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
I concetti di "sgabello", "panchina" e "divano" si
sovrappongono solo in parte al concetto più
generale di "sedia", che però comprende, come
abbiamo visto, diverse possibili varianti
qualificate.
The concepts of "stool", "bench" and "sofa"
only partially overlap with the more general
concept of "chair", which, however, includes,
as we have seen, several possible qualified
variations.
Se ora consideriamo la "commedia" come
"un'opera teatrale o un film che ha lo scopo di
essere divertente, di solito con un lieto fine" (cioè
il concetto di base), siamo inevitabilmente portati
a considerare altri tipi di lavori teatrali/film che
condividono il concetto di base ma possono (o
devono) essere qualificati da funzionalità
aggiuntive, ad es commedia romantica, commedia
musicale, commedia per adolescenti ...:
If we now take "comedy" as "a play or
film/movie that is intended to be funny, usually
with a happy ending" (i.e. the basic concept),
we are inevitably led to consider other, related
types of plays/films/movies which share the
basic concept but can (or must) be qualified by
additional features, e.g. romantic comedy,
musical comedy, teen comedy ...:
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