CHRISTIAN METZ, ANDRE

BAZIN & RICK ALTMAN ON

GENREBy Megan McLatchie

Christian MetzChristian Metz was a French film theorist who most well known work was for inventing the application of Ferdinand de Saussure's theories of semiology to film.

Metz used both ‘Sigmund Freud’s psychology’ and ‘Jacques Lacan’s mirror theory’ and applied it to cinema. He projected that the reason film is popular as an art form is due to its ability to portray an imperfect reflection of everyday life as well as a method to explore into unconscious fantasy.

Development of Genre

Metz states that genre develops in 4 stages :

1) Experimental : establishing conventions for future generations

2) Classical : texts become seen as iconic and conventions are set

3) Parody : mock codes and conventions of the genre

4) Deconstruction : picking key features/ generic elements of more than one genre to form hybrid genres.

Andre BazinBazin was a film critic, theorist, philosopher, and humanist.

He played a major part in the study of Post WWII films which afterwards published a book named ‘What is Film?’.

Bazin Quoted ‘Realism in art can only be achieved in one way – through artifice’. He attempted to create film that reflected real life and show the world as it really is through location shooting, natural light, non-professional actors, and applies deep focus cinematography to try and remain unbiased and not trying to have a preferred reading.

(source: cinema studies, The Key Concepts, Second Edition, By Susan Hayward)

Rick AltmanRick Altman in his book Film/Genre has proposed what he calls the ‘SEMANTIC/SYNTACTIC APPROACH’.

By using his approach to genre we can distinguish genre in two ways:

1. SEMANTIC - This is concerned with the conventions of the genre that communicate to the audience such as characters, locations, props, music, shooting style and other signifiers that are expected with the style.

2. SYNTACTIC - This is concerned with the relations between these elements and the structure of narratives in genres E.g. In a romantic comedy we expect the potential lovers to begin by not liking each other by result in falling in love

Altman expanded his approach to include these elements by proposing a SEMANTIC/SYNTACTIC/PRAGMATIC approach.

(http://www.slideshare.net/robertclackmedia/genre-theory-7086744)

Richard Dyer - Genre and

audience pleasures Richard Dyer was an influential genre theorist, who in 1973 argued that genres are pleasurable because they ‘’offer the audience escapist fantasies into fictional worlds’’ which remove the boredom and pressures of reality.

(http://www.slideshare.net/bir/this-one-genre-theory-powerpoint)

He contrasts element from real life with elements taken from film e.g. Dreariness –predictable routines e.g. get up, go to work, come home, go to bed and repeat) and intensity (excitement and drama e.g. action sequences).

(Source: The media students book second edition (2000) by Gill Branson and Roy Stafford)

Mark ReidMark Reid’s (2001), asks the critical question of whether we read genre as a noun or adjective.

He offers Tomato Purée as an example, suggesting that we ask a philisophicalquestion: what would happen to this item if it were shelved in another part of the shop? Would the ‘thing itself’ be any different?

He quotes, ‘How something is catergorised is determined by who does it, for whom, where, and when. The same is true for films’.

(OCR Media Studies for A2, Third edition, Julian McDougall)