaginary. • Evil powers seen as part of her feminine nature. • I.e. Carrie develops power at threshold of puberty.
Woman as witch • Apocalyptic destruction or unnatural family relationships that imply the end of society. • carrie: destruction prom and of family.
Men, Women and Chainsaws. -Gender in the modern horror film • “Carrie is largely about how women find their own channels of power and what men fear about women and women’s sexuality. Uneasy masculine shrinking from a future female equality”- stephen King • Carrie is victim, hero and monster.
To whom does horror appeal? • Predominantly young male audience, even with woman as monsters. • That the feminine as victim does not appeal to woman alone- is empathised by the boy who recognises himself in a girl who finds herself a victim. • Carrie seems to find her power from inside- female self empowerment • Genre over riding intention of the protagonist. Predictable actions
Primary identification is with the camera • Secondary is with the character of emphatic choice. • Both are fluid, character identification on the psychoanalytic grounds that competing figures resonate with competing parts of the viewers psyche. • Cinematic identification and Laura Mulveys GAZE ; male pleasure and fetishistic gaze subverted
Horror as a genre • Horror films are incredibly ritualized and formulaic • Audience knows what is going to happen where • Horror for them starts even before they enter the cinema to view it • Horror structures are installed long before the individual movie.
Sex in this universe precedes from gender. • The traits define the sex of the subject • A figure is a man because he is a psycho killer • A figure is a woman because she cowers and cries. • Sex vs gender
One sex theories vs two sex • Concept of female being imperfect man • Penis envy • Phallic theories • Freudian theories
Politics of displacement Displacing of the viewer in terms of the Protagonist’s role in the film. A woman can feint, and dart and seduce all at Once. Displaces, decenters and foregrounds the Inessential.
Conclusion • Predomination of psychoanalytic theory. • Theories are often universalizing, and it makes use of complex language and alienating categories which deny women's experiences as active spectators enjoying films or reading them critically • dominant psychoanalytic focus has created a narrow framework for the analysis of subjects, pleasure, and desire, while alternative feminist accounts are not considered. • Subjected to patriarchal fundamental theories
