Screening Life: Within the Formula of Filmic Biography
Elżbieta Durys
e.durys@gmail.comUniversity of Warsaw (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3545-3160
Abstract
Filmic biography enjoys continued popularity among viewers. Its status, however, remains paradoxical. Filmmakers make biopics while openly distancing themselves from the formula, researchers, in turn, avoid theorizing about them. The article identifies and discusses a number of issues related to biopic as a genre that are overlooked or ignored in critical reflection. It focuses on the definition, characteristics, internal differentiation of the formula, cycles that evolved out of it, references to other genres and the cultivation of the idea of the Great Man. Recalling and highlighting those issues allows to address less know contexts of the functioning of film biography.
Keywords:
biopic, film genre, genre cinemaReferences
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Authors
Elżbieta Duryse.durys@gmail.com
University of Warsaw Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3545-3160
Dr hab. is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Warsaw (Poland). Her research interests focus on film and gender issues, genre theory, methods and approaches to cinema, American and Polish cinema and film education. She is the author of numerous articles on film that have appeared in journals and anthologies. She coedited two volumes on American cinema (2006, 2007) and two volumes on gender issues (2005, 2014). She published three books: Mieliśmy tu mały problem… O twórczości Johna Cassavetesa [Just a Little Problem That Came Up… The Works of John Cassavetes] (2009), Amerykańskie popularne kino policyjne w latach 1970–2000 [American Cop Cinema 1970-2000] (2013) and Film jako źródło wiedzy historycznej [Film as a Source of Historical Knowledge] (2019).
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