Introduction
There are different film genres that we have. Grouping of the film genres has proved to be quite a problem in the past. However, the different genres have been realized, and it is notable that most films have more than one genre (Friedman, 23). In some cases, the genres have a common similarity and have several differences. For the woman’s and noir films, they are both feminine based. They keep on changing as the film progresses.
In a woman's film, the protagonists are defined by the nature and the society unlike in the male genres where protagonists are defined by action. The rules binding are not limited by time or space like other genres. It may include semantics of other genres, and it can be historical or con temporary. When they are contained, character behaviors may exceed the norm. In this film genre, it is possible to predict the dialogue exchanges. The genre uses some film techniques that are recurring such as music, backlighting and the montage technique, which is an intervening episode (Staiger, 63).
The main themes in a woman’s films are a woman's life itself which includes her great interests in men, fashion, glamour, sex, love, marriage and also their decision on their careers, the films lack action, they have unrealistic emphasis to contradictory concepts and the moral lessons appear as though they act or live in false pretence. The fundamental purpose of the films being to place the woman at the centre of the universe, to insist that a woman’s job is simply just being a woman which is represented by love and temporary showing the woman’s liberation and the films’ texts are often missed. Other discourses in the woman’s films include consumerism, the image of the female star and the woman’s fiction, alongside shape and complicated meanings.
The Mildred Pierce (Friedman, 45) can be described as a woman’s film as it has put a woman at the centre of the universe. Joan Crawford, acting like Mildred Pierce is the main character, and everything that happens is related to her. She struggles a lot and later gets a job and looks happy. Here, she is liberated which is short-lived as more problems observed.
It has also emphasized that a woman's primary role is a homemaker, which is a stereotype. The downfall of her family is related to her trying to get to business and earn money to sustain her family. Her husband left her for another woman and so she had to find means to sustain her family. It is assumed that she has failed to keep a balance between her job, her child and her lover.
Through some form of questioning, it has provided a temporary escape from the traditional women’s role realities (D'Alessandro, 202). How can acquiring a job make one lose their family? Should men be the sole breadwinners for their homes? What should women then do if the men become abusive? Stay just because the man is providing? When the man finally leaves and does not take care of his children, should a woman just sit and watch the children suffer? There are some questions that need answers before judging a woman and even with traditions; some circumstances call for a woman to stand up for her family and loved ones.
The noir film
The protagonist here is usually a victim who is usually under control of something beyond them. In most cases, they look as though they are backward. A trauma they have experienced or bad choices they have made in the past follows them. There are many flashbacks structured in a way that most characters are tired of certain situations.
A desirable woman uses her sexuality to entice the male protagonist to commit crimes, betray friends, loved ones and family. Some go to the extent of killing in these crimes. The females here are driven by greed. They have a big desire for wealth, freedom and power, and they, therefore, decide to manipulate the male protagonists so as to get their main objective.
Mildred’s daughter, Veda, is a discontented kid and keeps on asking for more and more money. Mildred goes out of her way to try and keep up with her daughter's demands. We see that she makes a lot of sacrifices, not only for her children, but also her lover. She keeps on giving him money, and though he finally dismissed her as just a mere cook, her last act was to give him more money. Her generosity was one of the factors that pulled men to her.
Integration of both the woman’s film and the noir film in Mildred Pierce
This film would not be half fun if the two genres were not integrated. It gives the film and the story some flow. In the first part, we see Mildred Pierce as a woman's film, and it keeps changing as the film progresses. We see where Mildred emanates. She has come from a complete family, a painful separation, having to be the sole breadwinner which she has not been used to.
At first, she seems to cope just right with the situation. She has a good relationship with her daughter, her business thrives well; she gets a lover, and she seems to be happy and content. Things then begin to change and only get worse. It now becomes a noir film. Her daughter becomes so stubborn and has high demands for money, but she still tries to work harder to meet her daughter demand and their relationship. It gets to the point where she loses her daughter; her business fails and also issues with her lover. It turns her to a different person from whom we had known earlier. She is even involved in the murder. All this was trying to get her things right though it didn’t happen (Cain, 42).
Requirements
It has become difficult to group film genres. There are two ways to argue the purity of Hollywood films. The first is that there have been many unrelated practices and failures of earlier genre critics. It is an illustration that it is not possible to find the right method for describing genres. The second method is that in the current day and age, patterns are used to classify films. These patterns are compared to other film patterns, and the genre can then be decided from this place (Staiger, 61). The comparison of these patterns is critical in communication and also has a great impact on text enjoyment (Grant, 12).
She clearly states that the Hollywood films had never been pure even when they claimed that it was pure. She precisely disagrees with the thought that the New Hollywood which is the post-Fordian Hollywood is a recombination of forces that makes it different from the Old Hollywood which was the Fordian Hollywood (Staiger, 65). Four methods had been used before to find out what critics base their arguments on while criticizing movies that include; the idealist method, the empiricist method, the a priori method and the social convention method. However, all the methods listed didn't satisfy the justification of the grouping as they all have underlying problems that make them appear as biased methods. Other people have also tried to come with the methods for classifying films but have had their problems too.
According to Staiger, (70) the structuralism genre theory assumes that the texts and their meaning will always exceed their genre definition. Post-structuralism has encountered these assumptions too. Based on the approach taken, films and genres are viewed differently. They are also read differently; a model is described as the formulation of the producers, a structure as the patterns in the text itself, an etiquette as the categorization used by distributors, exhibitors and reviewers, and a contract is defined as the conventions and rules viewers use to engage in genre films.
Fordian Hollywood that is the classical Hollywood films typical had two plots. One of the plots was always the heterosexual romance. Hollywood then adapted non-film sources, which were the novels, to their formula, categories or mixing type. The need for constant innovation is an indication that meant that genres were never static or pure.
The term hybrid text in post-colonial theory was produced by the colonized. They mixed their cultural forms with their colonizers, culture. The cross-culture led to two separate language systems in dialogue, within the text and in conflict. The oppressed language was able to challenge and rewrite the prevailing one. It revealed assumptions and inadequacies. It is a clear indication that Hollywood would not be truly hybrid. It can only be described as internal hybrid. It is as a result of the oppressed groups within the culture taking up familiar genre forms. All this gives rise to the inbred texts. It is Hollywood mixing all the genres. It mixes all the genres from the same language family of the western culture.
Conclusion
We can’t assume that certain or particular films are pure genres. It means that it is hard to find a film that has only one genre from the beginning to the end. Two or more genres are integrated with most films, and it makes the films more exciting and understandable.
Works Cited
Cain, James M. Mildred Pierce. New York: Vintage Books, 2011. Print.
D'Alessandro, K. Linking Styles: "Mildred Pierce". Audience Magazine, (2002). 1-2.
Friedman, L. D., D. Desser, S. Kozloff, M. Nochimson, and S. Prince. An introduction to film genres. N.p., 2014. Print.
Gallafent, Edward. Letters and literacy in Hollywood film. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Print.
Grant, Barry K. Film genre reader IV. Austin, Tex: University of Texas Press, 2012. Print. P.119-121
Laplace Maria. Producing and consuming woman's film pg 135-167
Staiger, Janet. Perverse spectators the practices of film reception. New York: New York University Press, 2000. Print.
