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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

dei casi, il pubblico contemporaneo (ma anche

produttori, critici, studiosi, ecc.) non era

consapevole che un genere "stava nascendo".

Moine (Nota 10) cita l'esempio di Mildred Pierce

(si veda il video sotto), che è stato descritto, volta

per volta, come un melodramma, un film

"femminile e un film noir, quando in realtà

dovremmo dire che questo film è stato

considerato, in tempi diversi e da persone diverse,

come un melodramma, un film "femminile" e un

film noir - il che evidenzia il fatto che

l'interpretazione critica può variare nel tempo e in

base alle mutate sensibilità e aspettative culturali.

contemporary audiences (but also producers,

critics, scholars, etc.) are not aware that a

genre "is being born". Moine (Note 10) quotes

the example of Mildred Pierce (watch the video

below), which has been described, in turn, as a

melodrama, a woman's film and a film noir,

when in reality we should say that this film has

been considered, at various times and by

different people, as a melodrama, a woman's

film and a film noir - which highlights the fact

that critical interpretation can vary across time

and on the basis of changing cultural

sensibilities and expectations.

Il romanzo di Mildred/Mildred Pierce (di/by Michael Curtiz, USA 1945)

Certo, la principale preoccupazione economica

dell'industria cinematografica è quella di rendere

un film il più redditizio possibile, e questo può

essere ottenuto, paradossalmente, non

promuovendo un film come esempio di un genere

specifico, perché ciò rischierebbe di alienare il

possibile pubblico non interessato a quel

particolare genere. Un film può quindi essere

promosso con una varietà di etichette, spesso

mescolando generi diversi (come

commedia/azione), oppure possono essere incluse

caratteristiche di generi diversi nel film stesso,

con l'obiettivo di attirare il pubblico più ampio

possibile.

All'interno di un singolo film possono anche

essere adottate posizioni ideologiche diverse e

persino divergenti, oppure le posizioni stesse

possono essere sfocate, in modo che il film possa

prestarsi a interpretazioni alternative e, ancora una

volta, attirare spettatori che hanno visioni del

mondo diverse. In Omicidio a luci rosse (si veda il

trailer qui sotto), ad esempio, un uomo osserva,

attraverso un telescopio, una donna che balla

eroticamente a un'ora specifica ogni notte, ma

assiste anche al suo omicidio senza poterla

75

Of course, the main economic concern of the

cinema industry is to make a film as profitable

as possible, and this can be achieved,

paradoxically, by not promoting a movie as an

example of a specific genre, because this would

run the risk of alienating possible audiences

not interested in that particular genre. A film

can thus be promoted with a variety of labels,

often mixing different genres (like

comedy/action), or features of different genres

can be included in the movie itself, with a view

to attracting the widest possible range of

audiences.

Different, and even diverging, ideological

positions can also be accommodated within a

single movie, or the positions themselves can be

blurred, so that the movie can lend itself to

alternative interpretations and, once again,

attract viewers who hold different worldviews.

In Body double (watch the trailer below), for

example, a man watches, through a telescope, a

woman who erotically dances at a specific time

every night, but also witnesses her murder

without being able to help her. The film offers

ample space to voyeurism (which is actually

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