Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious or dramatic work, often to relieve tension.
32-541: Strange Experiment is a 1937 British drama film directed by Albert Parker and starring Donald Gray , Ann Wemyss and Mary Newcomb . It was an adaptation of the play Two Worlds by John Golden and Hubert Osborne . It was made at Wembley Studios as a quota quickie by the British subsidiary of Fox Film . This article related to a British film of the 1930s is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Drama film In film and television , drama
64-462: A better understanding of the film. According to the taxonomy, combining the type with the genre does not create a separate genre. For instance, the "Horror Drama" is simply a dramatic horror film (as opposed to a comedic horror film). "Horror Drama" is not a genre separate from the horror genre or the drama type. Crime dramas explore themes of truth, justice, and freedom, and contain the fundamental dichotomy of "criminal vs. lawman". Crime films make
96-401: A means to irritate others or keep themselves confident. Sometimes comic relief characters will appear in fiction that is comic . This generally occurs when the work enters a dramatic moment, but the character continues to be comical regardless. External and internal comic reliefs can be separated based on the engagement within the story and the effect on the audience. An internal comic relief
128-685: A more central component of the story, along with serious content. Examples include Three Colours: White (1994), The Truman Show (1998), The Man Without a Past (2002), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), and Silver Linings Playbook (2012). Coined by film professor Ken Dancyger , these stories exaggerate characters and situations to the point of becoming fable, legend or fairy tale. Examples: Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) and Maleficent (2014). Light dramas are light-hearted stories that are, nevertheless, serious in nature. Examples: The Help (2011) and The Terminal (2004). Psychological dramas are dramas that focus on
160-400: A particular setting or subject matter, or they combine a drama's otherwise serious tone with elements that encourage a broader range of moods . To these ends, a primary element in a drama is the occurrence of conflict —emotional, social, or otherwise—and its resolution in the course of the storyline. All forms of cinema or television that involve fictional stories are forms of drama in
192-633: A person's life and raises their level of importance. The "small things in life" feel as important to the protagonist (and the audience) as the climactic battle in an action film, or the final shootout in a western. Often, the protagonists deal with multiple, overlapping issues in the course of the film – just as we do in life. Films of this type/genre combination include: The Wrestler (2008), Fruitvale Station (2013), and Locke (2013). Romantic dramas are films with central themes that reinforce our beliefs about love (e.g.: themes such as "love at first sight", "love conquers all", or "there
224-457: A specific approach to drama but, rather, consider drama as a lack of comedic techniques. Examples: Ghost World (2001) and Wuthering Heights (2011). According to the Screenwriters' Taxonomy, all film descriptions should contain their type (comedy or drama) combined with one (or more) of the eleven super-genres. This combination does not create a separate genre, but rather, provides
256-447: Is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction ) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-genre, macro-genre, or micro-genre, such as soap opera , police crime drama , political drama , legal drama , historical drama , domestic drama , teen drama , and comedy-drama (dramedy). These terms tend to indicate
288-418: Is a character or moment where the story is written in the story itself. Others are involved and can laugh along with the humor. While external comic relief moments occur whenever the audience is supposed to laugh but the characters do not. Greek tragedy did not allow any comic relief within the drama, but had a tradition of concluding a series of several tragic performances with a humorous satyr play . Even
320-526: Is a final fight to the death; the idea of the protagonists facing death is a central expectation in a war drama film. In a war film even though the enemy may out-number, or out-power, the hero, we assume that the enemy can be defeated if only the hero can figure out how. Examples include: Apocalypse Now (1979), Come and See (1985), Braveheart (1995), Life Is Beautiful (1997), Black Book (2006), The Hurt Locker (2008), 1944 (2015), Wildeye (2015), and 1917 (2019). Films in
352-421: Is someone out there for everyone"); the story typically revolves around characters falling into (and out of, and back into) love. Annie Hall (1977), The Notebook (2004), Carol (2015), Her (2013) , and La La Land (2016) are examples of romance dramas. The science fiction drama film is often the story of a protagonist (and their allies) facing something "unknown" that has the potential to change
