Film/Genre

by Rick Altman

This text seeks to revise notions of film genre. It connects the roles played by industry critics and audiences in making and re-making genre. In a critique of major voices in the history of genre theory from Aristotle to Wittgenstein, Altman reveals the conflicting stakes for which the genre game has been played. Recognizing that the very term "genre" has different meaning for different groups, he bases his genre theory on the uneasy competitive yet complimentary relationship among genre users and discusses a range of films from "The Great Train Robbery" to "Star Wars", and from "The Jazz Singer" to "The Player".

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Academic, Theory, Reference

246 pages, Paperback

First published December 22, 1998

About the author

Rick Altman is a professor of Cinema and Comparative Literature in the Department of Cinema and Comparative Literature, University of Iowa.

Reviews

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

me he planteado ser menos entusiasta pero la verdad es que estoy bastante entusiasmada con este libro

[Gunner Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book.

[Henrique Quadros]

I enjoyed going through this mostly as as a means to catch up on the literary discourse around genre theory (even if this is a 30 year old book) and also to see what Altman's view of genre was that made this such a foundational work. I gotta say some chapters were a bit too dense for my understanding but overall this is a pretty good book and I think his analysis of genre is really on point. I wish he went more into detail on more examples of genres but what he did talk about is already quite a lot.

Worth checking out for sure. I'd say maybe start by the Appendix which is the original essay that he wrote before writing anything in this book

[Ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a bit structuralist for my tastes.

[Paschalia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contains both an overview of film genre theories, a communication model theory and suggests a new film genre approach/ theory. Pretty good

[Madelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Genres are not the real world, but a game that we play with moves and players borrowed from the real world"

[Laszlo Rapaport]

Leido cap. 2 y conclusiones para Historia del Cine II

[t · Rating 3 out of 5]

helpful summaries, clearly written! but i can’t bring myself to be very enthusiastic about genre

[Constance · Rating 2 out of 5]

J’ai dû lire 12 pages pour mon cours sur la théorie du genre et c’était imbuvable dsl j’ai compris 1/4 de son charabia

[Judit · Rating 2 out of 5]

es repeteix força i es avorrit

[Greta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Talks about genres as complex and changing entities which are mixed and evolve over time and mean different things in different times and to different audiences. Includes historical info and info on how Hollywood films were advertised in the real world. More than just theory, sums up previous genre theory. Pretty good