AS Media Coursework

1. Genre Analysis
Thriller/suspense

2. My chosen genre is Thriller/suspense; in this sort of
genre I would expect a film with lots of excitement,
intense scenes, anticipation and anxiety. This genre
includes a character(s) that is on the run or hiding
from a situation whilst not knowing what is going to
happen next, creating tension. The audience is
meant to feel the plot build towards a climax and
they are not meant to know what could happen
next which then creates the anxiety for the
audience. There is a close-related genre to
suspense-thrillers this is horror but, my two
minutes film is all about the run of the wife so this
takes it into the categories of suspense and thriller.

3. With this genre the theorist Todorov links in
with suspense- thriller because there is
equilibrium – disequilibrium – resolution (new
equilibrium). The way that the wife and husband
are equal at the beginning, makes it equilibrium
but, then she takes the power and murders him
which makes disequilibrium and finally when
they resolve the mystery there is a resolution.

4. Thrillers are a genre that has been
around for a long time, one of the
earliest thrillers was Harold Lloyd’s
comic ‘Safety Last’ (1923).

5. Another early film is the haunting and
chilling German film ‘M’ (1931)
directed by Fritz Lang.

6. Another thriller-suspense film director is English film-maker and
director Alfred Hitchcock; he helped to mould the Thriller genre
that we know today. He began with his early silent film the
‘lodger’ (1927), followed by ‘Blackmail’ (1929) which was his first
sound film but it was also released in a silent version.

7. Hitchcock was nominated five times for the best
director from 1940-1960 however, he never won
an Academy Award. He casted leading actors
such as, Gregory Peck, James Stewart and Cary
Grant. As well as, Madeline Carroll, Joan
Fontaine, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Kim
Novak, Janet Leigh and Tippi Hedren in his films.
He looked mainly into story lines that include:
Abuse, murder, paranoia and obsession and guilt
and punishment.

8. Other films that Hitchcock produced include;
‘Stranger on a train(1951)’, ‘Dial M for
Murder(1954)’, ‘Rear Window(1954)’, ‘To catch a
thief(1955)’ and ‘vertigo(1958)’.