Film Genre Research Articles

Sites of the past: The historical film and Bollywood’s encounter with Europe

The genres of historical films have gained ascendance in the Bollywood industry in recent years. I examine four Bollywood films that narrativize biographies of unusual figures located in Europe in the past. Gold and Sardar Udham stage Europe of the 1930s and the 1940s, a period marked by the Second World War and anti-colonial movements. The flow of production practices reveals the layers of ‘artifice’ involved in producing locations during the inter-war years. The narratives of Bell Bottom and 83, on the other hand are located in Britain of the 1980s. Here, strategies like play with colour tones, differential use of focus, and accented use of old cars, infrastructures, costumes and props help in creating a stylized retro look. I will argue that the material and the immaterial get intertwined with each other through the mobilization of archival photographs, infrastructure, radio broadcasts, newsreel footage and sound media.

INTEPRETASI TRADISI ADAT JAWA RUWATAN DALAM FILM PRIMBON KARYA RUDI SOEDJARWO

The increasingly rapid growth of the Indonesian film industry has experienced big leaps to date with many themes and film genre variants emerging for entertainment and conveying messages to its target audience. One of the films that always has a special audience and its own audience is films with the horror genre, and the horror film genre in Indonesian films has experienced a lot of rapid progress apart from the cinematography, setting, and content and stories from discussing religion and myths circulating in the world. society and currently there are more and more horror films highlighting Indonesian culture which is indeed diverse and interesting to discuss in a film's narrative. The aim of this research is to describe the interpretation of 'Ruwatan' from the horror film PRIMBON by director Rudi Soedjarwo. This qualitative research uses content analysis and historical analysis regarding the exact role of 'Ruwatan' in this film which has a big impact on Javanese culture in Indonesia. with the results of the analysis that the film 'Primbon' succeeded in introducing the ruwatan procession as a Javanese culture and custom that is very essential and cannot be replaced, because it is used as an important procession in salvation to eliminate disasters, a wider audience can understand this with the media films and film directors do not need to change the narrative or context to a more cinematic one, the actual procession can be shown as it is. Culture and customs are very relevant as narratives in films not only because of trends or market accommodation but for the broader purpose of introducing culture and customs by using film as a mass medium that can reach a wider audience.

Genre and stylistic features of Ukrainian fiction cinematography of the period of independence

The article is devoted the definition of genre and stylistic features of fiction films produced in Ukraine from 1991 to 2022. Using the analysis of theoretical works on film studies, genre theory, semiology and film history, it is proposed to define the concept of “genre” as a set of repetitive syntactic and semantic structures, the main connections of the genre with the socio-cultural and historical context are outlined. In particular, after analyzing 949 audiovisual projects from the «Base of National Films of Ukraine», which have been created during the period of Independence, it was found that the largest number of produced audiovisual works belongs to the fiction type of cinema. The presence of syntactic and semantic structures of 46 genres has been identified according to the genre and thematic direction of fiction cinematography. It is proved that the most popular genre in production is drama – 25 % of the total number of feature films. This percentage is a significant advantage over the presence of other genres. Analysis of data from the box office of cinema distribution in Ukraine for 2020 has revealed discrepancies between the number of produced films of a certain genre and thematic direction and the preferences of Ukrainian viewers. In this way, the assumption that the predominance of certain genres in the production of Ukrainian audiovisual art reflects the cultural needs of Ukrainians has been refuted. Such a comparison also disproved the claim that the absence of certain genres in the Ukrainian media space testifies to the foreignness of the narrative structure of such films to the cultural characteristics of Ukrainians, because the top five audience preferences include, for example, the horror genre, which is minimally present in Ukrainian production. The results of the study have theoretical and practical significance for film production in Ukraine, and also form a research field for further study of the development of each individual genre present in Ukrainian audiovisual art of the period of Independence.

