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fandomhigh2009-08-11 09:32 am
chosehumanity) wrote in fandomhigh2009-08-11 09:32 am
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Film Through The Ages, Tuesday, Period 3
"Last week, I said we'd be talking about genre film," Mitchell told the class, his hands firmly set on the couch itself. "The word genre means 'a stylistic category'. That means that genre film, by its very nature, is stylised. Prior films also had genres of their own, of course, but in the 1930s, all the new technical changes meant that a couple of very important genres were born. Musicals, screwball and horror, most prominently. This is the dawn of 'ScreamYell' and of 'The Red House'." He glanced around the room to see who actually recognised those titles. Yes.
"Obviously, the innovation of sound brought the musicl into the world. It started off a bit--" He searched for a word, "Stilted," he said, finally, "With revue musicals, which were just songs upon songs strung together on film. But quickly, new kinds of musical started to appear: backstage musicals, taking place behind the scenes of an actual musical, operettas, and integrated musicals, like the Red House, where the songs just... flowed into the narrative. You saw Swinging Time last week: that's a backstage musical. 'Adore Me This Eve', which we'll be watching later, is an operetta. You can tell, because it takes place in a fantasy world."
He took a breath, and glanced through the class. "Another big genre that came to be in the sound era was horror. It did exist before the time of sound, but it didn't really take off-- at least not as a genre in and of itself. 'The Vanishing Man', 'The Mummy', all of these films were born in this age, one after another. It was a genre that quickly found its stylistic footing, to the point where studios would just give their directors a title to work off, and see what they got. That's how we got 'Ran with Zombies', for example." He gave the class a quick grin. "On the less supernatural end of things, this time also brought us gangsters." He seemed too amused about that.
"Scarred Face, that famous mob movie, was one of them. That came out in 1932. Film has a habit of covering the issues of the time that just came before it, so the time right at the end of, and after, the prohibition of alcohol was rife with these kind of stories. People started to put their fantasies on them, as gangsters wore fancy clothes and bought big cars with little issue. Most of the time, they followed the same basic pattern. Two men who were utterly different but close friends would choose different pathways in life, one of crime, and one of the straight and narrow. And in the end, one of them would die violently, usually in a shoot-out." He made a gesture with his hand. "Of course, at the time, the public had trouble dealing with all the violence, even if it seems nearly tame by modern standards. The studios tried to cope by making their stories milder, or to turn them around, make it about redemption, like Feathered Wings, Filthy Faces."
He pushed himself down against the couch. "Out of mob movies came Film Noir," he continued, "Which took all the dark edges the studios had rubbed away and fashioned them into something new. Finding new paths to tell these stories. They were detective stories, set mostly in the 1940s, full of femme fatales and treachery and coldness and death. These weren't good people. The films weren't supposed to be about good people."
He scraped his throat. "To end this class on something lighter," he said, "We have the screwball comedy. Sort of like a romantic comedy now, it'd be about two people in love with enough money to act like complete idiots." He grinned again. "Take 'Past the Ninteenth Century', for example. It's the love between a theatre entrepeneur and the lady he romances, and they both start to act more and more like twats as the movie continues. Or 'The Night It Happened', where a heiress flees to marry a playboy but falls in love with the long-suffering reporter who follows her. The genre mostly died in 1945 at the end of the war, but there's been attempts to revive it long after."
He finally took a pause to breathe. "I want you all to pick one of these genres, and write a short summary for a fictional film. Get creative. It'll be good for you."
[[ and ocd up! ]]
"Obviously, the innovation of sound brought the musicl into the world. It started off a bit--" He searched for a word, "Stilted," he said, finally, "With revue musicals, which were just songs upon songs strung together on film. But quickly, new kinds of musical started to appear: backstage musicals, taking place behind the scenes of an actual musical, operettas, and integrated musicals, like the Red House, where the songs just... flowed into the narrative. You saw Swinging Time last week: that's a backstage musical. 'Adore Me This Eve', which we'll be watching later, is an operetta. You can tell, because it takes place in a fantasy world."
He took a breath, and glanced through the class. "Another big genre that came to be in the sound era was horror. It did exist before the time of sound, but it didn't really take off-- at least not as a genre in and of itself. 'The Vanishing Man', 'The Mummy', all of these films were born in this age, one after another. It was a genre that quickly found its stylistic footing, to the point where studios would just give their directors a title to work off, and see what they got. That's how we got 'Ran with Zombies', for example." He gave the class a quick grin. "On the less supernatural end of things, this time also brought us gangsters." He seemed too amused about that.
"Scarred Face, that famous mob movie, was one of them. That came out in 1932. Film has a habit of covering the issues of the time that just came before it, so the time right at the end of, and after, the prohibition of alcohol was rife with these kind of stories. People started to put their fantasies on them, as gangsters wore fancy clothes and bought big cars with little issue. Most of the time, they followed the same basic pattern. Two men who were utterly different but close friends would choose different pathways in life, one of crime, and one of the straight and narrow. And in the end, one of them would die violently, usually in a shoot-out." He made a gesture with his hand. "Of course, at the time, the public had trouble dealing with all the violence, even if it seems nearly tame by modern standards. The studios tried to cope by making their stories milder, or to turn them around, make it about redemption, like Feathered Wings, Filthy Faces."
He pushed himself down against the couch. "Out of mob movies came Film Noir," he continued, "Which took all the dark edges the studios had rubbed away and fashioned them into something new. Finding new paths to tell these stories. They were detective stories, set mostly in the 1940s, full of femme fatales and treachery and coldness and death. These weren't good people. The films weren't supposed to be about good people."
He scraped his throat. "To end this class on something lighter," he said, "We have the screwball comedy. Sort of like a romantic comedy now, it'd be about two people in love with enough money to act like complete idiots." He grinned again. "Take 'Past the Ninteenth Century', for example. It's the love between a theatre entrepeneur and the lady he romances, and they both start to act more and more like twats as the movie continues. Or 'The Night It Happened', where a heiress flees to marry a playboy but falls in love with the long-suffering reporter who follows her. The genre mostly died in 1945 at the end of the war, but there's been attempts to revive it long after."
He finally took a pause to breathe. "I want you all to pick one of these genres, and write a short summary for a fictional film. Get creative. It'll be good for you."
[[ and ocd up! ]]