Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...

frameworks, showing its dynamism and evolution, and in so doing offer an overview of an
often distinguished body of films. I argue in Part I that film noir embodies an inexact
though indispensable cultural category which helps to understand a complex phenomenon
and I then demonstrate that noir seems to push at the usual bounds of what constitutes a
genre designation. Indeed, this thesis intends to show that during its classic period,
Hollywood cinema built up a consistent but flexible system of genres, including detective
films, musicals, and Westerns, among others, and that film noir does not fall easily into
such a system of classification.
Such story types as the ones mentioned above were defined by conventional plots,
characters, and elements of setting, and they enabled the studios to arrange and administer
production efficiently. Standing exteriors, costumes and other properties used in one film
could be further used in others of the same genre. Actors and actresses well suited to the
representation of stereotypical characters could be hired for numbers of similar projects.
Directors, art designers, composers and the various participants in the cinema process
could more easily and more competently be assigned to films of the same genre. In terms
of audiences and their consumption of movies, genre also helped the industry to satisfy
their tastes and pleasures, as it facilitated the communication between exhibitors and
viewers, guaranteeing therefore industry stability and, more importantly, assuring a high
success rate. In short, the genre system was seen as an intrinsic part of the institution of
cinema, first as a tool of product definition, but more particularly, in terms of the
economies of repetition and reinforcement.
When it comes to film noir, however, the possible combination of such elements
does not occur in such a systematic manner. For this reason, Paul Schrader unequivocally
asserts that “film noir is not a genre (…). It is not defined, as are the Western and gangsters
genres, by conventions of setting and conflict, but rather by the more subtle qualities of
tone and mood” (Schrader 1972:8). It is true that unlike Westerns, film noir does not have
specific antecedents either in terms of a well-defined literary genre or a period in American
history. This is not to claim that film noir is without any past history of any sort, but rather
to show that it is a product of other mediating influences, of social, economic, technical
and even aesthetic concerns that preceded its inception. I argue as well that the
categorisation of films according to genre was acknowledged by producers and spectators
alike. For the former, they most commonly called these films “psychological thrillers”, a
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