ON THE ISSUE OF SOME THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF WORLD AND KAZAKHSTAN FILM MUSIC: GENRE AND FUNCTIONAL FEATURES

The world experience of composing music for films spans over a century, encompassing the creation of scores for films of various genres. Over the course of its existence, film music has solidified its position as an integral part of this form of art. Similar to any specific genre, film music has developed its own set of laws: the power of impact, stylistics, form development, musical language, dramaturgy, instrumentation, principles of functioning, methods of integration with other components of the film, etc.The comprehensive focus on the research subject necessitates the application of a systematic approach, employing multi-disciplinary methods. Historical-art, culturological and analytical methods, which are fundamental in the article, allow to achieve the intended aim. Due to an interdisciplinary approach, the theoretical foundation of the article is based on the works of philosophers, culturologists, art historians, film experts and musicologists, aiming for the most comprehensive exploration of the issue.Film music, serving as a colossal in volume and still insufficiently explored artistic domain, holds particular interest for musicology. It is characterized by a significant array of questions, encompassing both scientific-theoretical and practical issues. The scope of this article includes issues of theoretical principles of film music, including genre and artistic-stylistic features, methods of interaction with visual elements, questions of authorship, instrumentation, the relationship between sound and visual components, problems of form, functioning, etc. Having considered the theoretical aspects of the research subject, it becomes evident that music and sound have become one of the most crucial components of synthetic screen art. The musical structure of a cinematic work presents its multifaceted characteristics, contributing to the fullest realization of the creators’ intentions. The work defines the main terminological categories of the «film music» phenomenon, analyzes the existing systems of foreign researchers regarding the classification of functions, gives a genre description of music in the main types of films and also presents a generalized and expanded classification of the functions according to the criterion of dramatic role.

Studi Komparatif Terhadap Narasi Eksorsisme Roh Jahat Dalam Film The Nun I Sampai II dan Eksorsisme Yesus Dalam Markus 1:21-28

Films featuring scenes of the expulsion of evil powers have been widely published to provide entertainment to the public, while also showcasing certain values within the narrative they visualize. One horror genre film that has garnered considerable interest is "The Nun I and II." These films depict the struggle of several priests attempting to expel the evil spirit named Valak. There are several scenes showing how the characters in the film beseech God for strength to defeat the dark power of Valak. The exorcism narrative depicted in these films offers several points of interest to be examined from a biblical perspective. Speaking of exorcism, the Gospel of Mark also presents several stories of exorcism performed by Jesus against evil spirits. This paper compares the exorcism narrative portrayed in "The Nun I and II" with the exorcism narrative performed by Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, as recounted in Mark 1:21-28. The purpose of the comparison presented in this paper is to demonstrate the relevance (similarities) and irrelevance (differences) of the concept of exorcism as portrayed in both "The Nun I and II" and Mark 1:21-28, enabling one to identify which points align and which do not align with the latter as one of the texts describing exorcism performed by Jesus.

Introduction: Transnationalism and the War Film Genre

ABSTRACT This introduction offers a comprehensive context for this special issue of the Journal of War and Culture Studies. I define the concept of transnationalism as it is reflected in the scope of the articles included, all of which discuss non-American film productions about the American military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan. I also argue that our understanding of the war film genre can only benefit from taking into account an array of different national cinematographies. The introduction contains summaries of the articles which discuss Iraqi, Afghan, British, German, Danish, Polish, Spanish, and Australian depictions of the American wars in the Middle East.

Seaports as criminal gateways in contemporary South Korean cinema: illicit globalization and marginalized subjects in The Yellow Sea (2010) and New World (2013)

ABSTRACT This article examines the seaport as a trope in contemporary cinema in relation to notions of spatiality, illicit globalization, and border studies. We analyze how seaports as social and cultural networks of built environment and infrastructure have become gateways to illicit globalization. We then provide a critical analysis that unbundles these spaces in the film genre of neo-noir out of South Korea. Our focus then zooms in on real organized crime, smuggling, human trafficking and black-market transactions as refracted and bounded in the Korean films The Yellow Sea (2010) and New World (2013). Within these cinematic glamorizations of crime, we find transgressive characters contributing to what we dub “dark neoliberal accumulation” of profit through kinds of unremorseful economic predation at two seaports. Criminals and migrants in these films portend audiences to underworld activities of drug and human trafficking to serve their needs or rescue them from peril. In other ways, we scrutinize the material commodities and shipping containers themselves as having symbolic value and thus providing a commentary on the circuits of low-end global trade through transoceanic routes through Korea and worldwide.

