Week 6
Film Genres
By Mathias and Roy
Why do we go to cinema ?
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We like their stars (directors,
actors, …)
We like certain types of films
Types of films are commonly
referred to as a genre
A genre is easier to
recognize than to define
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Genre is originally french and
means kind or type
Genre is related to genus : used to
classify group of plants or animals
Defining a genre lacks that sort of
scientific precision
Defining a genre
What a genre is ?
Genres stand-out by their :
 Subjects or themes (Science
Fiction, Western, …)
 Manner of presentation (Musicals)
 Emotional effect on the audience
(Comedy, horror film…)
Classification limits
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A film can straddle many genres
Genres change over time
Some films are so distinct that they
can’t be assigned to a genre
Analyzing genres
Who classify films ?
A genre is based on a tacit agreement
among filmmakers, reviewers and
audience.
On witch coventions is
based a genre ?
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Conventional element (Western,
gangster film, …)
Thematic conventions (comedy)
Characteristic film techniques
(horror film)
Iconography :
Objects
 Stars
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Genres and audiences
Audiences expect the genre film to offer
something familiar but they also demand
fresh variations on it.
Genre history
Origin of a genre
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Many film genres originate in part
by borrowing existing convention
from the other media (novels, …)
A genre become established when
one film becomes successful and
is widely imitated
A genre can also come from the
mix of existing ones
Mixing genres
On of the commonest ways in which
genres change is by a mixing of
convention and iconography.
 Comedy and musical can be mixed
with almost any subject matter
 Horror film and science fiction
(Alien)
 Science fiction and detective story
(Blade Runner)
 ...
Evolution of a genre
Because filmmakers frequently play with
conventions and iconography, genres
seldom remain unchanged for very long.
Genres and success
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Almost all genres do not remain
constantly successful
A genre becomes established
when one film becomes successful
and is widely imitated
A genre can also come from the
mix of existing ones
Three genres
The Western
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Partly based on reality
Central themes : conflicts between
cowboys, outlaws, sherif and tribes
of native americans
Huge importance of inconography :
Costumes, horses, trains…
 Stars : Jonh Wayne, Enio Moricone,
Sergio Leone
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Duality of the typical western hero
The horror film
The horror film is most recognizable by its
intended emotional effect on the
audiences. It aims to horrify.
What can horrify us ?
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A monster
Someone violates the boundary
between the dead and the living
The reaction of a movie character
Iconography : old dark house,
cemeteries…
Music and sound (Carrie)
The Musical
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Contrary to the Westerns and the
Horror films, the musicals came
into being in response to a
technical innovation
Musicals may be films where :
Characters sing and dance
because it is their job in the film
(« backstage » musical)
 Characters sing and dance in
situations of everyday life (Grease)
 Children stories (Walt Disney)
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The Musical
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Characteristic techniques of
musicals :
They are brightly lit
 Cheerfull costumes
 Camera very mobile
 « Playback »
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What is Film Genre
--Kaminsky, stuart M
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A body, group or category of similar
works, defined as sharing of a sufficient
number of motifs so that we can
identify works that properly fall within a
particular kind or style of film.
-Broad Forms of popular expression
are identifiable
Various works are related that are
worth examining
Gain knowledge about individual films
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Genre approach does not need to
make any qualitative judgement
Examniation of popular forms
If a film is popular, it is a result of
the fact that the film corresponds to
an interest of the the viewing
public.
Understands the milieu and
background of the work through
relationship with religion
mythology, social sciences,
psychology, anthropology.
Examination of form and what it
means
Genre Analysis
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Devote entire study to
particular genre.
List large number of genres
and examine their elements or
categorize them.
Authorship and Genre
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Writers, directors, producers, and
cinematographers who have not
produced enough work to consider
them in terms of authorship.
In general, one must consider a
work in terms of understanding its
Genre.
Then attempt to discern what
author has added to genre.
Genre must have limited
scope, limited definitions
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Genre is purely descriptiveexamination of the validity of
particular symbols with the
history of connotations
I.e. what a white horse
means? And has symbolized
in the past
Realism, Naturalism and
Genre
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Documentary reality, cinema verite
Fictional but ‘real’
Tradition of naturalism that is
accepted as more real; I.e raging
Bull. Socialist comments
Documentary Reality
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Film which, through convention
creates illusion that events
depicted are taking place or have
taken uncontrolled by those
engaged in making the film.
Film is often authenticated by the
long take, grainy images resulting
from A.S.A, film which must be
used in poor lighting conditions,
variable sound quality and lack of
conventional narrative.
Assumption of Verified
Experience
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That the film be ‘Realistic’, “logical’
in the way we understand it
through our everyday lives.
