Saturday 10 March 2012

05 Introduction: Development of Giallo as a genre

For my dissertation, I will be looking at the film genre giallo; and why I believe that the genre deserves to be held in higher regard from an artistic and movement within film history, rather than being grouped together with other examples of low budget exploitation films. I will look into what makes the genre standout and what artistic merits I believe make the giallo warrant a closer look by film academics.

My starting point will be to look at the history of the giallo and see where it first began and where its origins lie in and how the genre was received; and how the genre molded into the form it is perceived today as your typical genre piece (the birth of the masked killer). From there I will look at the genres swift transition from Black & White film to Colour, looking at colour theory and look at examples of how the giallo makes great use of colour within the mise-en-scene incorporating wonderfully vibrant colour palettes. Further exploration of colour will then move into talking about fetishism in giallo particularly looking at Director Dario Argento and his fetishist obsession with the colour red.

The main body of my research will then look into Dario Argento himself and how he applied all the characteristics of the giallo genre (which he himself helped build) into a more supernatural horror approach, paying close attention to Suspiria (1977) and Inferno (1980) as prime examples of how he used the supernatural genre to build upon the use of colour within giallo and build upon and explore greater uses of different colours giving them more meaning within film.

And finally I will look at the rapid decline of the giallo, look at the modern day attempts to revive the genre and how successful they’ve been and then conclude by giving my opinion on whether the giallo can still be relevant in modern day cinema and whether the key elements from the genre can be still as effective in modern day cinema.

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