Treading on the Tiger’s Tail: Chinese Wuxia and Japanese Jidaigeki Action Films Reacting to State Censorship in the 1930s and 1940s

This article highlights the relationship between wuxia (martial heroes) and jidaigeki (period drama) action films and state censorship in the 1930s and 1940s. I first introduce readers to key East-Asian literary conventions that portray righteous warriors who incarnate their moral codes with swords. I then illustrate the political contexts in 1930s China and 1940s Japan which caused the popular film genres of wuxia and jidaigeki to become politically problematic and therefore strictly censored. I closely examine director Bu Wancang’s 1931 wuxia film A Spray of Plum Blossoms and Kurosawa Akira’s jidaigeki 1945 film Treading on the Tiger’s Tail, investigating creative solutions each director found in order to release their respective films despite censorship pressures. There are three inventions both directors pioneered in their work, namely “ostensible exactness” in setting; “patriotic warriors” in characterization; and “swordless fights” in presenting spectacular action scenes. I argue that although these solutions failed to restore both genres back to their former popularity, Kurosawa’s film paved the way for the success of his world-class jidaigeki in the 1950s, and Bu’s wuxia led to the emergence of kung fu films in the 1960s. My critical analysis underscores the innovative creativity of Chinese wuxia and Japanese jidaigeki films while calling attention to the artistic and cultural legacies of these two popular cinematic genres. The comparison demonstrates how film censorship may undermine or even destroy traditions that have a long history and deep cultural roots.

Военные утопии на советском экране

The article is devoted to the history of the military utopia genre in the Soviet cinema of the 1920s-1930s. The work analyses its origins, provides an overview and analysis of the main films belonging to this genre, and examines the reasons for its decline. According to the author of the article, this film genre had its origins in the military-utopian genre in literature, which declared itself in the second half of the 19th century. The genre appeared to be directly dependent on the political situation in the country and the nature of the military threat. Thus, the understanding that World War I would be followed by a new war was reflected in many works of Soviet writers and filmmakers who developed this genre. Its peak was in the second half of the 1930s. The genre was based on the postulate that the enemy was not asleep, there would definitely be a war, and therefore it was necessary to prepare for it. In addition to this general concept, the audience was shown the likely course of a future war: after the harsh suppression of enemy aggression on the USSR territory, the fighting would move to the enemy’s territory. The enemy who first attacked the USSR would be thrown back in the shortest possible time, and then with the help of the oppressed people of a foreign country, the government would be brought down and the socialist system would be established. 1939 appeared to be the last year for the release of military utopias, for which there were several reasons. The first was the signing of the Molotov — Ribbentrop Pact. The second reason was the beginning of actual hostilities at Khalkhin Gol and Lake Khasan, which showed a far from rosy picture regarding the combat state of the Soviet troops and the weakness of the enemy. The Winter War with Finland in 1939 put an end to optimistic military fantasies.

On Failing to Get Out

ABSTRACT: This article juxtaposes the film Get Out with visual media ostensibly within and outside of the film's genre to expand our understanding of horror, the psychoanalytics of spectatorship and identification, and the work of critical race theory. Yoking together horror and the slave narrative, I highlight the moments when identification shifts between the protagonist and the antagonist, a subject split that engenders neither wholesale resistance nor complete identification but an irresistible collusion between both.

Features of translation of English-language horror filmonyms into Russian and German

The subject of the research of the article is the general features and specific features of the translation of horror discourse filmonyms from English into Russian and German. The object of the study is the original English-language and translated Russian- and German-language filmonyms of horror discourse. In our work, we will be interested in strategies and techniques for translating English-language horror discourse filmonyms, since the horror film genre is one of the most popular at the moment, and a large number of films are being released in English. When translating movie titles, a translator faces a number of difficulties and must solve them by choosing a translation technique and strategy. Often, the translation of a filmonym is accompanied by a shift in its leading function, or a change in the type of filmonym according to the peculiarities of its perception by the viewer. The work uses the continuous sampling method, comparative linguistic analysis of parallel filmonyms, as well as quantitative data processing methods. The research material was a sample including 150 original English-language horror-discourse filmonyms and their translation options into Russian and German. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that the features of the translation of film names are studied in a comparative aspect using the example of Russian- and German-language horror discourse based on the material of the titles of films released over the past two decades. A methodology is being developed for a comparative study of the features of translating film names into different languages. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that the domestication strategy of filmonyms is high-frequency; for German-language translated filmonyms, the use of a forenization strategy is much more typical. A feature of the German film distribution is the high frequency of combining two translation strategies, when the first forenized part of the filmonym is combined with domestication in the second part of the movie title after the dash sign. Due to the fact that German translated film names undergo less transformations, they are less characterized by a functional shift compared to translated film names in the Russian film distribution. When translated into Russian, preference is given to tonal-type filmonyms, which corresponds to the peculiarities of the horror genre.

