Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...
Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ... Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...
audaciously atypical blend of “B” movie exploitation elements. It is precisely at the level of exploitive elements that the film gains a new dimension: first through the minimal dialogues (different from the witty lines found in other well-known noirs) and then through stylistically photographed scenes which play out at a verbal rather than a physical level (perhaps as a consequence of both budgetary and censorship constraints). The Big Combo still offers us a world that is seriously twisted, essentially a nightmare world and thus stays true to the fundamental impulse of film noir. 392
V. Conclusions: 1 Genre Revisited The artist brings to the genre his or her concerns, techniques, and capacities – in the widest sense, a style – but receives from the genre a formal pattern that directs and disciplines the work. In a sense this imposes limitations (...). (Buscombe 2003:22) In film theory, genre refers to the method of categorising a film based on the perceptible similitudes out of which film meanings are constructed. The term remains however controversial; within film criticism, there seems to be no agreement about what exactly the term means or what functions it actually performs. Film genres have been described as pure invention by some (like Robert Stam), as they seem to spring from the relationship between a specific production system and a given audience. More and more, however, we are confronted with a range of Hollywood genres, based on the elements from recurring patterns which are common to all the commercial films that we can call detective films, or Westerns, or gangster films. Indeed, when studying film genres, our analysis tends to focus on formulas, icons, motifs, etc, as the persistent elements common to all these films. It is by contrasting these familiar elements with other films that the discussion of genre starts, finding particular meanings in a given film within the context of other similar films. Through repetition and variation, these genre films arouse expectations and generate experiences similar to those felt in connection with similar pre-existing films. Nevertheless, the application of genre is rarely so definite, with clearly demarcated boundaries. On the one hand, the critical recognition of its place and importance is relatively recent in the categorisation of cinema. In chronological terms, genre criticism precedes the early work of auteurism, but its subsequent development has not been as popular as the auteur theory (in the writings of Andrew Sarris, for example). On the other hand, critical interest in film studies moved from the signifieds of film to the practice of signification, in other words, from what a film “means” to how it produces meaning, and 393
- Page 357 and 358: a laughing audience), and broken la
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- Page 371 and 372: found Kathie: “I was glad it was
- Page 373 and 374: Figure 102. Out of the Past In this
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- Page 379 and 380: Figure 106. Out of the Past The sce
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- Page 389 and 390: 2.4.1 The Big Combo (1955) and the
- Page 391 and 392: of most noir films including The Bi
- Page 393 and 394: 2.4.1.1 “First is First and Secon
- Page 395 and 396: In The Big Combo the unconscious tr
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- Page 401 and 402: Figure 113. Scarlet Street Neff’s
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- Page 405 and 406: and knowing they are both surrounde
- Page 407: As the noir movement entered the la
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- Page 413 and 414: Buscombe is right: if we take a gen
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- Page 435 and 436: E Easthope, Antony (1993). Contempo
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- Page 439 and 440: James, David E. (2005). The Most Ty
- Page 441 and 442: Malkiewicz, Kris (1986). Film Light
- Page 443 and 444: N Naremore, James (1978). The Magic
- Page 445 and 446: Polan, Dana (1986). Power and Paran
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- Page 449 and 450: Sullivan, Ellie (1986). Jacques Lac
- Page 451 and 452: Wilson, Edmund (1962). Classics and
- Page 453 and 454: Appendix I: Annotated Filmography T
- Page 455 and 456: Beware, My Lovely RKO 1952. Prod: C
- Page 457 and 458: Christmas Holiday Univ 1944. Prod:
V. Conclusions:<br />
1 Genre Revisited<br />
The artist brings to the genre his or her concerns,<br />
techniques, and capacities – in the widest sense, a<br />
style – but receives from the genre a formal pattern<br />
that directs and disciplines the work. In a sense this<br />
imposes limitations (...). (Buscombe 2003:22)<br />
In film theory, genre refers to the method of categorising a film based on the<br />
perceptible similitudes out of which film meanings are constructed. The term remains<br />
however controversial; within film criticism, there seems to be <strong>no</strong> agreement about what<br />
exactly the term means or what functions it actually performs. Film genres have been<br />
described as pure invention by some (like Robert Stam), as they seem to spring from the<br />
relationship between a specific production system and a given audience. More and more,<br />
however, we are confronted with a range of Hollywood genres, based on the elements from<br />
recurring patterns which are common to all the commercial films that we can call detective<br />
films, or Westerns, or gangster films. Indeed, when studying film genres, our analysis<br />
tends to focus on formulas, icons, motifs, etc, as the persistent elements common to all<br />
these films. It is by contrasting these familiar elements with other films that the discussion<br />
of genre starts, finding particular meanings in a given film within the context of other<br />
similar films. Through repetition and variation, these genre films arouse expectations and<br />
generate experiences similar to those felt in connection with similar pre-existing films.<br />
Nevertheless, the application of genre is rarely so definite, with clearly demarcated<br />
boun<strong>da</strong>ries. On the one hand, the critical recognition of its place and importance is<br />
relatively recent in the categorisation of cinema. In chro<strong>no</strong>logical terms, genre criticism<br />
precedes the early work of auteurism, but its subsequent development has <strong>no</strong>t been as<br />
popular as the auteur theory (in the writings of Andrew Sarris, for example). On the other<br />
hand, critical interest in film studies moved from the signifieds of film to the practice of<br />
signification, in other words, from what a film “means” to how it produces meaning, and<br />
393