Genre films employ "systems of orientations, expectations, and conventions that circulate between industry [the marketing of films], text [the content of films], and subject [the audience who watches the films]." Steven Neale and Frank Krutnik
"A romantic comedy is a film which has as its central narrative motor a quest for love, which portrays this quest in a light-hearted way and almost always to a successful conclusion.” Tamar Jeffers McDonald
"The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the liberty, these are the only men." Shakespeare, Hamlet 2.2.379-84

Prompts for Film Analysis




PROMPTS FOR FILM ANALYSIS, i. e. things to pay attention to while you watch the film

1.              Consider the direct meanings, including the implications, of the title.


2.              To what extent does this film fulfill or thwart expectations for the genre? See any elements of Old or New Comedy?  Is there a Green World?  Does this film quote or comment on other films of the genre?



3.              Do any narrative, dialogue, or visual patterns repeat themselves so that they suggest a structural element?  What do they suggest about the meaning of the film?



4.              How does the mise-en-scène of the opening scenes teach you to read the film?  What important details emerge from the early scenes?



5.              What do costuming and acting choices reveal about the characters?




6.              Does the director use lighting to create meaning?




7.              Do you notice anything particular about the presentation of cinematic space?  Are there patterns of camera distance, camera angle or camera movement that recur?  




8.              Note the use of sound editing.  Are particular songs important?




9.              What is happening compositionally?  How are bodies arranged, especially in key scenes?



10.           Note moments that draw attention to themselves, through any of the elements above.

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