the ingredients of a film determine its genre

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