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
2
Part
8. I generi come elementi socioculturali
8. Genres as sociocultural elements
Abbiamo già discusso come i generi
cinematografici siano definiti non nel vuoto,
come idee astratte o da singole persone o
istituzioni, ma siano, prima di tutto, il risultato
di una sorta di "accordo" tra l'industria
cinematografica (il lato "produttivo", da un lato,
e il pubblico (il lato "ricettivo") dall'altro,
basato, ovviamente, sul presupposto che i film
sono realizzati per realizzare un profitto, e
questo profitto proviene dal pubblico. Il "film
come prodotto" diventa così un ponte tra
produzione e consumo, un codice condiviso,
simile a qualsiasi altro prodotto mass-mediale, e
un potente mezzo di comunicazione (soprattutto
oggi, quando le comunità fisiche sono unite da
una miriade di comunità Internet).
We have already discussed how film genres are
defined not in a vacuum, as abstract ideas or by
single persons or institutions, but are, first and
foremost, the result of a sort of "agreement"
between the film industry (the "production" side),
on the one hand, and the audiences (the
"reception" side) on the other - based, of course,
on the assumption that films are made to make a
profit, and this profit comes from audiences. The
"film as product" thus becomes a bridge between
production and consumption, a shared code,
much the same as any other mass-media product,
and a powerful means of communication
(particularly nowadays, when physical
communities are joined by a host of virtual
Internet communities).
Tuttavia, abbiamo accennato al fatto che i However, we have mentioned that the discourses
discorsi sui film e sui generi cinematografici non about films and film genres are not limited to
si limitano ai produttori e al pubblico, ma producers and audiences, but imply the
implicano la partecipazione e l'interazione di participation and interaction of a number of
una serie di altri "parti interessate", dai critici other "stakeholders", from film critics to film
cinematografici agli studiosi di cinema, dalle scholars, from advertising agencies to cultural
agenzie pubblicitarie alle istituzioni culturali. institutions. Thus the very definition of "genre"
Quindi la stessa definizione di "genere" deve must include the roles that such a concept plays
includere i ruoli che tale concetto svolge in una in a variety of different contexts: in other words,
varietà di contesti diversi: in altre parole, i films genres are defined and used within a very
generi cinematografici sono definiti e utilizzati broad socio-cultural context, as the following
all'interno di un contesto socio-culturale molto graph shows:
ampio, come mostra il grafico seguente:
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