In the introduction to Kendall Phillips’ book, “Projected Fears,” he discusses “horror films that made such an impression on American culture that they became instantly recognizable and, indeed, redefined the notion of what a horror film is.” (Phillips 3). This list of movies includes many favorites, such as Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Scream. Phillips later states his thesis, “...my argument in this book is that these [movies] are the most ‘successful’ and ‘influential’ in American history and that their level of success and influence can be correlated to broader cultural anxieties into which they somehow tapped” (Phillips 3).
I used to think genre was a category or a label that defined a written piece. My understanding relied exclusively on the format. However, when I read “Navigating Genres”, by Kerry Dirk, I realized how limited my understanding was. In his essay, Dirk wants his audience to challenge the misconceptions of genres in writing. Dirk exposes the reader to see writing through the lenses of genre theory and to conceptualize the benefits of genres in our rhetoric.
Take the Saw series for example. The Saw movies are some of the most popular horror movies ever made. Ever since the 2004 release of the original movie, people everywhere waited and hoped for another one. Although considered a horror movie, Saw is more like a torture film. It is not just something with clowns and a murderer.
Until the end of the 70s French and then American critics regarded film noir not as a genre, but as tone, mood, or style. Paul Schrader even offered to consider as a kind of noir period in the history of cinema, such as the ‘new wave’ or neo-realism (1972). And only in the end of the 70s articles began to appear, offering to consider noir as a genre with its own formula and the structure of the narrative
There are many things that make “Citizen Kane” considered as possibly one of the greatest films every made; to the eyes of the passive audience this film may not seem the most amazing, most people being accustomed to the classical Hollywood style, but to the audience with an eye for the complex, “Citizen Kane” breaks the traditional Hollywood mold and forges its own path for the better. Exposition is one of the most key features of a film, it’s meant introduce important characters and give the audience relevant details and and dutifully suppress knowledge in turn. “Citizen Kane” does not follow this Classic Hollywood style exposition, instead going above and beyond to open the film with revealing as little information as possible and confuse/intrigue
The most successful artists often employ tropes during the creative process. Tropes are the devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the viewer's minds and expectations. The famed director Steven Spielberg utilizes multiple common tropes in his 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark. The most pertinent tropes Spielberg included that most viewers will recognize are The Quest for Lost Treasure, The Evil Empire, and Paranormal Prophecy. The usage of such tropes may be primarily fact-based, but how meticulous the director is about purely relaying facts in the film is a question open for debate.
Natalia Navarro English 101 Julia Raybould-Rodgers 21 February 2018 King Vs. Klosterman Both Stephen King and Chuck Klosterman believe that many people watch horror movies for the thrill and excitement, however Klosterman uses horror movies as a metaphor while King uses horror movies as a sense of relief. Horror movies have always been such a popular genre that people watch. The horror genre is one of the top genres to watch other than comedy and romance. Many people may enjoy horror movies, while many others may not enjoy horror movies.
One of the most audacious Hollywood films of the late 1970s was ‘All That Jazz’ and the music to match was just as cheeky. Music used throughout the film in ‘All That Jazz’, some of the songs had a very 80 's beat, which of course was en vogue when it was made. It combined musical theatre and elaborate flights of fancy to enthralling effect, employing a wide range of musical styles and compositions in the process. The music style used divides its time between jazzy pop classics ("Everything Old Is New Again" and "On Broadway") and a combination of classics handled by composer/arranger Ralph Burns. The jazzy pop songs made for fun listening from classical music, lushly-orchestrated pop classics to easy listening styled songs.
Diversity in Hollywood In 2015, actress Viola Davis made history for being the first African American female to win an Emmy for “Best Actress in a Drama.” The Emmys is an award show that has been around for 67 years. She did not play the role of a slave or a jezebel, typical woman of color stereotypes, but a well-educated lawyer for the popular TV drama How to Get Away with Murder. In 2012-13, statistics have shown that ethnic minorities made up about 17 percent of actors with lead roles in films and television shows that portray them in a non-stereotypical way (Hunt and Roman).
The word genre comes from the French word for 'class ', (Chandler, 1997). Film genre refers to a specific style or subject matter. A movie may have several different components that may make up a specific genre. Genres makes it easier for the audience, as the categorization of genres lets the audience pick what sort of movie they would like to watch. Film genres give the audience information into the type movie it may be, this in turn helps them to decide whether the movie is suitable for them or not.
One film example that will have a sub-genre is a fantasy film. This type of film usually overlaps or crossover with other genres, like science fiction, and sometimes historical dramas (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014). While going forth with my paper on “The Wizard of Oz”, I will help the viewers understand
Topic 1: Film genres Through the 1995 film “Clueless”, written and directed by Amy Heckerling, the idea that film genres are located in industry and texts and audiences is clearly shown. “Clueless” is an American typical romantic comedy. This film can be seen as a hybrid genre as it include different characteristics of two film genres. In this movie, elements of humour and romance are both illustrated by its generic formulas and story content. The film talked about the heroine Cher goes through her perplexed teenage and finally realizes she is interested in Josh, her stepbrother.
Due to her book "Hollywood: The Dream Factory. An Anthropologist Looks at the Movie Makers" Hortense Powdermaker is regarded as one of the pioneers of ethnography. Published in 1951 by Secker & Warburg in London, Powdermaker here aims to demystify the affect of movies on the audience and establishes the hypothesis "that the social system in which they are made significantly influences their content and meaning" (Powdermaker, 1951, p.3). After living in Hollywood for one year she concludes that the internal structures resemble those of a totalitarian system in which the struggle between business and art is reflected in the meaning of its movies. It suggests that the values of studio bosses and producers dominate while the artistic values of directors and writers are strongly restricted.
What are body genres? Body genres allude to sorts that affect the audience's body. These genres create a physical impact, getting the body in the grasp of an extraordinary sensation or feeling, influencing the body to show a physical response. In the article "Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess," Linda William evaluates the three genres of films with the crucial components of sex, brutality, and feeling.
Social realism is a movement that includes realistically interpreting the simple everyday life of common middle-class people and also the effect of the current political events. Social Realism developed as a reaction against idealism and focused on the ugly realities of contemporary life and sympathized with working class people, particularly the poor. The social realism writers have always narrated what they saw in real life in a dispassionate manner. Realism has chiefly concerned with the commonplace of everyday life among the middle class and lower middle classes, where character is a keeping in mind the social factors. Realism is a style of writing in Literature that gives impression of recording
