|
Generic Migrations: The Production Relationship between Ireland and Hollywood
Dervila Layden on how Irish cinema has pushed the boundaries of the Hollywood genre film.
Genre films are, at least in academic and critical circles, often thought of as a somewhat lower-class film product, one that is produced only for mass satisfaction, follows a formulaic plot, and caters to an imagined lowest-common denominator. Indeed, the word ‘generic’ is often used to suggest a bland, own-brand, unremarkable product. In this article, I try to reclaim the original meaning of the term generic (that is, related to genre) and explore the implications of genre for Irish film. The noticeably generic turn of Irish film (which I would date from the 1991 release of The Commitments) has sometimes been seen in similarly negative terms, being regarded as derivative and a dumbing-down of Irish film to Hollywood standards (‘standards’ in this usage meaning anything but). Martin McLoone’s description of The Commitments as ‘a Hollywood film in all its essential elements [which] is required to present aspects of Ireland that are “recognisable” to the Hollywood audience’ (p. 205) suggests exactly this. Certainly, commercially motivated changes were made when adapting Roddy Doyle’s novel but the film is much richer than this and has a far greater social resonance.
Asking ourselves just two questions might complicate this equation of genre with lower-class film. Firstly: how many films that we think of as great films follow some sort of generic template? And secondly: to what extent do we carry that generic template in our own consciousness? Many polls have voted Citizen Kane (1941) the best film ever made. It is a superb example of a biopic – a very recognisable genre – and it is made even more poignant by its retrospective, flashbacking narrative. Looking at more recent Irish films, a 2004 Film Ireland poll placed The Butcher Boy (1997) as the best Irish film. This film is, among other genres, a black comedy and a stunted bildungsroman (coming-of-age narrative); indeed, much of the film is a sustained reflection on the effect of the importance of genre and culture. From the Hollywood studio era to contemporary Ireland, films that we regard as great are very often genre films.
However, films are not necessarily produced as genre films (although often marketed as such); they are produced as narrative. The audience responds (or not) to that narrative and particularly strong narratives acquire a cultural meaning and become genres. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then genre film production attempts not only to flatter what has gone before but also to bring something new to that genre. Thus genres evolve and change over time, as they take account of their social climate, the history of their genre, and the reinterpretation of that history. The genre of the spoof-horror (such as the Scary Movie series) turns on all of these as horror, comedy, parody and self-referentiality intersect.
The full article is printed in Film Ireland 121.
|
