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