Film Genres

1
Film Genres

• Introduction to Film Studies

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Film Genre

• Genre a French word meaning kind or class
• A distinctive type or category of films sharing
  with each other a number of similarities in
  subject narrative, and style
• Fiction and non-fiction silent film and talkie
  (sound) film B/W and colour film, etc. (larger
  categories)
• The Western, the musical film, the action
  picture, the horror movie, etc. (smaller
  categories)

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Film Genre

• Problem 1
• To take a genre such as the western, analyse
  it, and list its principal characteristics, is to
  beg the question that we must first isolate the
  body of films which are westerns. But they can
  only be isolated on the basis of the principal
  characteristics which can only be discovered
  from the films themselves after they have been
  isolated.
• A chicken and egg situation

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Film Genre

• Problem 2
• The films categorized in a genre often have more
  differences from each other than similarities to
  each other.
• Genres... are not discrete systems, consisting
  of a fixed number of listable items

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Film Genre

• Problem 3
• Genres overlap
• There are mixed genres romance and thriller
  / SF and film noir
• Particular features which are characteristics of
  a genre are not unique to it

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• However - necessity to study genres
• Almost all popular or commercial films of most
  countries rest upon genre filmmaking
• following a set of established narrative
  patterns,
• taking up certain fixed social subjects,
  adopting the
• shared distinctive mood, and imitating
• predetermined visual styles
• Commercial consideration less likelihood of
  failure at box office when a film is based on
  genre conventions
• Conservative tastes of the popular audience

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Film Genre

• Paradox genres are instances of repetition and
  difference
• A film repeats what has been done in other films
  of the same genre, but difference is absolutely
  essential to the economy of genre, as complete
  repetition would not attract the audience
• any instance of a genre will be necessarily
  different. Tzvetan Todorov

8
Film Genre

• Differences and alterations made by a filmmaker
  are values of the film
• It is where individual creativity is shown and
  contribution to film is made.
• To look a film in historical context
  development of a genre

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Defining a Genre

• Some genres are more closely connected with their
  subjects or themes.
• Gangster film centre on large-scale urban crime
  and corruption
• Western film on life in the American frontier
  from Alaska to Mexico

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Defining a Genre

• No common subject and theme in musical film.
• The genre is defined by manner of presentation
  singing, dancing and music
• Detective film by plot patterns crime,
  investigation and solution

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Defining a Genre

• Some film genres are defined by the distinctive
  emotional effects
• Amusement in comedy
• Tension and thrill in thriller

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Defining a Genre

• Some by stronger emotional impact
• Sorrow and sympathy in melodrama
• Horror in horror film

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Genres and Subgenres

• A coherent group of films within a genre
• The backstage musical which centres on
  professional staging of an entertainment and
  drama about the entertainment business 42nd
  Street (1933) and Fame (1980, 2009) Fame

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Genres and Subgenres

• Folk musical in which ordinary people sing or
  dance their way through the story
• Vincent Minnellis Meet Me in St. Louis (1944),
  Hair (1979) and Woody Allens Everybody Says I
  Love You (1996) Hair

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Genres and Subgenres

• Comedy has its subgenres such as slapstick comedy
  (a type made of physical and exaggerated jokes,
  boisterous actions (e.g. pie in the face) and
  farce), romantic comedy (with light-hearted and
  humorous plots and love romance) Night at the
  opera When Harry Met Sally

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Genres and Subgenres

• Screwball comedy film unconventional characters
  (thus, screwball slang for oddball) involving
  in courtship, marriage or remarriage in farcial
  situations with a combination of slapsticks and
  fast talk.

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Mixed Genres

• Genre mixing common in popular filmmaking
• Musical Westerns (Roy Roger, a singer and actor,
  appeared in a number of Westerns in which he
  played a cowboy and sang)
• Musical horrors such as Rocky Horror Picture Show
  (1975) timewarp

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Mixed Genres

• Alien (1979) mixes SF, horror, the war movie, and
  monster film elements.
• Blade Runner (1982) SF, detective story and film
  noir elements. Both directed by Ridley Scott

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National Genres

• Some countries have their own film genres which
  are unique to it and have developed from their
  distinctive cultural necessities and social need.
  
• Heimatfilm (homeland film) popular in Germany,
  Switzerland and Austria between the 1940s and 70s.

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National Genres

• Set in the most Germanic rural locations the
  Alps, the Black Forest or Lüneburg Heath
• Heimatfilme have in common sentimental tone and
  simple morality, and typically centre on small
  town life, love, friendship, family, and rural
  life.
• Yearning for an old, simple world untouched and
  unspoiled by war experiences.

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National Genres

• Devotionals are Hindi films about the lives of
  saints and religious figures
• Mythologicals are Hindi films derived from
  legend and literary classics.

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National Genres

• The Ranchera light comedy in Mexican rural
  settings with songs and music
• The Cabaretera Mexican melodrama / film noir
  set in seedy urban settings (mainly in cabaret or
  music hall) with corrupt women, crime and sexual
  conflicts

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National Genres

• Kung Fu film a Chinese subgenre of martial arts
  film which contains many kung fu actions and have
  their appeal and entertainment value in plenty of
  kung fu actions. Their narratives are simple and
  often absurd. Fists of Fury

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National Genres

• Chanbara (sward-play or swashbuckler) film a
  subgenre of jidaigeki, period drama. Developing
  from the Kabuki and other theatre, the post-war
  chanbara films were action-based with darker and
  violent characters. Their central moment is a
  well-choreographed sward fight. Zatoichi

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National Genre

• Shomingeki (ordinary folk drama) relatively
  realistic film which focus on the lives of common
  people, simply just surviving their everyday
  affairs.
• Yasujiro Ozu, the greatest maker of those.
• Floating Weeds 1 Floating Weeds 2

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National Genres

• Yakuza film popular genre in Japanese cinema
  which focuses on the lives and dealings of yakuza
  with typical narrative patterns of a small clan
  fighting a losing battle against a large clan or
  an individual or a loner makes a brave battle
  against a powerful clan.