Genre Study: The Romance Comedy

Genre Study: The Romance Comedy The thesis introduces some basic conceptions of genre and then generally analyzes the features of the US and UK film genre especially in terms of romance comedy of US and UK film. The author uses Love Actually and Pretty Woman as two examples to represent UK and US romance comedy respectively. Love Actually was acted by many outstanding actors and actresses like Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson), Alan Rickman, etc, which makes the movie an all-star lineup. However, pretty Woman doesnt fall behind. It was acted by Hollywood movie star Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. By comparing the two representatives, it is not difficult to arrive at the conclusion that UK romance comedy is more realism while the other is more idealism. I believe it more or less has something related to their different cultures and national characters. British people are more conservative than Americans so their romance is closer to life, its better for audience to find the real love in reality be cause some plot of the movie just like a familiar one happened in neighborhood. It reflects some true situation in real life. Pretty Woman is a bit like the realization of American Dream to American people; the movie makes the fairy tale dream become true. Thats why these two movies are excellent learning materials for romance genre study. When talking about film genre, there is no reason not to mention the etymology of genre, which comes from French (originally Latin) word meaning type or kind. With the word genre coming into use of English, it is not hard to come across literacy genre, genres in painting etc, however, this paper mainly emphasizes on film genre. How we define genre is depending on our purposes. Film genre is closely connected with the aspect of audiences common knowledge and their expectations, that is, how audience recognizes and understands movie. As Alastair Fowler said that readers learn genres gradually, usually through unconscious familiarization, I put forward the idea that audience use genre to distinguish a particular movie and it makes a genre a code between producers and viewers in the text of a specific movie. When I start to analyze US film genre, I cant ignore the impact of Hollywood, which produces a large amount of blockbuster through the whole world, to name but a few, Gone With the Wind, The Sound of Music, Titanic, The Lord of the King, Avatar In Hollywood movie, the leading genres are action-adventure, comedy, science fiction, teenpics, war films, westerns, melodrama and so on. It is universally acknowledged that love is indispensable in humans lifeà ¯Ã‚ ¼Ã…’so its always the source material for literature and art creation. There is no doubt that love is always the eternal theme of movie, thats why the box of romance story is on the glory trail for long years. In some other film genre, romance is supposed to be the sub-genre, which makes romantic thriller, romantic drama, action romance and romantic comedy. And even in Titanic this kind of disaster film, romance is an important element which runs through the whole movie. At different time peoples outlook of love reflect their mo ral value at that time. The production of movie is usually based on the characteristic temper of an age to highlight the theme of the time. During the Second World War period, Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, For Whom the Bell Tolls are popular films because they shoot at the real background of the society, which reveals the changing life brought by the war. While in the period of 90th century, Youve Got a Mail, Message in a Bottle, A Walk in the clouds these new time romance come into the big screen. Especially in Youve Got a Mail internet has become a bridge between the hero and heroine, besides that the film also reflects cyber romance in real life. As it goes to nowadays romance, it becomes much more incredible and extraordinary just like Across the Universe, Sliding Doors, twilight. When I continue to analyze the UK film genre, there are three main characteristics going as follows. First of all it inherits and develops the realistic tradition of English drama. For instance, Gandhi, A Passage to India, Gosford Park represent the introspection of the history and culture of colonial domination; the Bridge on the River Kwai, the Private Life of Henry VIII, the Queen criticize the corrupt customs of old value and national characters; the Land Girls, Love Actually promote the standard civilization of mainstream society; Four weddings and a Funeral, Mr. Bean advocate the optimistic attitude towards life. Secondly, UK movie is keen on the artistic characteristics of English drama, leading to the high artistic value in either shooting or performance, especially the gentleman style in acting. It also explains why many English films win the Academy Award such as The English patient, Shakespeare in Love. The last but not least, it adapts some literary masterpiece and many o f them stay famous with the original work. Tess is revised from Hardy; Oliver Twist is revised from Charles Dickens; Sense and