Choose one of the genres on the following page along with a pair of films on which to write a 6 page paper, double spaced using both original analysis and outside research.
Mention the citations and sources used in the end. Ill incorporate them on my own.
Develop the thesis and then argue that thesis with a coherent and organized discussion of the topic. Your thesis must make a claim about how and why your genre has changed over time and engage with the concepts on Genre and the Classical, Postclassical, and Modernist periods (whichever apply to your films). Use the terminology from the other terminology attachment.
Instructions:
This is, first and foremost, a paper about genre. Your films are illustrative examples of the genre within a historical/cultural context that will help you understand how and why it has changed over time. They will also help limit your focus, as not every generic myth, convention, or icon will be relevant to your films and your thesis. You are not simply discussing your films' similarities and differences. Your argument and analysis must demonstrate a historical understanding of the genre and how your films work within the genre. You should examine the generic myths, conventions, and iconography at work in the films, as well as the ways in which the style (or formal elements) influence how audiences understand and interpret these various generic elements.
For example: How is the convention of the lone gunslinger different in a classical versus a modernist Western? How is this difference indicative of the broader changes in the genre between the two periods?
Movie OPTIONS to choose from: CHOOSE a set of movies from a genre and then compare the two with respect to the instructions provided.
Adventure
• The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and Jaws (1975) ?
• The Count of Monte Cristo (1934) and Enter the Dragon ( ?1973)
• Biography/Biopic
Queen Christina (1933) and Lady Sings the Blues (1972) ?
The Jackie Robinson Story (1950) and The Great White Hope (1970) ?
Comedy
His Girl Friday (1940) and The Producers (1968)?
You Can't Take It With You (1938) and The Bad News Bears (1976)
Melodrama:
• Imitation of Life (1934) and Imitation of Life (1959) ?
• Morocco (1930) and Carmen Jones (1954)
Sci-fi:
Metropolis (1927) and Planet of the Apes (1968)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Solaris (1972)
Social Problem
• Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) and Nothing But A Man (1964) ?
• The Public Enemy (1931) and Superfly (1972)
Length : 6 pages.
Genre: classical phase
A. Definition of genre
1. Content/form distinction
Similar in subjects, themes, moods, settings, plots, conflicts, character types, styles, forms, intended effect on audience
Content is what is inside the work, what the work is about
Form in the way that the content is put together
- editing, photography, lighting, etc.
2. Myths, conventions and iconography as constituents of a genre
What you use to judge a group of films and categorize them
Conventions are things that separate genres by separating things that other genres don't have
Musical use singing and dancing
Gangster use gas-like dialogue
Iconography is a series of sights/sounds that repeat themselves from film to film
B. Film genres
1. Tragedy
An image of man going beyond the bounds, being true to his own self, trying to break limits
Implies a man being heroic (active, responsible)
We don't have the tragic vision today b/c this is the age of anti-hero, man is passive
- implies a significant universe; today we see the world as absurd (godless)
Tragedy needs religion and needs gods.
2. Comedy
An image of man being bound, fallible, flawed, limited (makes a point about life)
3. Melodrama
It is a world that is typical (dialogue, actions)
Your own life
Gives a world that split good and evil
Formal system
Heighten emotions melodrama wants you to feel
Emotional, physical, moral energy
Suspense: detective
Thriller: sunset blvd.
4. Boundaries between genres
5. Genre as aesthetically neutral
6. Review of films screened in class as examples of genre
Singin' in the rain: musical
A tree grows in Brooklyn: family melodrama
Blue jasmine: female melodrama
A simple plan: suspense, middle class
The heiress: family melodrama (female)
Go: black comedy, suspense, adventure
Election: black comedy
Hud: family melodrama
Lady eve: romantic comedy
Genres are aesthetically neutral
C. Historical overview of genre in American film
1. 1895-1928 the silent period: the codification of genres
2. 1929-1945 the classical period: the crystallization of genres
3. 1946-1962 the postclassical period: the breaking up of genres
4. 1963-1976 the modernist period: the explosion of genres
5. 1977-present the postmodernist period: the revision of genres
D. Conditions and causes for genre in American film
1. Financial
Audiences are buyers
Manufactures seller the models (from theaters, paintings)
Picture of movie
They advertise movie through genre.
They sell genre.
Cost can be minimized when you repeat the formula.
Life is not long. Life is very short. If you want to be good at anything you do, you have to do it again and again.
2. Aesthetic
3. Global sensibility
E. Implications of genre
1. Genre as comforter, confirmer, and instiller of hope/optimism
2. Genre as "sugar-coating the pill"
3. Genre as cultural myth
4. Genre as ritual
Repetition
(celebrating the birthday, going to the classes, going to the churches)
5. Genre as formative influence on the production and consumption of film text
F. Genre as dynamic system
G. Case study of a genre film in its classical phase: myths, conventions, iconography
H. Relationship of genre and mode of representation