Character in the Adapted Series “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries”: Playing with Tradition

The Australian TV-series “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries” follows a trend that has emerged in mystery film genre over the last few decades. On the one hand, it is an old story about a private detective; on the other – a new narrative, that fascinates the viewer with an extraordinary setting. This effect is provided by the intertextual links that the series forms with the texts of its surroundings. This article examines how various intertextual elements form the image of the “Roaring Twenties”, linking the cinema text with the ‘classic detective’, while at the same time referring to modern cinema. These challenges are reconciled through the image of the main character. The ironic play with the familiar texts produces a light atmosphere of the series, and the references to the fashion and art of the 1920s construct the illusion of the “reality” of Miss Fisher, who finds her own place in the canon owing to the connections with the world of a detective story

Penerapan Teknik Objektive Camera Angle Dalam Membangkitkan Dramatis Film Pulang

The film "Pulang" is a short drama genre film with a family style, This film was made as an entertainment medium that can provide information to audience about a family where Karin's mother has a an illness that made him forget his memory even of his own child, however The child is still trying to take care of and make the mother's memory return to normal. The final result that will be produced is a work of fiction film entitled "Pulang" the process of taking pictures uses the application of objective techniques camera angle by using the audience's point of view so that the audience can feel the same thing experienced by Karin as the main character in this film

From domestic guardian to the national militia: the familial, the national and the middle class in 1980s popular Hindi films

ABSTRACT This essay analyzes the theme of domestic anxiety of the Indian middle class in the 1980s through two specific genres of the contemporary popular Hindi films – the family drama and the action adventure. Poised right before the 1990s neoliberal drive in the Indian economy, the 80s middle class – hitherto staid and hermetic – was rattled by an ‘invasive’ global culture, permissiveness, politics of representation, rights and reform. This paper shows that the cinematic resolution of this crisis is a grudgingly lenient orthodoxy negotiating with the limits of cultural inclusion, represented through the questions of agency, gender, class, caste and ethnicity abounding in the middle class domestic sphere. The essay analyzes the middle class problematization of the familial as well as the national in films like Arth (Bhatt, 1982), Agar Tum Na Hote (Tandon, 1983), Souten (Tak, 1983), Shaan (Sippy, 1980) and Mr. India (Kapur, 1987).

ANALISIS SEMIOTIKA FEMINISME EKSISTENSIALIS TOKOH “JUDY” DALAM FILM ANIMASI ZOOTOPIA BAGI MAHASISWA FAKULTAS ILMU SOSIAL DAN ILMU POLITIK UNIVERSITAS SWADAYA GUNUNG JATI

This study is entitled "Semiotic Analysis of Existentialist Feminism as the Character "Judy" in the Zootopia Animation Film for Students of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Swadaya University Gunung Jati". The animated film Zootopia produced by Clark Spencer is an animated adventure-comedy genre film produced by Disney in 2016. The film Zootopia tells the story of a rabbit named Judy Hopps who lives in the town of Bunnyburrow. Judy has a dream to go to Zootopia, a city where all animals can coexist harmoniously and Judy has a dream to become a rabbit policeman for the first time in that city. So in this case, the researcher formulates the problem, namely how the meaning of denotation, connotation and myth of existentialist feminism character "Judy" in the animated film Zootopia. The purpose of this study is to find out the meaning of the scenes in the animated film Zootopia by looking at the denotative meanings, connotative meanings and myths related to Simone de Beauvoir's existentialist feminism values ​​in the character Judy. The research method used in this study is a qualitative method with Roland Barthes's semiotic analysis. Based on the results of research conducted by the author, it can be concluded that the meaning of denotation in each scene already describes the value of existentialist feminism in the character Judy. Focusing on each scene that depicts Judy's expressions and conversations in determining the path of life she aspires to. Then the connotative meaning, in every scene in the film is related to the value of existentialist feminism, namely how the hidden meaning contained in each scene is like how Judy as an existentialist feminist shows and fights for her existential freedom. Meanwhile, the meaning of the myth that the author finds in every scene in the film is related to the value of existentialist feminism, namely things that are believed by film audiences, for example, as a woman, you must know the purpose of life as well as struggle and maintain your ideals. Through the myth built by the character Judy in the animated film Zootopia, there is a myth that spreads with the term 'Assembling upstream, swimming to the shore' in other words, if you want to be successful, you have to be brave enough to work hard first.
 Keywords: Existentialist, Feminism, Zootopia, Film.