Sensibility is converted from Jane Austin. When all the above-mentioned factors are taken into consideration, a conclusion could be drawn that UK films are more traditional and retain some features of English drama. Hereinafter I will illustrate Love Actually and Pretty Woman to analysis the features of UK and US romance comedy respectively and compare their similarities and distinctions. Love actually is one of the most successful English romance comedies which breaks the record of Bridget Joness Diary and wins the top-grossing movie release in ever. It is made up of ten separate stories but also there are small connections among those stories at the background of traditional festival-Christmas. In fact the name of the movie love actually means Love is actually around, so the whole melody of the movie is immersed in warm and love. The beginning and ending part take place at Heathrow Airport where passengers part or reunite with their family or friends. Fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husband and wife, boyfriends, girlfriends and old friends, they smile, embrace or kiss each other, making the airport cozy beautiful place. Love is found everywhere. Our eyes do not show a lack of sense of love, but lack of observation. This film reflects different kind of outlook of love in UK society. Love is around no matter who you are and what social class you come from. Even you are the prime minister of the United Kingdom; you may fall in love with your assistant. The director just suggests that there is no hierarchy, no stratum in love, everyone is equal at the front of love; love makes people closer to each other and makes them come together no matter what their identities are. Love is around no matter which country you are from and what language you are speaking. Love has no boundaries. The little boy confesses his feelings to the African-American girl at the encouragement of his stepfather. Love is brave, there are neither skin colors nor races in love, and we all cheer for the little boy because of his braveness. Totally there are ten stories and everyone can find some touching details in some stories because they are closely related to our life and I believe thats why it s not the same as Hollywood romance comedy, its special gentleman style humor and lightly moving plot are not like a raging flame but can still give us warm and power. It makes audience feel comfortable and full of confidence that love is everywhere. Be generous and gratitude to life because love is always around us. It is a movie but it is also like what happened in our own life. Apart from the romance story in the film, we can find the epitome of British politics and the relationship between British and American. A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend. Bring out their opinion that they dont want to be an attendant of America. We can still catch the satire that Englishman used to show disagreement with American and their pop culture. They laugh at Americans arbitrariness and their open culture. Satire is one way of English humor. As is known to us, comedy is very influential in English film industry because the nation feels proud of their sense of humor. Mr. Bean has become the stereotype of comedy and Rowan Atkinsons face represent funny and humor. When he showed up in a movie we can predict that something interesting will happen. So even he shows up several minutes in Love Actually, he still creates happiness to the audience. On the other hand, Pretty Woman is a typical Cinderella Hollywood style romance comedy. Hao Jian claims Pretty Woman is a romantic film and studies how this movie leads the audience to enjoy the visual and ideological pleasure through inserting typical movie language. He argues the directors use of movie language and the like zero cut is a strategy to remove barriers between the characters and the audience. (Hao Jian,2002) Since there is no denying that characters are the souls of movie, this paper mainly focuses on characters personalities to conclude the genre features instead of the angle from shooting methods like montage etc. Edward represents prototype of the upper class while Vivian represents the working class in US. From my point of view, American romance comedy is more idealized just like a fairy tale and a wonderful dream because girls are eager to encounter her prince of charming like Edward and boys want to be successful and have the social status as Edward. That is to s ay, American romance story is more idealism so that the heroes and heroine are so glorious that audience wish they could become them. Vivian, the pretty woman in the movie, though she doesnt have a decent occupation, she still has her own qualities, which attract the perfect hero and win his love. I analyzed the heroine and find she has four qualities that makes she become the princess. To start with, she is frank and honest, so that she always expresses her feelings directly and doesnt hide her opinions. Next, although she is a prostitute, she still has self-respect. When she lives a comfortable life provided by Edward she still prepares to leave because all she wants is not just material