Genre-film

             A French word meaning ‘kind’, genre is a category for classifying films in terms of common patterns of form and content. It’s related to another word, genus, which is used in the biological sciences to classify groups of plants and animals. When we speak of film genre, we are indicating certain types of movies. The science-fiction film, the action picture, the drama film, the comedy, the romance, the musical, the Western- these are some genres of fictional storytelling cinema.

Filmmakers, industry decision makers, critics and viewers all contribute to the formation of a shared sense that certain films seem to resemble one another in momentous ways. Genres also change over time, as filmmakers invent new twists on old formulas. Thus defining the accurate boundary between genres can be complicated.

            For the immense exposure system that exists around filmmaking, genres are a simple way to exemplify film. In fact, reviewers are often central in gathering and crystallizing notions about genres. In television coverage of entertainment, reporters refer to genres, because they know that most members of the public will easily clutch what they mean.

For viewers, genre often provides a way of finding a film they want to see. Some filmgoers are fans of a specific genre and may seek out and exchange information via magazines, internet sites and conventions. At all levels of the filmmaking and film-viewing processes, then, genres help assure that most members of a society share at least some wide-ranging notions about the types of films that compete for our attention.

Because filmmakers habitually play with conventions and iconography, genres seldom remain unchanged for very long. The broader, blanket genres such as thrillers, romances and comedies may stay popular for decades, but a comedy from the 1920’s is likely to be very different from one in the 1960’s. Genres change over history. Their conventions get recast, and by mixing conventions from different genres, filmmakers create new possibilities every now and then.

Films are most commonly grouped into genres by virtue of similar plot patterns, similar thematic implications, characteristic filmic techniques, and recognizable iconography. Dramatic films are one of the largest genres in films because they include a broad spectrum of films and they are divided into sub-genres which include crime, thriller, gangster, romance, melodramas, epics, biopics.