The issue: whether genre films could also be art films
Reservoir Dogs embodied this dilemma. t was and it was not a genre film
Mischievous conflation of the literary and lurid
Reservoir marked seismic change in the direction of indie films, which moved toward more genre-inflected cinema, albeit with transgressive, ironic, post-modern spin (Biskind, 121)
Genre comprises a repertoire of conventions running across plot, setting, characterization, modes of narrative development, closure, music/score, movie stars, visual imagery
Marketing
Genre functions as marketing tool to persuade viewers to watch the product–the movie
Thrillers, melodramas, musicals, horror, comedy
Each genre attracts certain audiences.
But audiences may be reluctant to see films that are perceived as difficult, demanding, upsetting
Auteur cinema
Art films
Independent film
Bibliography
See Formula/Schemata
Basinger, Jeanine: War Film as Genre
Braudy, Leo
Buscombe
Gombrich
Ray, Robert
Schatz, Thomas
Sobchak: genre and defining rituals
Jane Feuer:
“It’s only when Hollywood genre films began to be seen from the perspective of their ideological and cultural meanings, rather than as star vehicles and pure entertainment, that Westerns, melodramas, film noirs became accessible to critical scrutiny and inquiry.” (Boggs, 425)
Musicals:
The most enduring musicals tend to evolve toward a revisionist phase.
Mocking many of the genre’s original values by subjecting them to scrutiny (Giannetti)
In studio era, musicals were love stories with happy endings
Then revisionist musicals: NY, NY; Cabaret (lovers go their separate ways, absorbed in their careers).
Ritual functions derive from C. Levi-Strauss
Genre’s stories and iconography portray groups (women, racial minorities) that threaten “normal life”
The film’s action is to contain and defeat these elements
Formula
Each game has its own formula. t’s easier to recognize genre film than to describe all the elements.
The variations are almost infinite
Still, 6 basic elements of genre formula:
Setting
Characters
Conflict
Resolution
Values reaffirmed
Conventions (thematic, stylistic)
The Western vs, the gangster formula.
Genre and Audience
Bruce Kawin:
The way that particular genres appeal psychologically to their audiences.
Audiences’ relation to horror, sci-fi in terms of myths, dreams, nightmares
Audiences go to horror films to have a nightmare, “a dream whose undercurrent of anxiety both presents and masks the desire to fulfill and be punished for certain conventionally unacceptable impulses
Sci-fi: appeals to the conscious
Horror: appeal to the unconscious
Strengths and Advantages
Boggs, 411
The characters, plot, conventions are established and they provide direct cinematic shorthand that simplify the task of storytelling.
Formulas are easy for auds to understand
The best directors did not simply copy conventions–Eastwood
They provide creative variations, refinements, and complexities that imprinted each film with rich, distinctive, more personal style
Genre films also simlify the act of watching
Thye are easy to watch and more enjoyable
There’s pleasure from recognizing characters, images, sitations
e more genre films you watch, the more keenly aware you become and more responsive to creative variations, refinements, complexities
Film Theory: Genre Approach–Formula, Function, Stars, Studio
Nov 2, 2022
Film Theory: Genre Approach
The issue: whether genre films could also be art films
Reservoir Dogs embodied this dilemma. t was and it was not a genre film
Mischievous conflation of the literary and lurid
Reservoir marked seismic change in the direction of indie films, which moved toward more genre-inflected cinema, albeit with transgressive, ironic, post-modern spin (Biskind, 121)
Codes/Conventions
Formulas/Formats (contesting, breaking, violating formulas)
Ritual; myth
Values (values reaffirmed, and values rejected)
Setting
Hero/Villain
Conflict/Resolution
Pam Cook (1985: 58)
Genre comprises a repertoire of conventions running across plot, setting, characterization, modes of narrative development, closure, music/score, movie stars, visual imagery
Marketing
Genre functions as marketing tool to persuade viewers to watch the product–the movie
Thrillers, melodramas, musicals, horror, comedy
Each genre attracts certain audiences.
But audiences may be reluctant to see films that are perceived as difficult, demanding, upsetting
Auteur cinema
Art films
Independent film
Bibliography
See Formula/Schemata
Basinger, Jeanine: War Film as Genre
Braudy, Leo
Buscombe
Gombrich
Ray, Robert
Schatz, Thomas
Sobchak: genre and defining rituals
Jane Feuer:
“It’s only when Hollywood genre films began to be seen from the perspective of their ideological and cultural meanings, rather than as star vehicles and pure entertainment, that Westerns, melodramas, film noirs became accessible to critical scrutiny and inquiry.” (Boggs, 425)
Musicals:
The most enduring musicals tend to evolve toward a revisionist phase.
Mocking many of the genre’s original values by subjecting them to scrutiny (Giannetti)
In studio era, musicals were love stories with happy endings
Then revisionist musicals: NY, NY; Cabaret (lovers go their separate ways, absorbed in their careers).
Ritual functions derive from C. Levi-Strauss
Genre’s stories and iconography portray groups (women, racial minorities) that threaten “normal life”
The film’s action is to contain and defeat these elements
Formula
Each game has its own formula. t’s easier to recognize genre film than to describe all the elements.
The variations are almost infinite
Still, 6 basic elements of genre formula:
Setting
Characters
Conflict
Resolution
Values reaffirmed
Conventions (thematic, stylistic)
The Western vs, the gangster formula.
Genre and Audience
Bruce Kawin:
The way that particular genres appeal psychologically to their audiences.
Audiences’ relation to horror, sci-fi in terms of myths, dreams, nightmares
Audiences go to horror films to have a nightmare, “a dream whose undercurrent of anxiety both presents and masks the desire to fulfill and be punished for certain conventionally unacceptable impulses
Sci-fi: appeals to the conscious
Horror: appeal to the unconscious
Strengths and Advantages
Boggs, 411
The characters, plot, conventions are established and they provide direct cinematic shorthand that simplify the task of storytelling.
Formulas are easy for auds to understand
The best directors did not simply copy conventions–Eastwood
They provide creative variations, refinements, and complexities that imprinted each film with rich, distinctive, more personal style
Genre films also simlify the act of watching
Thye are easy to watch and more enjoyable
There’s pleasure from recognizing characters, images, sitations
e more genre films you watch, the more keenly aware you become and more responsive to creative variations, refinements, complexities
Innovation then becomes exciting surprise.