Melodrama and film noir on today's big screen: How modern audiences experience yesterday's classics.

Abstract

In the 1940s and 50s, melodrama was described as "the lady's film," whereas men were the supposed fans of film noir. No empirical studies were conducted with filmgoers of that era to validate such claims. This study examined responses of modern-day audiences comprising 16 females and 16 males to these classic genres. An experimental montage technique was developed to compare problem and solution scenes excerpted from 4 melodrama and 4 film noir movies. Participants rated each scene on fifteen 5-point scales related to cognitive and emotional responses and interpreted the meaning of each scene open-endedly. Quantitative analyses indicated that subjects were more sensitive to the character's emotions in melodrama, found this genre to be more complex, and were more apt to experience personal memories. Qualitative analyses revealed that subjects were more aware of the character's emotions and were more likely to identify with the character in melodramas. Interactions showed that participants judged the solution scenes in film noirs to be unrealistic and criticized the main character's actions. Male and female participants did not differentially respond to the two genres.

Finding Movies Interesting: How Appraisals and Expertise Influence the Aesthetic Experience of Film

“…Creativity researchers, for example, have examined the variables that predict whether films attain critical success or win awards (e.g., Cerridwen & Simonton, 2009;Plucker, Holden, & Neustadter, 2008;Simonton, 2006Simonton, , 2007 and the characteristics of awardwinning screenwriters (Pritzker & McGarva, 2009). Only a handful of studies have examined viewers' aesthetic experience of film (e.g., Goldstein, 2009;Hilscher, Cupchik, & Leonard, 2008;Normore, 1974), despite some sophisticated theoretical treatments (e.g., Carroll, 1996;Tan, 1996).…”

Institutions, assets combinations, and film performance: A U.S.–French comparison.

“…While not reported in the results tables for the sake of brevity, the models also include as statistical controls a film’s year of release (as in Simonton, 2007a; Smith & Smith, 1986), month of release (also in Krider & Weinberg, 1998), screen coverage, budget (as in Neelamegham & Chintagunta, 1999), and genre (also used as a control variable by Simonton, 2007a; as a predictor by Eliashberg & Shugan, 1997 and Litman, 1983; as a mediating variable by Desai & Basuroy, 2005; and as a selection criteria by Hilscher, Cupchik & Leonard, 2008).…”

Cross-cultural interpretation of filmic metaphors: A think-aloud experiment

“…The genre of film is becoming very popular in distinct research fields and among the non-academic public, and scholars have recently postulated some theories about the aesthetic experience of this medium (Goldstein 2009;Grodal 2009;Hilscher et al 2008). Marković (2012) investigates the components of aesthetic experience, distinguishing between appraisal, fascination, and emotion.…”