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#1733092835705384-622: Is that in a documentary it uses real people to describe history or current events; in a docudrama it uses professionally trained actors to play the roles in the current event, that is "dramatized" a bit. Examples: Black Mass (2015) and Zodiac (2007). Unlike docudramas, docu-fictional films combine documentary and fiction, where actual footage or real events are intermingled with recreated scenes. Examples: Interior. Leather Bar (2013) and Your Name Here (2015). Many otherwise serious productions have humorous scenes and characters intended to provide comic relief . A comedy drama has humor as
416-755: The western super-genre often take place in the American Southwest or Mexico, with a large number of scenes occurring outdoors so we can soak in scenic landscapes. Visceral expectations for the audience include fistfights, gunplay, and chase scenes. There is also the expectation of spectacular panoramic images of the countryside including sunsets, wide open landscapes, and endless deserts and sky. Examples of western dramas include: True Grit (1969) and its 2010 remake , Mad Max (1979), Unforgiven (1992), No Country for Old Men (2007), Django Unchained (2012), Hell or High Water (2016), and Logan (2017). Some film categories that use
448-489: The Apes (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Blade Runner (1982) and its sequel Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Children of Men (2006), Interstellar (2014), and Arrival (2016). In the sports super-genre, characters will be playing sports. Thematically, the story is often one of "Our Team" versus "Their Team"; their team will always try to win, and our team will show the world that they deserve recognition or redemption;
480-670: The Elizabethan critic Philip Sidney following Horace ’s Ars Poetica pleaded for the exclusion of comic elements from a tragic drama. But in the Renaissance England Christopher Marlowe among the University Wits introduced comic relief through the presentation of crude scenes in Doctor Faustus following the native tradition of Interlude which was usually introduced between two tragic plays. In fact, in
512-407: The audience jump through a series of mental "hoops"; it is not uncommon for the crime drama to use verbal gymnastics to keep the audience and the protagonist on their toes. Examples of crime dramas include: The Godfather (1972), Chinatown (1974), Goodfellas (1990), The Usual Suspects (1995), The Big Short (2015), and Udta Punjab (2016). According to Eric R. Williams ,
544-412: The broader sense if their storytelling is achieved by means of actors who represent ( mimesis ) characters . In this broader sense, drama is a mode distinct from novels, short stories , and narrative poetry or songs . In the modern era, before the birth of cinema or television, "drama" within theatre was a type of play that was neither a comedy nor a tragedy . It is this narrower sense that
576-533: The characters' inner life and psychological problems. Examples: Requiem for a Dream (2000), Oldboy (2003), Babel (2006), Whiplash (2014), and Anomalisa (2015) Satire can involve humor, but the result is typically sharp social commentary that is anything but funny. Satire often uses irony or exaggeration to expose faults in society or individuals that influence social ideology. Examples: Thank You for Smoking (2005) and Idiocracy (2006). Straight drama applies to those that do not attempt
608-522: The classical tradition the mingling of the tragic and the comic was not allowed. Comic relief moments serve the purpose of allowing the audience to "break from the dark and heavy content" and advance the plot. William Shakespeare deviated from the classical tradition and used comic relief in Hamlet , Macbeth , Othello , The Merchant of Venice and Romeo and Juliet . The grave-digger scene in Hamlet ,
640-473: The course of the film. Thematically, horror films often serve as morality tales, with the killer serving up violent penance for the victims' past sins. Metaphorically, these become battles of Good vs. Evil or Purity vs. Sin. Psycho (1960), Halloween (1978), The Shining (1980), The Conjuring (2013), It (2017), mother! (2017), and Hereditary (2018) are examples of horror drama films. Day-in-the-life films takes small events in
672-481: The family as a whole reacts to a central challenge. There are four micro-genres for the family drama: Family Bond , Family Feud , Family Loss , and Family Rift . A sub-type of drama films that uses plots that appeal to the heightened emotions of the audience. Melodramatic plots often deal with "crises of human emotion, failed romance or friendship, strained familial situations, tragedy, illness, neuroses, or emotional and physical hardship". Film critics sometimes use
