the ingredients of a film determine its genre. there are several recognisable elements making up any...
TRANSCRIPT
The ingredients of a film determine its genre. There are several recognisable elements making up any
given genre that would seem odd in any other context. We accept robots & ray guns in a science fiction but would be
astonished if they occurred in a period drama, for instance.
Genre
• If a studio knows from recent experience that super hero films have enjoyed large audiences then a new one is likely to be commissioned.
• We, as an audience know what we are getting: genres are simplifying labels to help us know what to expect.
Spot the Super Hero Cliché
• On the other hand, genres are not fixed but keep evolving new conventions and breeding sub-genres, such as horror- comedy.
• Like a good chef, an innovative director will experiment with generic ingredients in order to create something new and exciting.
• Why?
• For a genre to ‘work’, it needs to show recognisable cinematic conventions, narratives, iconography, character types, ideologies, etc.
Film Noir
• From what we’ve looked at already, can you remember any key genre features from film noir?
• What are the recurring images and themes in the stills?
Influence – German cinema from the 1920s
Influence – the mood and images from Edward Hopper’s paintings
Influence – American gangster films from the 1930s
•Public Enemy Number One
•Scarface
•Little Caesar
•Lots of violence but little atmosphere
The Production code
• Also known as the Hays Code
Exiled directors from Germany & Austria with expressionist style & ideas influencing the look of the period
+Images of urban America in the depression era
+American audience taste for the gangster film
+The new rules of the Production Code
=Film Noir