A structuralist analysis of the musical film genre and its relation to the teaching of film concepts

Abstract

If film ia to be taurht in Jouth African secondary schools as a katriculati(n subject, we need a viable cethod cl teaching it. which must be media specific and appropriate to the discipline. Genre film categories present numerous teaching examples, because of their adherence to given f o rm ulae and structural p a t ' e m : . A deconstruction o . these films reveals that the narrative content of an individual genre film is scv ifically organised around a framework of binar. oppositions. These oppositions form the basis for the structuralist model which can be used as a tool for the critical analysis and discussion of musical f 1 1 m s . The argument between various critics and film theorists about the 'h i g h b r o w • aestheticiam of film as an artistic medium, and its function as 1 popular culture' has always been volati le and is clouded by dogma, preconceptions and prejudice. In recent y e a n , m a n y , like victor ierkins, Jim Kitzes, .Stephen .. e a 1 n , .jtanlcy uolomon, . h oca s Scha v ^ and Colin ...cArthur have sought to debunk the notion c: an 'orthodox film t h e o r y ' and have upheld popular culture modes as valuable and revealing. - ecauee although they adhere to the constraints of a commercial film industry and a definite entertainment function in society, many individual genre films >re both c o m ; lex and artistic.