From inglorious basterds, aliens, and hobbits: The structure of fictional film genre preferences and its relationship with time perspective and individual time span orientation.

From inglorious basterds, aliens, and hobbits: The structure of fictional film genre preferences and its relationship with time perspective and individual time span orientation.

Identifying and Interpreting Visual and Multimodal Metaphor in Commercials and Feature Films

ABSTRACT Research on metaphor has over the past decades increasingly been extended to its visual and multimodal varieties. While analysts of verbal metaphors are helped by the fact that languages have grammars and vocabularies, researchers of visual and multimodal metaphors need to rely on other methods for identification and interpretation. One approach that claims to have developed a robust method for analyzing metaphor in moving images is FILMIP, which has hitherto focused on the specific genre of commercials. In this paper it is argued that there are serious problems with FILMIP. First, the theoretical basis of FILMIP and two empirical studies drawing on it are discussed. Subsequently, its limited use for analyzing metaphors in the genre of feature films is demonstrated on the basis of four case studies. The paper ends with sketching some general advice pertaining to researching metaphor in film, and provides a cautious alternative to FILMIP.

Cocaine Cowboys: Visualizing Aging Masculinities in Galician Narco Noir

Arguably the most recognizable figure of Galician manhood on screen today is the aging drug kingpin, as the burgeoning cinematic genre of Galician narco noir exposes global audiences to Galicia’s key role as a gateway for the steady flow of cocaine into Europe. This article engages with current debates in aging, masculinities and disability studies to examine the depiction of the elderly male drug lords in two recent works pertaining to the Galician narco noir genre; Nemo Bandeira, protagonist of the series Vivir sin permiso (2018–2020), based on a short story by Manuel Rivas, and Antonio Padín from the film Quien a hierro mata (2019), a Galician-Spanish co-production directed by Paco Plaza. It is argued that the intersection of aging masculinities with illness and disability in the representation of older drug lords perpetuates but also renegotiates preconceptions about Galician manhood, reflecting broader issues relating to the representation and commodification of gender, age, illness, disability, and power in popular culture. In the context of the stereotypically “masculine” sphere of organized crime, analysis of how the older male demographic is represented in noir brings insight into the construction of Galician identities on screen more generally, signaling to perceptions of the wider societal impact of crime, corruption, and impunity in Galician society.

Female Convict Scorpion: production context, gender politics, and cinematic excesses in a Japanese women-in-prison film series

ABSTRACT This article focuses on Female Convict Scorpion, a Japanese women-in-prison film series (1972–1973), which exemplifies studio-produced exploitation cinema. The series is influenced by the contemporaneous yakuza cycle and its anti-authoritarian social realist agenda. Produced during a time of rapid political-economic-social change in the country, the Female Convict Scorpion series combines exploitative content – the display of nudity, violence, and sensational subjects – with an underlying feminist sensibility, a mixture that embraces the ambiguities of commercial genre cinema. Through close textual analysis, this research explains the contradictions in this women-in-prison series by 1) providing evidence of the female gaze and the subversive narrative tropes, which reveals the feminist subtext in these films, and 2) examining the stylistic and narrative effects of cinematic excesses. This article, thus, re-evaluates these popular genre films as in a time capsule, documenting the significance of their expression of gender politics in 1970s Japan through the distinctive production context and presentation of cinematic excesses.

The Evolution of Film Genres: A Historical Analysis

Since its beginnings more than a century ago, cinema has undergone tremendous change as both an artistic medium and a cultural phenomenon. Changes and improvements to film genres are illustrative of this progression. looking back at the development of film genres from their inception all the way up to the current day. historical events, trends, and critical variables that have moulded cinematic genres. early film genres including silent comedies and melodramas emerged at this time, marking the beginning of cinema. Next, it explores how innovations in technology, such sound and colour, influenced the evolution of genres. Examining cinema history in chronological order, this study reveals pivotal epochs of experimentation and invention, such as the silent film era, the Hollywood musical heyday, and the blockbuster era.keywords:- Film Genres, Film History, Cinema Evolution, Genre Development, Silent Film Era, Sound in Film