Genre and Children of Men

We began by thinking about the concept of genre and talked about a short phrase by Steve Neale that Genre is essentially a system of repetition and variation. Put simply, genre texts (Horror Films or whatever) have elements of repetition - i.e. they'll use the generic conventions (features) that audiences associate with the Horror genre but they'll also have enough variation to ensure that the film is not completely formulaic.

Children of Menis an interesting film to use to think about genre:

1. The basic premise - human infertility (and therefore the end of the human race) would seem to indicate that it will be a Science Fiction film.

2. Setting the film in the future would also seem to suggest this too, it's set in 2027.

BUT...

3. It doesn't focus on the Scientific reasons for infertility, nor on a scientific cure/remedy being found.

4. The mise-en-scene doesn't look like a conventional Science Fiction film. There are not lots of futuristic props (gadgets etc.) or much in the way of futuristic set design. The world looks familiar to our own; deliberately so, Cuaron talked in interviews of the need to rein in design team who wanted to create a futuristic setting.

5. The film uses conventions and techniques from a range of genres.

6. The narrative journey that Theo and Kee undertake is a convention of a Road Movie.

7. There is the sort of characterisation and focus on dialogue that we normally associate with films in the Drama genre.

8. The sequence toward the end of the film in the East Sussex town of Bexhill is constructed to look like a War film.

9. The long takes and lack of close-ups are borrowed from the Documentary genre.

Children of Men goes beyond being a generic hybrid - it's a work of bricolage.