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Genre Film *follows familiar or established narrative structures, uses familiar characters types, and communicates through familiar images or icons *shares its subject matter, thematic concerns, plot formulas and settings, etc. with other films. Genre as Ritual.
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Genre Film *follows familiar or established narrative structures, uses familiar characters types, and communicates through familiar images or icons *shares its subject matter, thematic concerns, plot formulas and settings, etc. with other films
Genre as Ritual 1. rituals have meaning because they are cumulative Example: the more horror films you see, the more you understand about horror films
Genre as Ritual 2. genres are also like rituals in that they are symbolic -they make use of objects or signs to evoke complex associations
Genre as Ritual 3. rituals are predictable -the reason we attend certain genre films is because we know what will happen at the end
The final episode of The Sopranos was not predictable, making some fans angry.
Genre as Ritual 4. Finally, ritual is functional -rituals provide us with temporary psychological, emotional or social ease AND -gives us sense of belonging to a group with the same goals or feelings
rituals provide us with temporary psychological, emotional or social ease
Binary oppositions are the basic conflicts found in genre films: The Western:CIVILIZATION VS SAVAGERY
Binary oppositions are the basic conflicts found in genre films: The Gangster Film: Society vs Individual
Binary oppositions are the basic conflicts found in genre films: The Horror Film:Self vs Other
REMEMBER: these terms only take on meaning when opposed with another term Self vs Other Normality vs. Monstrosity Faith vs Reason
Genres are Problem Solving Operations • All film genres deal with a certain basic conflict which because of its complex nature remains unresolved in life, but can be easily resolved on screen • the sustained popularity of any genre indicates the essentially unresolvable nature of the conflicts it addresses
Genre as Myth Genre films are the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves: Westerns: the story of settling America Gangster films: the story of American industry Horror films: the story of what we fear
Classic Horror Films of 1930s/40s: The Monster is an External Threat
PARTS OF A GENRE FILM (PLOT) FORMULA CONVENTION ICONOGRAPHY/ICONS
Wood believes genres represent “different strategies for dealing with the same ideological tensions” BASIC REPRESSION: “DON’T MURDER PEOPLE!” SURPLUS REPRESSION:“DON’T LET PEOPLE KNOW I AM DIFFERENT FROM THEM!”
“the true subject of the horror genre is the struggle for recognition of all that our civilization represses or oppresses: its re-emergence dramatized, as in our nightmares, as an object of horror, a matter for terror, and the 'happy ending' (when it exists) typically signifying the restoration of repression”
Robin Wood’s Concept of the Other 1. OTHER PEOPLE Any zombie film 2. WOMEN Alien 3. WORKING CLASS OR POOR PEOPLE Texas Chainsaw Massacre 4. OTHER CULTURES The Mummy 5. ETHNIC GROUPS WITHIN OUR CULTURE Candyman 6. ALTERNATIVE IDEOLOGIES AND POLITICAL BELIEFS 50s scifi and monster films are allegories about communism 7. ALTERNATIVE SEXUALITIES Bride of Frankenstein 8. CHILDREN Rosemary’s Baby, Exorcist
Western: Who is the “lady” and who is the prostitute?
Via Daily Dot: “Slender Man can be viewed as a manifestation of what scares us most in the digital age. In his presentation as a pseudo-realistic, heavily documented figure, he underscores how unreliable online information is, how detached we’ve become from reality, and how much the Internet and the tangible world have begun to overlap.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F18-WFYzOQ4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiTKIbR69ss http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXldafIl5DQ http://vimeo.com/7138423
Horror The Descent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jf_-vwIrsQ The Exorcist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpyg94OzHK0 Harbinger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKNr9agljYI Monster threatens normality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6EMALvJQVc Threat is determined https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAyF7zmJXjA Cabin in the Woods:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufF5p8VBsVk Destruction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssvgMHCa45s The Rules:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvLpbHKV1_8