When thinking about color films in the period of the 1940s one can’t help but also think about the concept of genre. Feature film productions in color during that particular decade can almost exclusively be categorized as pertaining to one of a limited number of genres, first and foremost within Classical Hollywood cinema’s studio system, but also in other national film production contexts.
While most investigations of genre focus on narrative textual analysis or iconographic visual patterns, this talk will aim at a broader investigation of patterns of the mise-en-scene within different genre films and how they relate to the use of color. Working from an extensive corpus of analyzed film, various film examples are used to highlight the commonalities and differences of a number of genre productions, embedding them in their respective production context, and investigating the use of color and its intra- and intertextual functions. In the vein of David Bordwell’s historical poetics and Barbara Flueckiger’s technobole approach to film history, the diverse and intertwining factors influencing color film aesthetic and style – color film technology, production personnel, industry politics, normative ideas – are carved out and reflected to form a differentiated understanding of the role of color film technology and style within genre productions.
