Movie cliché

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Film clichés are clichés or stereotypes in films ; For example, motifs, equipment details, plot turns, dialogues and / or similar details that are used repeatedly in the same or similar form in different productions. To achieve a dramaturgical effect in inferior scripts , the same or similar (actual or supposed) “proven” stylistic device is used again and again; a strategy that many experienced viewers see through, which misses the intended effect. A cliché often seems trite and boring to them.

Taking up a cliché can be perceived as a special stimulus if it is a deliberate allusion, a " film quote " and / or a parody that can only be properly understood by knowing the original. A running gag can also make a cliché interesting. Genre films cannot do without clichés.

Other reasons for the emergence of film clichés are unrealistic representations for dramaturgical reasons or out of the need, for example, to illustrate technical processes clearly. A film then sometimes becomes unrealistic to the point of absurdity , which the director sometimes consciously accepts, but which can also be the result of insufficient research.

After all, especially with series productions, a tight budget and / or a tight schedule can force you to forego complex designs or special effects. As a result, the same, simple means are used again and again and the typical "alien worlds" with barren, desert-like surfaces, populated by largely humanoid aliens, emerge in science fiction series , for example .

In genre films in particular, clichés are often used; they satisfy the need of no fewer viewers for a predictable or non-surprising film.

The transition from the gritty narrative device ( the Eiffel Tower can be seen in the window in a scene of an as yet unnamed place ) to the stylistic device (stretching the narrative time, dangerous situation is repeatedly presented from different perspectives with only minimal progress in action) is fluid.

Examples

  • Fat Guy rule - The " fat guy rule " states that the fat guy is not to be trusted (from Ebert's "Bigger" Little Movie Glossary).
  • James Bond as the epitome of the English secret agent , so that his peculiarities have become platitudes of this genre.
  • Mexican standoff - the "Mexican stalemate" in which two or more opponents with firearms keep each other in check.
  • Scream Queen - the woman who always screams for help in horror and action films .
  • Crazy scientists who are either absent-minded (good) or insane (bad), and of whom there are almost always two (and most of them can't stand each other either).
  • The super villain who talks to himself or explains his plans to his archenemy long and wide so that the viewer is in the picture.

literature

  • Christian Georg Salis: The bad guy gets up again ... and other clichés in Hollywood films. Schüren Verlag Marburg, May 2006, ISBN 3894-7244-63 .
  • Roger Ebert: Ebert's "Bigger" Little Movie Glossary. ISBN 0-8362-8289-2 .

Web links