Christian Metz Genre theory:
Christian Metz’s was French film theorist who is renowned for his genre characteristics theory. Metz’s claims that there are reoccurring expectations. There are 4 development stages that can be applied to a genre; Classical, Experimental, Parody and Deconstruction.
Classical – An original piece of work which is developing the initial codes and conventions of the genre. For example the Thriller movie genre was established as early as 1926 with silent thriller film, ‘The Lodger’. Then amateur director Alfred Hitchcock defined the thriller genre with his suspense thrillers with the success of ‘Rebecca’ (1940), ‘Saboteur’ (1942) and ‘Shadow of a Doubt’ (1943). Hitchcock was instrumental in establishing the thriller movie genre and still has a major influence even today. The initial thriller movies experimented with sound, acting and visuals.
Experimental stage
the experimental stage is the first set of films ever to be created of a particular genre. This stage could have some of the most simplistic films of all four categories; this is because the films have only just started being created. One of the examples from the experimental stage is The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. It is a German silence horror film but is also another German Expressionist films, one of the most influential and also one of the greatest silent horror films.
Parody stage
Parodies are films that take the mick out of something. In this example the horror is being mimicked in a funny way. For example the Scary Movie films, these films are American comedy films that have took the mick out of horror films. The first Scary Movie film came out July 2000 and has been the highest grossing film of the whole film series, for the first film some of the focus was from 1996 horror film scream, which comes under the deconstruction stage.
Deconstruction stage
Deconstruction films are films that have combine elements of different genres of films together when creating a film. A film that represents this stage is David Fitcher’s thriller film Se7en. Se7en is a thriller film based upon the theme of the seven deadly sins staring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman
David Buckingham Genre theory:
Genre is not simply given by the culture; rather it is a constant process of negotiation and change
Discovering the depth of Identity – Buckingham explores the development of how individuals understand the concept of identity. As a child identity is seen as a simple concept where by a child will simply differentiate between male and female genders.
According to Buckingham, as we grow older our understanding of identity becomes very complex no longer a simple method of just establishing gender.
Buckingham argues that “Genre is not… simply given by the culture rather it is in a constant process of regulation and change.
As a child identity is a simple concept a child could differentiate between male and female. As we grow older identity becomes very complex. Identity is unique and ever changing and so is genre.
Steve Neale Genre theory:
- Steve Neale’s perception is that “genres exist within the context of a set of economic relations and practices”.
- Economic factors may account for the perpetuation of a profitable genre.
- Steve Neale argues that Hollywood’s generic regime performs two inter-related functions: i) To guarantee meanings and pleasures for audiences. ii) To offset the considerable economic risks of industrial film production by providing cognitive collateral against innovation and difference.
- Neale goes on to add that genre is constituted by “specific systems of expectations and hypothesis which spectators bring with them to the cinema and which interact with the films themselves during the course of the viewing process”.
- Much of the pleasure of popular cinema lies in the process of “difference in repetition” – (i.e. recognition of familiar elements and in the way those elements might be orchestrated in an unfamiliar fashion or in the way that unfamiliar elements might be introduced).
- Pleasure is derived from repetition and difference. There would be no pleasure without difference. We may derive pleasure from observing how the conventions of the genre are manipulated.
- Neale implies that difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre and that mere repetition would not attract an audience. Texts often exhibit the conventions of more than one genre.
- Genre criticism and genre theory are often justified on the grounds that they acknowledge Hollywood’s commercial and industrial nature and on the grounds that the genres they discuss correspond to the trends and divisions in Hollywood’s output.
- The concept of genre has for some time served as a means to link Hollywood’s practices and Hollywood’s output to Hollywood’s audiences and to the socio-cultural contexts within which its films are produced and consumed.
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