Monthly Archives: September 2009

Assignments for Oct. 7th

assignments

Please read:
Chapter 4 – Steve Neale, Hollywood and Genre.
– Film Noir (pg. 151-179)
&
Chapter 4 – James Naremore, More Than Night.
– Low is High (137 – 166)

Please write a series of 5 questions for each text. ON A SEPARATE piece of paper, please write the answers to each question.

The following movies are available at the library:

Laura
Out of the Past
Touch of Evil (Sed del mal)

Please chose one of the films mentioned above and write a brief comparison between Double Indemnity and the film you chose to work with. List the elements that you find familiar as well as the motifs of noir you identify on each.

Towards a definition of Film Noir

film noir

French film critics concussed the term “Film Noir” in 1946. Due to the war and the German occupation not much cinema could be imported or screened in France during those years and the sudden release of all the movies left critics and audiences in awe and amazement. I dare say that it was the sudden release of these films that allowed French film viewers and critics to recognize certain common traits and moods between the movies. As Billy Wilder recognizes in an interview, filmmakers were not aware of the term “Film Noir” while they made the movies.

The French noticed a certain similarity between the gangster film, the police genre and the detective fiction. Authors like Raymond Chandler, James Cain, and Dashiell Hammett among others were already well know writers and film viewers were already familiar with some of the novels that served as inspiration to the movies, such as The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, Farewell, My Lovely and The Maltese Falcon.

bigcombo.jpg

It is no coincidence that when you look up the definition of detective fiction you find that it resembles the definition(s) that critics tend to give of film noir. However, a closer reading of the attempts to define noir as a genre reveals that scholars have found it impossible to capture and define its essence in any absolute sense. In her article on Film Noir and Women, Elizabeth Cowie (in Copjec’s Shades of Noir) discusses the public’s fascination with film noir and how this plays a crucial role in the construction of the category as such. Continue reading Towards a definition of Film Noir →

A semantic/syntactic approach to film genre

on genre, the western

When a corpus of a genre is established two things tend to happen:
1. A list of films is compiled that respond to a simple tautological definition of genre (ie. Western = film that takes place in the west, cowboys, etc)
2. Critics, theoreticians that stick to a cannon that has little do with the tautological – Same films tend to be mentioned over and over – (kind of fanatic approach, leaning towards a classic cannon of films)

Contradiction lies at the heart of which movies belong where – opposed to the simplicity of their definitions.

The uncertainty is also associated with the relative “contradicting” status of theory and history genre studies.
Continue reading A semantic/syntactic approach to film genre →

Assignments for Sept. 9th

assignments

Conclusions & appendix to Rick Altman’s, Film / Genre. Please read the appendix first (pg 216-225) and then the conclusions (pg 207-215). Write down the definitions for semantic, syntactic and pragmatic approaches to film genre and bring your notes to class. You can find the readings in the ftp under the Semantic-syntactic folder.

Cronograma de presentaciones

assignments

Semana 7 (Septiembre 9)
Segunda presentación de trabajos de investigación:
Exploitation (Christian & Enrique)

Semana 8 (Septiembre 16)
Primer examen parcial

Semana 10 (Septiembre 30)
Tercera presentación de trabajos de investigación:
Gangster (Alejandro, Ruben)

Semana 11 (Octubre 7)
Cuarta presentación de trabajos de investigación:
Action: (Carlos Arturo & Aura)

Semana 13 (Octubre 21)
Segundo Parcial

Semana 14 (Octubre 28)
Quinta presentación de trabajos de investigación:
War: (Juan Pablo & Giovanny)

Semana 15 (Noviembre 4)
Entrega de anteproyectos

Semana 16 (Noviembre 11)
La figura del monstruo en el cine de horror
Quinta presentación de trabajos de investigación:
Horror (Gerardo & Daniel M)