Yet, plausibility of fiction films is a
contradiction of reality we
experience.
Movies are more likely to carry
illusion of reality if artificial
elements are minimized. I.e. shot
of man being chased by lion in the
same scene.
Naturalism and Film
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All human action was the result of
material causes.
All existent phenomena are in the
nature and thus within the sphere
of scientific knowledge
No Supernatural
Depictions of social problems
Negativity as reality
Example: D.W griffith, Raging bull
Importance of film
Genre
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Has basic formal and thematic
importance for viewers who return
to see it.
Contain basic elements of the
original but with variations or
development.
Each genre has its roots in myth
(structural?) the way we tell stories
in real life
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Understanding of the work in
question and explore reasons for
persistence and change of myths,
types, formulas, and forms.
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Popular generic works are treated
by critics as low art. I.e titanic,
independence day, etc.
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Concept of high Art is an elitist
concept
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But Popular generic work can be
analyzed and has significant
meaning too.
The monstrous feminine
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What is it about woman as monster
that is shocking, terrifying?
Castration anxiety?
Oedipus complex?
“There is a motif occurring in certain
primitive mythologies, which is
know to folklore as ‘the toothed
vagina’- the vagina that castrates.”Joseph Campbell.
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Stephen Neale: “Woman’s sexuality, that
which renders them desirable-but also
threatening- to men, which constitutes
the real problem that horror cinema
exists to explore and which constitutes
ultimately that which is really monstrous.”
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Monster signifies boundary between
human and non-human
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Male fear of castration which ultimately
produces and delineates the monstrous.
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Horror film offers abundant display of
fetishistic effects whose function is to
attest the perversity of the patriarchal
order founded on the erroneous belief
that woman is castrated.
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But
Lurie says: Men fear Women
because they are not castrated.
Woman is physically whole.
Notion of castrated woman is to
ameliorate the Phantasy of what
women might do to him.
Imagines Castration “ when penis
disappears inside women’s
‘devouring mouth’”
Linda williams
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Monster and woman are
constructed as ‘biological freaks’
whose bodies represent a fearful
and threatening form of sexuality.
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Potent threat to vulnerable male
power.
Woman as witch, carrie
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Association of blood, especially menstrual
blood as source of powers. Part of the
female reproductive system
Association of woman with pig and pigs
blood. Negative associations.
Witch sets out to unsettle boundaries
between rational and irrational. Symbolic
and imaginary.
Evil powers seen as part of her feminine
nature.
I.e. Carrie develops power at threshold of
puberty.
Woman as witch
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Apocalyptic destruction or
unnatural family relationships that
imply the end of society.
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carrie: destruction prom and of
family.
Men, Women and Chainsaws.
-Gender in the modern horror
film
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“Carrie is largely about how
women find their own channels of
power and what men fear about
women and women’s sexuality.
Uneasy masculine shrinking from a
future female equality”- stephen
King
Carrie is victim, hero and monster.
To whom does horror
appeal?
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Predominantly young male audience,
even with woman as monsters.
That the feminine as victim does not
appeal to woman alone- is empathised
by the boy who recognises himself in a
girl who finds herself a victim.
Carrie seems to find her power from
inside- female self empowerment
Genre over riding intention of the
protagonist. Predictable actions
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Primary identification is with the
camera
Secondary is with the character of
emphatic choice.
Both are fluid, character
identification on the psychoanalytic
grounds that competing figures
resonate with competing parts of
the viewers psyche.
Cinematic identification and Laura
Mulveys GAZE ; male pleasure
and fetishistic gaze subverted
Horror as a genre
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Horror films are incredibly
ritualized and formulaic
Audience knows what is going to
happen where
Horror for them starts even before
they enter the cinema to view it
Horror structures are installed long
before the individual movie.
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Sex in this universe precedes from
gender.
The traits define the sex of the
subject
A figure is a man because he is a
psycho killer
A figure is a woman because she
cowers and cries.
Sex vs gender
One sex theories vs two
sex
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Concept of female being imperfect
man
Penis envy
Phallic theories
Freudian theories
Politics of displacement
Displacing of the viewer in
terms of the
Protagonist’s role in the
film.
A woman can feint, and dart
and seduce all at
Once. Displaces, decenters
and foregrounds the
Inessential.
Conclusion
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Predomination of psychoanalytic theory.
Theories are often universalizing, and it makes use
of complex language and alienating categories
which deny women's experiences as active
spectators enjoying films or reading them critically
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dominant psychoanalytic focus has created a
narrow framework for the analysis of subjects,
pleasure, and desire, while alternative feminist
accounts are not considered.
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Subjected to patriarchal fundamental theories