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
Guerre stellari/Star Wars (di/by George Lucas, USA 1977)
Italiano English
Star Trek/Star Trek - The motion picture (di/by Robert Wise, USA 1979)
I generi hanno quindi la capacità di riemergere,
ma solitamente con nuovi temi/argomenti e/o con
un'iconografia mutata, in risposta ai cambiamenti
socio-culturali e al richiamo del pubblico:
"I film di genere essenzialmente chiedono al
pubblico: 'Vuoi ancora crederci?' La popolarità si
ottiene se il pubblico risponde "Sì". Il
cambiamento di genere avviene quando il
pubblico dice: "È una forma troppo infantile di
ciò in cui crediamo. Mostraci qualcosa di più
complicato". (Nota 8)
I drammatici sviluppi delle tecnologie digitali, di
Internet e dei videogiochi hanno permesso ai film
proprio questo - l'opportunità di offrire al pubblico
"qualcosa di più complicato" - e non solo in
termini di temi o argomenti. A un livello più
profondo e sintattico, le forme narrative sono state
profondamente influenzate in termini di
allontanamento da un trattamento semplice e
lineare del tempo e degli eventi verso modi più
complessi di raccontare storie, influenzando così
anche le motivazioni dei personaggi e le relazioni
causali. Questa tendenza, che trova la sua
massima espressione in quelli che sono stati
chiamati "film puzzle" (si veda il relativo
Dossier), attraversa una varietà di generi,
influenzandoli e reinterpretandoli.
Infine, ciò che probabilmente è stato più evidente
negli ultimi decenni è la mescolanza dei generi,
che è in parte responsabile della relativa
scomparsa dei generi "puri" (classici) e
dell'emergere di elementi di generi diversi che
insieme contribuiscono a definire alcuni tipi di
film - anche se probabilmente non in termini di
creazione di generi "nuovi", ben identificabili.
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Thus genres have the capacity to re-emerge,
but usually with new themes/topics and/or with
a changed iconography, in response to sociocultural
changes and the ever-present call from
audiences:
"Genre films essentially ask the audience, 'Do
you still want to believe this?' Popularity is the
audience answering, 'Yes.' Change in genres
occurs when the audience says, 'That's too
infantile a form of what we believe. Show us
something more complicated." (Note 8)
The dramatic developments of digital
technologies, the Internet and videogames have
allowed movies just that - the opportunity to
provide audiences with "something more
complicated" - and not just in terms of themes
or topics. On a deeper, syntactical level,
narrative forms have been deeply affected in
terms of moving away from a simple, linear
treatment of time and events to more complex
ways of telling stories, thereby affecting
character motivations and causal relationships
too. This tendency, which is at its clearest in
what have been called "puzzle films" (see the
relevant Dossier) runs through a variety of
genres, affecting and reinterpreting them.
Finally, what has probably been most evident
in the past few decades is the mixing of genres,
which is partly responsible for the relative
disappearance of "pure" (classical) genres and
the emergence of elements from different
genres that together help define certain kinds of
movies - although probably not in terms of
creating "new", well-identifiable genres.