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Definition: Genre functions as a categorization system that helps creators and audiences understand the nature of a film. Film scholar Stephen Neale states that genres are systems of orientations, expectations, and conventions that circulate between industry, text, and subject. This means that genre guides filmmakers in creating movies but also aids audiences in setting expectations about what they will watch.
In this article, I’ll examine what constitutes genres in cinema and discuss how they can be viewed as dynamic entities constantly being renegotiated within our culture.
Understanding Genre in Cinema
When discussing genre in cinema, we’re diving into a framework that categorizes films based on shared themes, narrative techniques, and aesthetic approaches. Genres help audiences set expectations and guide filmmakers in employing certain conventions and formulas.
Stephen Neale, in “Genre and Hollywood” (2000), defines genre as “systems of orientations, expectations, and conventions that circulate between industry, text, and subject.”
This dynamic interaction suggests that genre is not just a label but a language through which films communicate with their audience.
In other words, genre classifications facilitate a shared language among critics, scholars, and fans. This shared language enhances discussions and analysis, making comparing and contrasting films based on established criteria easier.
The Role of Genre in Shaping Expectations
Genres manifest through identifiable patterns and familiar elements that viewers recognize. For instance, a Western typically showcases rugged landscapes and themes of frontier justice, as seen in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966).
Meanwhile, science fiction focuses on advanced technology and futuristic settings, which films like Blade Runner (1982) beautifully illustrate. These patterns are artistic choices and strategic markers that guide viewers on what narrative to expect.
Jim Samson once remarked on the dynamic nature of genre in music, which is equally applicable to film:
“[Genres are a] class, type or category, sanctioned by
Jim Samson, in Genre (2001).
convention [and] are based on the principle of repetition. They codify past repetition, and they invite future repetitions.”
This adaptability is crucial in understanding how genres evolve with cultural and societal shifts, influencing and reflecting changing tastes and ideas.
Genre as a Marketing Tool
Genres are invaluable from a commercial perspective. They help marketers target specific audience segments that are more likely to be interested in a film based on its genre. The industry can streamline its marketing strategies by categorizing films and enhancing box office success.
Historically, genres emerged as the film industry grew, serving as a tool to streamline production and marketing.
By categorizing films by genre, studios could more easily target specific audiences and create films within established frameworks that had proven successful. This categorization includes, but is not limited to, familiar genres like action, comedy, drama, fantasy, and horror.
Horror films such as The Exorcist (1973) attract viewers who crave suspense and supernatural thrills, while romantic comedies like When Harry Met Sally (1989) appeal to those looking for humor intertwined with love stories.
Genre Innovation and Hybridization
Genres are not static; they evolve and intersect over time, reflecting societal changes, technology, and audience tastes. New genres can emerge while existing genres can fade into obscurity or transform into something new, blending with other genres to create hybrid forms.
The genre’s evolution is a testament to the dynamic nature of cinematic art, which constantly responds to and reflects human culture and creativity.
Filmmakers often blend elements of different genres, creating hybrid films that appeal to diverse audiences and break conventional boundaries. Blade Runner (1982) is not just a science fiction film but also incorporates elements of film noir, with its complex protagonist and shadowy, rain-drenched cityscapes.
Genre blending reflects the complexity of social life and the intertextuality of all cultural forms.
Critical Perspectives on Genre
Like those presented by American literary critic Fredric Jameson, theoretical studies suggest that genre helps mediate the relationship between society’s economic structures and individual films.
Jameson posits that genres manifest the ideological investments of a particular society at a particular time. In other words, a genre might evolve as societal norms and values shift.
In “The Political Unconscious” (1981), Jameson discusses how narrative structures within genres are “strategically selective” in representing social realities, which can serve to naturalize specific ideologies (fx the process that happens when Hollywood adapts a subculture and makes it mainstream).
In his article “Towards a new Awareness of Genre” (1982) how genre categories must be considered as “fluid” entities, in which a given work is best viewed to other works:
pure textual exemplifications of a single genre do not exist; and this, not merely because pure
– F. Jameson (I added the bold formatting)
manifestations of anything are rare, but […] because texts always come into being at the intersection of several genres and emerge from the tensions in the latter’s multiple force fields.
This discovery does not, however, mean the collapse of genre criticism but rather its renewal: we need the specification of the individual ”genres” today more than ever, not in order to drop specimens into the box bearing those labels, but rather to map our coordinates on the basis of those fixed stars and to triangulate this specific given textual moment.
Although Jameson’s example deals with text genres, it can be used to give a good picture of a work’s
placement within movie genres. As Jameson describes it, no text (and, in this case, no movie) contains the pure exemplification of a single genre.
Graphically, one could illustrate Jameson’s idea of triangulation and fixed stars as follows:
Conclusion
Genre in cinema is a multifaceted concept encompassing artistic, commercial, and ideological dimensions. It serves as a roadmap for filmmakers and audiences, guiding the creation and consumption of films.
As cultures and technologies evolve, so do the genres that resonate with audiences, reflecting broader trends in society and the arts.
Whether through a classic like Casablanca (1942) or a modern blockbuster like Avengers: Endgame (2019), the power of genre in cinema continues to shape how stories are told and experienced.
Up Next: See the FilmDaft Movie Genres List. Overview of Main Genres, Subgenres, and Film.
