Research Into Existing Products 2.1 - Christian Metz, The Model of Genre Development

Christian Metz theory and the Model of Genre Development:

Christian Metz is a French Film theorist who wrote the book ‘Language and Cinema (1974)’ which explored genre’s development and within the book he wrote about the four phases that genre pass through during their lifetime. These are:

·         The Experimental

·         The Classic

·         The Parody

·         The Deconstruction

The Experimental:

A genre begins in the experimental stage where the foundations and conventions of the genre are built through an innovative, original work. Often the movement comes from literature when cinemas find inspiration from literature or represent novels in film. Example within the horror genre include the films The Cabinet of Dr Calgari (1919) and Nosferatu (1922) which took their inspiration from famous literary classics ‘The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ by Robert Louis Stevenson and ‘Dracula’ by Bram Stoker. The films in the experimental stage are instrumental and exploratory however they still influence genre films today.

The Classic:

The genre then produces the classics where the codes and conventions of the genre become seen as iconic and are the guidelines are set. The inspiration for these classics continue on from the experimentals as Hollywood turns to Europe for inspiration for their higher cost, higher production movies such as Dracula and Frankenstein both produced by Universal in 1931. The conventions established by these classics are incorporated into modern day productions.

 The Parody:

Particularly post-war and onwards, studios began to experiment with comedic elements and incorporated them into classic genres. Parodies either mock the conventions of a genre or mock a particular production itself eg. the movie ‘Shaun of the Dead’ mocks the film Dawn of the Dead released in 1978. The most well-known or even iconic examples of parodies are ‘Carry on Screaming’ and ‘Scary Movie’ both made to mock the horror genre and its conventions.

The Deconstruction:

The deconstruction is when the classic codes and conventions are unpicked and different aspects from different genres are combined. As a result of the rules being effectively broken, sub-genres may form. For example the film ‘SE7EN’ is an amalgamation of the horror and thriller genres. The conventions of the horror genre are heavily explored in the opening title sequence of the film and the main body of film and film narrative explores thriller conventions.