Almost one hundred and twenty years have passed since the time when the Lumière brothers invented cinematography, and during this time cinema has changed a lot. The art of cinema has acquired many new genres and forms, so the classification of modern films can be quite confusing.
Fiction and documentary
First of all, films are divided into two large groups: documentaries and fiction. The basis of documentaries is real material: people, events, places - all of this existed or exists in reality. Strictly speaking, the world's first film "The Arrival of a Train", shown in the cinema of the Lumiere brothers, was also purely documentary.
Such films can tell about scientific achievements and discoveries, historical events, the lives of famous people. In addition, documentary footage is sometimes used in feature films to create a more dramatic effect. For example, in the Soviet film "Only Old Men Go to Battle" materials from military newsreels are used.
A fiction or feature film is entirely based on the actors' play. There are many types of classification of fiction films: color and black and white, silent and with sound, full-length and short. In addition, fiction films are classified according to genre.
Films can also be classified according to the place of their production, since some national products become, in fact, a separate genre (for example, Indian cinema).
According to experts, at the moment there is no single system for dividing films by genre. Nevertheless, art history aside, there is still a need to give the viewer an idea of what he can expect from the film. Many genres in cinema came from theatrical art, but there are also those generated directly by cinema.
Feature film genres
So, on the screens of cinemas you can see:
- militants, - westerns, - Horror, - comedies, - dramas, - thrillers, - sci-fi movies, - musical works, - historical cinema, - disaster films, - adventure movies, - film epics,
- tragedies.
The most popular historical figure in cinema is Napoleon Bonaparte, about whom more than two hundred films have been filmed.
Each of these genres contains an internal division (for example, a detective story can be espionage, adventurous, criminal). In addition, genres can overlap, resulting in fantastic comedy films, detective westerns, historical thrillers, and many more. All genres have a certain impact on the viewer, achieved with the help of techniques and methods characteristic of a particular genre.
Also, it is worth highlighting animated films that are made using animation. They can also be divided into different genres, like feature films. Finally, we must not forget about short films, the task of which is to accommodate as much information and emotions as possible in a 10-15 minute format.