things. Thirdly, she is a lovely woman, which can be drawn from her cute actions and innocent dialogue. At last, she creates her own idealism when she is a street girl and luckily her dreams come true. In real life its hard to imagine a millionaire falls in love with a prostitute, but just because of the mode of Cinderella and the prince of modern time makes audiences wish come true, the film becomes a very popular one even until today. Pretty Woman still makes sense in our society; the vision of love differs in our time. Now it seems that status, fortune and appearance have become some necessaries in matching love. Love is no longer pure love; people become together with clear intensions, for instance, the insurance of life, the standard of consumptionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦It seems that people now regard marriage as a relationship instead of an institution. In the movie it tells us that family background, job, features are not so important, the most important thing is ones inner world, pure soul and warm heart. Pretty Woman inherits the traditional mode of US romance comedy, which contains handsome man, hot figure woman and happy ending story. However, this movie also praises female while some other US film would show sympathy of female like Thelma and Louise, the Color Purple and so on. All in all, Pretty Woman is a very classic Hollywood movie which is beneficial for us to study film genre of romance comedy of American. Conclusion Through the further discovery of genre study, it helps us obtain some fundamental conception of film genre in terms of romance comedy. Film genre is a long journey that in this paper I only underline a small aspect of film genre. As far as I am concerned, romance comedy is so popular that this film genre can always attract audiences attention and sit in the cinema to enjoy the movie. However, Love actually and Pretty Woman are just two stereotypes of romance comedy. There are numerous films of this type, if we want to draw more conclusions we always have many options since If Only, Five first dates, Sleepless in Seattle,etc, are classic romance story worth watching. Bibiliography: UK Film Council. http://sy10.ukfilmcouncil.ry.com/Default.asp An introduction to genre theory. Daniel Chandler. American Film Genres: Approach to a critical theory of Popular Film. Kaminsky, Stuart M. Media Semiotics: An Introduction. Bignell, Jonathan. Manchester University Press. 1997 Film Genre Study. HaoJian. Beijing University Press. 2002 The Film Genre Book. John Sanders. Auteur Publishing. 2009 Film Genre 2000:New Critical Essays. Wheeler Winston Dixon. State University of New York Press.2000 Film Genre:Hollywood and Beyond. Barry Langford. Edinburgh University Press. 2005 Romance Fiction: A guide to the genre. Kristin Ramsdell. Englewood,Colo. 1999

Music Analysis Essay

â€Å"Bitch Bad† is popular hip-hop song performed by Chicago native rapper, Lupe Fiasco. The song depicts the word bitch in the many forms that it is used in today’s urban society. The song starts with a dark weary synthesizer and a heavy deep 808 drum pattern that reflects the sound that is used in many of today’s popular club/party songs. The words to the song shine a stereotypical light on â€Å"bad bitches,† but there is a twist. Fiasco highlights 3 significant points which is the basis of the song, â€Å"Bitch bad, woman good, lady better† (Fiasco, Bitch Bad). By producing this song, Lupe Fiasco points out the relevance and impact that the term has on modern day youth. Fiasco also wanted to make an attempt to steer people in the opposite direction from the normal stereotype of the well-known and overrated term ‘bad bitch. ’ As the first verse starts, Fiasco brings listeners into the world of a young male, around the age of 4 or 5 that picks up on the music his mother listens to that has references of women as being bad bitches. Fiasco describes how the mother sings to the song playing and her son is listening to her sing along to the lyrics. Fiasco states the more the son hears his mother play this type of music, he develops a certain complex on how he views women that use the â€Å"bad bitch† phrase. By the son being such a tender age, he receives the song based on what he sees in his mother instead of the derogatory way the song is describing women. The young boy forms his own opinion of the bad bitch theory. His own mother, whom he looks up to and admires, calls herself a bad bitch, so he depicts the term â€Å"bad bitch† to be positive. To him it resembles a strong, independent, respectful woman because this is how he sees his mother, as opposed to a woman that is weak, dependent and unstable. The hook to the song â€Å"Bitch Bad† illuminates the 3 categories of women: bitch, woman, and lady. â€Å"Bitch bad, woman good/ Lady better, they misunderstood/ (I’m killin’ these bitches)† (Fiasco, Bitch Bad). These lyrics are self-explanatory. This hook is saying that being called a bitch is a bad thing, being called a woman is better, but being called a lady is phenomenal. Lupe Fiasco is trying to tell young girls, or young women, what they should be trying to aspire to be instead of trying