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
la sottile rielaborazione delle note convenzioni
del genere cinematografico "biopic". Zelig
racconta la storia di una sorta di "camaleonte"
che può assumere le caratteristiche delle forti
personalità che lo circondano, fino a
trasformarsi in attore. Il regista Woody Allen
utilizza tutti i mezzi a sua disposizione per
rendere il film il più "realistico" possibile:
immagini vere e false sapientemente
mescolate, un commento fuori campo,
interviste ad intellettuali contemporanei che
analizzano e testimoniano le qualità dell'uomo,
e persino sequenze false di un B-movie
americano su un episodio della sua vita.
(Torneremo su questo particolare "genere"
quando discuteremo di quelli che più
recentemente sono stati chiamati
"mockumentary" e "docudrama".)
working of the well-known conventions of the
"biopic" film genre. Zelig tells the story of a
sort of "chamaleon" who can take on the
characteristics of the strong personalities
around him, eventually turning into an actor.
Director Woody Allen uses all the means at his
disposal to make the movie as "realistic" as
possible: real and fake images cleverly mixed
together, a voice-over commentary, interviews
with contemporary intellectuals which analyse
and testify to the man's qualities, and even fake
sequences from an American B-movie about an
episode in his life. (We shall return to this
particular "genre" when discussing what more
recentty have been called "mockumentaries"
and "docudrama".)
Italiano
English
Zelig (di/by Woody Allen, USA 1983)
12.3. Oltre la visione evolutiva
Nel corso del tempo, alla prospettiva evolutiva
appena descritta sono state mosse diverse
critiche, mettendo in evidenza il fatto che le
fasi attraverso le quali un genere dovrebbe
attraversare, dalla nascita alla maturità al
declino, tendono a descrivere un percorso
predeterminato, rigido, quasi deterministico,
quando in realtà i generi si sviluppano ed
evolvono in un costante processo di
(ri)definizione. Inoltre, gli esempi
generalmente citati per identificare le varie
"tappe" non tengono conto della grande varietà
di film prodotti in momenti diversi, che non
sembrano descrivere un percorso così lineare.
E, come abbiamo già notato, i generi
interagiscono sempre tra loro e il processo di
ibridazione è sempre all'opera, rendendo lo
status di un genere temporaneo e soggetto a
cambiamenti.
12.3. Beyond the evolutionary view
In the course of time, several criticisms have
been levelled at the just described evolutionary
perspective, highlighting the fact that the
stages through which a genre is supposed to
go through, from birth to maturity to decline,
tend to describe a pre-determined, rigid,
almost deterministic route, when in fact genres
develop and evolve in a constant process of
(re)definition. Also, the examples generally
quoted to identify the various "stages" do not
take into account the large variety of films
produced at different points in time, which do
not seem to describe such a straightforward
route. And, as we have already noted, genres
always interact with one another and the
process of hybridizaion is always at work,
making a genre's status temporary and subject
to change.
"These theories, by making a determinist
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