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
Praticamente ogni genere ha dato origine a
parodie corrispondenti, che a volte hanno avuto
molto successo come film "originali" a sé stanti.
Gli esempi includono l'horror, il western e i
cosiddetti "film catastrofici", diventati popolari
negli anni '70 (si vedano i video qui sotto).
their own right. Examples include the horror, the
western and the so-called "disaster movies",
which had became popular in the 1970s (watch
the videos below).
Trailer italiano
English trailer
Frankenstein Junior/Young Frankenstein (di/by Mel Brooks, USA 1974)
Mezzogiorno e mezzo di fuoco/Blazing
saddles (di/by Mel Brooks, USA 1974)
L'aereo più pazzo del mondo/Airplane! (di/by
Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker, USA 1980)
Un tipo particolare e più sottile di parodia o
satira non implica necessariamente un intento
comico, ma piuttosto una sofisticata
rielaborazione delle convenzioni di un genere -
che richiede, in primo luogo, una profonda
consapevolezza e conoscenza di tali
convenzioni e la capacità di manipolarli con
grande abilità e perizia e, in secondo luogo,
una trattazione più profonda e sottile
dell'argomento (che l'intento comico, qui
carente, rende un po' più facile ed evidente).
Anche da parte degli spettatori, tali parodie
richiedono la capacità di riconoscere l'intento
parodistico dietro la "facciata" e apprezzare
l'operazione complessiva svolta dal
regista/sceneggiatore. Un classico esempio è
Zelig (si veda il video in basso a sinistra), che è
diventato noto come "mockumentary", ovvero
un falso documentario biografico che
costruisce una falsa biografia di una persona
presumibilmente famosa - invitando gli
spettatori a credere in ciò che vedono e
sentono, ma anche spingendoli ad apprezzare
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A particular, subtler kind of parody or satire
does not necessarily imply a comic intent, but
rather a sophisticated re-working of the
conventions of a genre - which requires, in the
first place, a thorough awareness and
knowledge of such conventions and the ability
to manipulate them with great skills and
expertise, and in the second place, a deeper,
subtler treatment of the subject matter (which
the comic intent, here lacking, makes
somewhat easier and more evident). On the
viewers' part, too, such parodies require an
ability to recognize the parodical intent behind
the "façade" and appreciate the overall
operation carried out by the
director/screenwriter. A classic example is
Zelig (watch the video below right), which is
what has become to be known as
"mockumentary", i.e. a false biographical
documentary which builds a fake biography of
a supposedly famous person - inviting viewers
to believe in what they see and hear, but also
prompting them to appreciate the subtle re-