to be what they see on the television screens or hear on the radio. More recently in urban society being a woman or a lady has lost its value. The message that Lupe Fiasco is trying to send out to the audience of this song is that being a bad bitch is not a positive look. In verse two of the song â€Å"Bad Bitch,† Fiasco breaks down how a young group of girls in their pre-teen stage listen to songs and watch music videos on the internet. The videos are uncensored and because they know more about the internet than their parents, they don’t get parental consent. Children tend to know a lot more about modern day technology than their parents. This is how children such as the ones described in this verse, are able to watch uncensored items online. The young girls are at an age where they need a positive female role model, but instead they are influenced by the women they see in music videos. These young girls receive a different persona of a bad bitch than the young boy in the first verse. Bad bitches to them are women that have sex appeal, skinny with big butts, and wear sexy and revealing clothing. As the song states â€Å"High heels, long hair, fat booty, slim†¦ They don’t see a paid actress, just what makes a bad bitch† (Fiasco, Bitch Bad). The girls have this image in their heads, and without proper guidance, this is what they want to grow up to be. The third verse begins by Fiasco stating that he is not trying to teach children to use the term â€Å"bitch† but as a psychological way to let listeners know that he is against the use of the word. This verse combines the first two and it continues with the observation of how small the world really is and the young boy from the first verse and one of the young girls from the second verse meet. Fiasco continues on to illustrate how the boy is viewing the girl in an insolent way based on how she is dressed, but she is saying it in a sexual way. His viewing of a bad bitch is not what the girl is showcasing. Sure enough, in this little world/The little boy meets one of those little girls/And he thinks she a bad bitch/And she thinks she a bad bitch/He thinks disrespectfully/She thinks of that sexually/She got the wrong idea/He don’t wanna fuck her/He thinks she’s bad at being a bitch/Like his mother† (Fiasco, Bitch Bad). She is flaunting her half-dressed body i n front of him, yet he is telling her that his mother didn’t do things like that, and that is what he knows to be a bad bitch. The young man fostered his view on the term from what he saw in his mother, a respectful woman. They young lady obtained her view from the flashy video girls she saw in music videos. The term ‘bad’ back in earlier years portrayed a woman who had her life together and was sexy in a respectful way. She was the woman that didn’t need assistance from the male counterpart. Black moguls in the rap/hip hop community, such as Dame Dash, Russell Simmons, Nicki Minaj, and Jay-Z have taken the word ‘bad’ and made the ‘bitch’ addition and spread it through the black culture. Now a female who has lower standards perceives that she’s a â€Å"bad bitch† because she is being uplifted by the black urban community. Society today can take the term â€Å"bad bitch’ as being either good or bad. Marc Hogan, writer for Spin Magazine, stated â€Å"Clearly, something has changed in hop hop’s relationship with anti-woman slurs†¦and that’s ostensibly what Lupe Fiasco tries to address†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Hogan). The perception of women slurs all depend on individual perceptions and how much impact social media has on an individual. This song released in August 2012. Upon its music video release, MTV did an interview with Lupe Fiasco. During this interview, Fiasco stated that he â€Å"just wanted to have a conversation,† (Fiasco, Interview). Lupe also suggested that because there is no solidification to the term bad bitch, â€Å"†¦it’s definitely something that I think we should talk about because it’s so prevalent in our culture right now† (Fiasco, Interview). Lupe is trying to get the world to understand that a bad bitch is a double standard as stated in the lyrics â€Å"Bad mean good to her/She really nice and smart/ But bad mean bad to him/Bitch don’t play your part/ But bitch still bad to her if you say it the wrong way/ But she think she a bitch/What a double entendre† (Fiasco, Bitch Bad). Rob Markman stated that â€Å"Lupe Fiasco knows all too well the power of words. † This is very true. Fiasco’s music is well known in the hip hop industry for relaying some kind of message. Lupe Fiasco did precisely what he set out to do, spark a conversation and produce different point of views. â€Å"Depending on where you stand, the term â€Å"bad bitch† may have positive or negative connotations†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Markman). Fiasco let the world know that is was more to being a ‘bad bitch’. What viewers see in music videos is only one perception. Needless to say, â€Å"†¦whether you consider â€Å"bitch† empowering or degrading, there is always something to ponder on† (Viera), and Lupe Fiasco definitely gave his listeners, and non-listeners, something to think about.