SECTION 20
#1733092835705704-409: The film and television industries, along with film studies , adopted. " Radio drama " has been used in both senses—originally transmitted in a live performance, it has also been used to describe the more high-brow and serious end of the dramatic output of radio . The Screenwriters Taxonomy contends that film genres are fundamentally based upon a film's atmosphere, character and story, and therefore
736-416: The future of humanity; this unknown may be represented by a villain with incomprehensible powers, a creature we do not understand, or a scientific scenario that threatens to change the world; the science fiction story forces the audience to consider the nature of human beings, the confines of time or space or the concepts of human existence in general. Examples include: Metropolis (1927), Planet of
768-688: The gulling of Roderigo in Othello , and the mockery of the fool in King Lear provide immense comic relief. Take the Porter scene in Macbeth : "Here's a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key…Who's there, i' the name of Beelzebub? Here's a farmer, that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty: come in time; have napkins enow about you; here you'll sweat for't…Faith, here's an English tailor come hither, for stealing out of
800-416: The hallmark of fantasy drama films is "a sense of wonderment, typically played out in a visually intense world inhabited by mythic creatures, magic or superhuman characters. Props and costumes within these films often belie a sense of mythology and folklore – whether ancient, futuristic, or other-worldly. The costumes, as well as the exotic world, reflect the personal, inner struggles that the hero faces in
832-408: The labels "drama" and "comedy" are too broad to be considered a genre. Instead, the taxonomy contends that film dramas are a "Type" of film; listing at least ten different sub-types of film and television drama. Docudramas are dramatized adaptations of real-life events. While not always completely accurate, the general facts are more-or-less true. The difference between a docudrama and a documentary
864-418: The legal system. Films that focus on dramatic events in history. Focuses on doctors, nurses, hospital staff, and ambulance saving victims and the interactions of their daily lives. Focuses on teenage characters, especially where a secondary school setting plays a role. Comic relief Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic episode interposed in
896-427: The midst of serious or tragic elements in a drama. Comic relief often takes the form of, but is not limited to, a bumbling, wisecracking sidekick of the hero or villain in a work of fiction. A sidekick used for comic relief will usually comment on the absurdity of the hero's situation and make comments that would be inappropriate for a character who is to be taken seriously. Other characters may use comic relief as
928-530: The story does not always have to involve a team. The story could also be about an individual athlete or the story could focus on an individual playing on a team. Examples of this genre/type include: The Hustler (1961), Hoosiers (1986), Remember the Titans (2000), and Moneyball (2011). War films typically tells the story of a small group of isolated individuals who – one by one – get killed (literally or metaphorically) by an outside force until there
960-514: The story." Examples of fantasy dramas include The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003), Pan's Labyrinth (2006), Where the Wild Things Are (2009), and Life of Pi (2012). Horror dramas often involve the central characters isolated from the rest of society. These characters are often teenagers or people in their early twenties (the genre's central audience) and are eventually killed off during
992-578: The term "pejoratively to connote an unrealistic, pathos-filled, camp tale of romance or domestic situations with stereotypical characters (often including a central female character) that would directly appeal to feminine audiences". Also called "women's movies", "weepies", tearjerkers, or "chick flicks". If they are targeted to a male audience, then they are called "guy cry" films. Often considered "soap-opera" drama. Focuses on religious characters, mystery play, beliefs, and respect. Character development based on themes involving criminals, law enforcement and
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1024-488: The word "comedy" or "drama" are not recognized by the Screenwriters Taxonomy as either a film genre or a film type. For instance, "Melodrama" and "Screwball Comedy" are considered Pathways, while "romantic comedy" and "family drama" are macro-genres. A macro-genre in the Screenwriters Taxonomy. These films tell a story in which many of the central characters are related. The story revolves around how
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