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
cinemafocus.eu
clienti abituali e i personaggi con atteggiamenti
riconoscibili: il vagabondo selvaggio ma
simpatico, il cattivo sprezzante, e, soprattutto,
John Wayne, che sarà presto identificato come lo
sceriffo. Tuttavia, è la sintassi di questa sequenza
che "tiene insieme" gli elementi semantici e
produce l'effetto complessivo sul pubblico: si
stabilisce immediatamente una rete di relazioni tra
"l'estraneo" (Dean Martin), il cattivo (Claude
Akins) e il rappresentante della legge (John
Wayne), e ci aspettiamo che queste relazioni si
sviluppino nei ben noti conflitti che i western
mettono in scena tra legge e ordine, natura
selvaggia e civiltà, società e estranei. Poiché non
c'è dialogo, tutti questi elementi sono veicolati
attraverso la recitazione (gesti, movimenti,
sguardi...) e i movimenti della macchina da presa,
compreso l'inquadratura verso l'alto che introduce
il personaggio di John Wayne con la sua familiare
aura di qualità personali distintive.
already all there - the open spaces, the wild
landscape, the long caravan across the desert,
the saloon with its usual customers, and the
characters with recognizable attitudes: the wild
but sympathetic tramp, the scornful villain,
and, above all, John Wayne, who will soon be
identified as the sheriff. However, it is the
syntax of this sequence that "holds" the
semantic elements together and produces the
overall effect on the audience: a network of
relationships is immediately established
between the "outsider" (Dean Martin), the
villain (Claude Akins) and the representative of
the law (John Wayne), and we expect these
relationships to develop into the well-known
conflicts that westerns stage between law and
order, wilderness and civilization, society and
outsiders. Since there is no dialogue, all these
elements are conveyed through acting
(gestures, movements, glances ...) and camera
movements, including the "up shot" which
introduces the John Wayne character with his
familiar aura of distinctive personal qualities.
Un dollaro d'onore/Rio bravo (di/by Howard Hawks, USA 1959)
Gli effetti combinati di elementi semantici e
sintattici possono essere ottenuti solo perché noi,
il pubblico, li conosciamo così bene che non
abbiamo nemmeno bisogno di un dialogo per
comprendere e apprezzare il significato totale
della storia che inizia a svolgersi sullo schermo. Il
ruolo delle aspettative degli spettatori è un
elemento cruciale di un genere, come discuteremo
meglio in una sezione successiva.
Considerazioni simili a quelle appena fatte per il
western potrebbero essere applicate ad altri generi
cinematografici. Ad esempio, il musical, nato alla
fine degli anni '20 con un repertorio riconosciuto
di tratti semantici (es. il palcoscenico, i preparativi
per la messa in scena di un'opera teatrale, uniti a
26
The combined effects of semantic and syntactic
elements can only be obtained because we, the
audience, are so familiar with them that we do
not even need a dialogue to understand and
appreciate the total significance of the story
which is starting to unfold on the screen. The
role of the viewers' expectations is a crucial
element of a genre, as we shall better discuss in
a later section.
Similar considerations to the ones just made
for the western could be applied to other film
genres. For example, the musical, which
started in the late 1920s with a stock repertoire
of semantic features (e.g. the setting on a stage,
the preparations for the mise-en-scène of a