Active Audiences & the Construction of Meaning

Active Audiences & the Construction of Meaning â€Å"Media messages are central to everyday lives†¦ Audiences are active interpreters of meaning. † â€Å"Audiences interpret media in diverse ways. †(255-256). People in the media industry believe that the audience is a mass of passive readers who accept media messages uncritically.Nevertheless, the audiences actively take part in the interpretation of media texts which is an essential process when media messages start meaning something to people who assign their own implication to the texts. Sometimes audiences can interpret the message in the same way as intended by the producers, but sometimes they construct meaning that is very different. People interpret media texts in all types of social settings. Therefore, media has become a significant part of the social life.Since audiences are active receivers of media texts, they can change media messages by collective action such as prohibition of certain media texts, ca mpaigns that show audiences’ disapproval of media products, public writing of letters of complaint regarding media, foundation of independent media that criticize main media but also supply audiences with alternative perspectives. Audiences from different races, ethnicities, genders and social classes construct various interpretations of the same media message.So, media texts are characterized by polysemy, they have multiple meanings. According to John Fiske (1986) there is abundance of meaning embedded in the media texts. Therefore, media messages are structured in a way that enables people to make different readings and interpret them actively, not simply to accept the dominant interpretation. People have agency but there is no structure. However, people from different social backgrounds construct various interpretations of same media texts. Social statuses shape audience members’ viewpoints, interests and attitudes towards media.As a result, people must be aware of their agency- the opportunity to construct meaning- and of the social constraints as well. People often construct interpretation that is based on widely accepted norms, values and beliefs about the world around us. According to Stuart Hall’s encoding-decoding model messages are constructed on the basis of specific â€Å"codes†, encoded by the producers and decoded by the active audience. To decode the media texts, audiences have to know the basic medium conventions and cultural values.Since media messages draw on some taken-for-granted beliefs and cultural codes, the audience uses its knowledge about them to construct meaning and decode the media texts. This factor hinders us from being fully autonomist. Active audiences use media for diverse reasons and construct different interpretations but the big corporations will always be there to nudge us in certain directions. Fortunately, people like me will often refuse to accept the preferred meaning and develop oppositiona l reading and resistance, which are related to social action.Audiences’ oppositional decoding is part of the resistance to the traditional roles and rules. People are suppose to use media to relax, fantasize and escape from the social reality or solve some problems and live in harmony not to be subliminally attacked by producer beliefs. Some people experience ‘pleasure of resistance’ by making interpretations opposing to the dominant meanings. Overall there will always be a give and take between the media and the people, what we have to remember is we can have control over these media influence as long as we can take a step back and acknowledge their presence.

English B 6th Hour Mrs. Vanzegeren Essay - 952 Words

Chyle Finlaw English B 6th Hour Mrs. VanZegeren It was the beginning of the day and Kullan was in a rush to get to his classroom, He took his lunch and said goodbye to his mother. Once he got to his classroom, he said hello to all his friends and to his teacher, Mr. Metten, who has been teaching at Kullan’s school for 6 years. Lately Mr. Metten has been getting to know his students on a more personal level and has been enjoying his job more. Mr. Metten has been teaching the second grade for four of his six years of teaching. Before he was a middle school history teacher, Oh, how he hated middle school. All the obnoxious, ornery, loathsome, vile, and naive seventh and eighth graders running around trying to impress one another. He hated how arrogant middle schooler’s were, So, when a position at the local elementary school opened up he jumped on it, if only he knew. About halfway through the day Kullan and his friend Jake were drowning in pop tarts during lunch. As they walked back to their classroom, a sense of disquietude fell over the hallway. No more than half a second later there were sounds of gunshots and screaming coming not too far from where the children were standing. A teacher Kullan saw a couple days ago came sprinting around a corner, she stopped long enough for him to notice that there was fresh blood stained on her shirt. Kullan was in such shock he didn’t hear the teacher tell them to run, He was jolted back to reality by a quick shake from Mr. Metten. Mr.