Film genres: features, functions, evolution
This Interactive workshop aims at exploring the origin of genres, their functions in cinema and their evolution, with particular emphasis on the latest developments. We first ask why we need genres at all and examine the variety of classification criteria that can be used. Then we focus on the specific features of genre films, analysing their conventions and their narrative structures. We then explore how different agents (from producers to audiences, from critics to film scholars) have used and still use genres, and highlight their economic, sociocultural and communicative functions. Finally, by taking a historical perspective, we explore how genres have evolved in the course of time and how modern cinema extensively use genre mixing and hybridization, thus pointing to the future of this important but complex category of film analysis. Part of the www.cinemafocus.eu research materials.
This Interactive workshop aims at exploring the origin of genres, their functions in cinema and their evolution, with particular emphasis on the latest developments. We first ask why we need genres at all and examine the variety of classification criteria that can be used. Then we focus on the specific features of genre films, analysing their conventions and their narrative structures. We then explore how different agents (from producers to audiences, from critics to film scholars) have used and still use genres, and highlight their economic, sociocultural and communicative functions. Finally, by taking a historical perspective, we explore how genres have evolved in the course of time and how modern cinema extensively use genre mixing and hybridization, thus pointing to the future of this important but complex category of film analysis. Part of the www.cinemafocus.eu research materials.
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I generi cinematografici: caratteristiche, funzioni, evoluzione
Film genres: features, functions, evolution
UN MOMENTO PER RIFLETTERE
STOP AND THINK
* Hai qualche film horror e/o western preferito? * Have you got any favourite horror and/or
Riassumi brevemente la loro trama e poi prova ad western movies? Briefly summarize their plot
analizzare la loro struttura narrativa seguendo la and then try to analyse their narrative structure
discussione e gli esempi in questa sezione. following the discussion and the examples in
* Sei d'accordo che tali film possano essere this section.
considerati esempi rappresentativi del loro genere? * Do you agree that such films can be
* Quali altri film ti vengono in mente che considered as representative examples of their
potrebbero facilmente essere inseriti negli stessi genre?
generi?
* Which other films come to your mind that
could easily be fitted into the same genre(s)?
6. Il film come testo: gli approcci semanticostrutturali
6. Film as text: semantic-structural
approaches
Nel discorso quotidiano, i generi sono spesso
identificati facendo riferimento all'argomento e/o
al tema che trattano, ad es. l'incontro con gli alieni
nei film di fantascienza, la ricerca del criminale
nei film thriller e polizieschi, il tema "ragazzo
incontra ragazza" nelle commedie romantiche,
l'ascesa e la caduta di un gangster nei film di
gangster, e così via. Come ha osservato Stam
(Nota 3), sebbene l'argomento sembri essere, in
superficie, il candidato più probabile come criterio
di base per raggruppare i film, in realtà pone
l'importante questione di come viene affrontato
l'argomento (il contenuto tematico). Ciò ha portato
Rick Altman, uno dei principali studiosi del
settore, a suggerire che
"... Si pensa che i generi risiedano in un
particolare argomento e struttura o in un corpus
di film che condividono un argomento e una
struttura specifici. Cioè, per essere riconosciuti
come genere, i film devono avere sia un
argomento comune ... che una struttura comune,
un modo comune di configurare quell'argomento.
Anche quando i film condividono un argomento
comune, non saranno percepiti come membri di
un genere a meno che quell'argomento non riceva
sistematicamente un trattamento dello stesso tipo"
(Nota 11)
23
In popular discourse, genres are often
identified by referring to the topic and/or
theme that they deal with, e.g. the meeting with
aliens in science-fiction films, the search for
the criminal in thriller and detective films, the
"boy-meets-girl" theme in romantic comedies,
the rise and fall of a gangster in ganster films,
and so on. As Stam (Note 3) has observed,
although topic seems to be, on the surface, the
most likely candidate as a basic criterion for
grouping films, it really begs the important
question of how the topic (the thematic content)
is dealt with. This has led Rick Altman, one of
the leading scholars in the field, to suggest that
"... Genres are thought to reside in a particular
topic and structure or in a corpus of films that
share a specific topic and structure. That is, in
order to be recognized as a genre, films must
have both a common topic ... and a common
structure, a common way of configuring that
topic. Even when films share a common topic,
they will not be perceived as members of a
genre unless that topic systematically receives
treatment of the same type" (Note 11)
Semantic-structural approaches to the study of
genre consider not just semantic elements