The Dream Machine: Moving beyond the dichotomy between genre and auteur cinema

At a time when the moving image is more omnipresent than ever in modern society, the cinema is suffering an identity crisis, with some commentators questioning whether the medium is already dead. Hollywood cinema has shifted predominantly towards superhero and fantasy franchises complemented by kids animation movies, while Europe is divided between comedies with limited export potential and auteur films that are increasingly restricted to the film festival and museum circuit. The inclusive vision of film as a universal art form has been superseded by a strongly perceived dichotomy between a more erudite “auteur cinema” on the one hand and a visually spectacular “genre cinema” on the other. A key moment of change in the critical consensus in relation to film occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the first wave of the auteur theory was superseded by a second wave, which radically shifted the theoretical framework for thinking about cinema and for making films. This new critical consensus coincided with a sea change in the industry itself, in the wake of the rollout of television. The industry is now undergoing a new transformation as a result of the digital revolution, with power shifting away from cinema and towards streaming platforms. The new theoretical framework associated to the second wave of auteur theory has had a decisive impact on curatorial strategies at the level of film funding by national film institutes, commissioning strategies of television broadcasters with cultural remits, film education, and the programming strategies of film festivals. This thesis provides evidence for the growing dichotomy between auteur and genre cinema, including extensive statistical analysis in the annexes. It analyses the various set of theories that led to the creation of this dichotomy at a theoretical/curatorial level, and the associated historical forces that led to this divide. It offers a theoretical framework for understanding poetic cinema and why it was so inspiring to early filmmakers and how it can form the basis for moving beyond the auteur/genre dichotomy. It also analyses the contribution provided to these issues by recent cognitive film theory. In conclusion it traces a theoretical framework that can overcome this dichotomy and identifies future areas of research.

Name thesis:degree_name

Tese de doutoramento em Ciências da Comunicação

Grantor

Universidade do Minho

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Dale, Martin John

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Martins, Moisés de Lemos
• Zagalo, Nelson

• auteur
• cognitive
• genre
• poetic
• autor
• cognitivo
• género
• poético

Statement dc:rights

• openAccess

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

por

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1822/69749

OAI record oai:identifier

http://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Arepositorium.uminho.pt%3A1822%2F69749