05.02.2022 Views

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

ogni volta che vediamo una sedia dovessimo

inventarci una rappresentazione mentale

completamente nuova dell'oggetto, le capacità

della nostra mente sarebbero occupate da

operazioni lunghe e gravose. Invece, impariamo

molto presto a costruire una categoria generale di

oggetti ("sedia") che include la maggior parte, se

non tutti, i casi specifici di sedie,

indipendentemente dalla loro dimensione, colore,

materiale, forma, stile, ecc. Per creare questo

categoria, dobbiamo includere alcune

caratteristiche essenziali comuni a tutte le sedie, e

quindi arriviamo a una definizione che ci aiuti a

identificare un particolare esempio dell'oggetto,

ma anche, allo stesso tempo, ad escludere tutti gli

altri oggetti che non condividono tutte le

caratteristiche della nostra sedia "prototipo":

"Una sedia è un mobile su cui una persona può

sedersi, con uno schienale, un sedile e quattro

gambe" (Nota 1)

Sulla base di questa definizione possiamo usare la

nostra categoria generale per identificare ciò che

riconosciamo come "sedie", ma anche per

escludere altri oggetti che possono condividere la

stessa funzione (cioè "il sedersi") ma non sono

conformi all'idea standard di "sedia", ad es uno

sgabello, una poltrona, un divano, una panchina...

anche se possiamo accettare altri oggetti

qualificandoli in un modo o nell'altro: così

possiamo includere nella nostra idea generale

oggetti più specifici come una sedia a rotelle, un

seggiolone, una sedia a dondolo, una sedia

girevole... Graficamente, potremmo esprimere

queste relazioni in questo modo:

capacities would be taken up by lengthy,

burdensome operations. Instead, early in life

we learn to build a general category of objects

(" chair") which includes most, if not all,

specific instances of chairs, irrespective of

their size, colour, material, shape, style, etc. To

create this category, we must include some

essential features shared by all chairs, and thus

we come up with a definition which helps us to

identify any particular example of the object,

but also, at the same time, to exclude all other

objects that do not share all the features of our

"prototypical" chair:

"A chair is a piece of furniture for one person

to sit on, with a back, a seat and four legs"

(Note 1)

On the basis of this definition we can use our

general category to identify what we recognize

as "chairs", but also to exclude other objects

which may share the same function (i.e. "to sit

on") but do not conform to the standard idea of

"chair", e.g. a stool, an armchair, a sofa, a

bench ... although we can accept other items by

qualifying them in one way or another: thus we

can include in our general idea more specific

items like a wheelchair, a high chair, a rocking

chair, a swivel chair ... Graphically, we could

express these relationships like this:

4

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