Screwball comedy

Genre of comedy film

Bringing Up Baby (1938) is a screwball comedy from the genre's classic period.

Screwball comedy is a film subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1950s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary characteristics similar to film noir, distinguished by a female character who dominates the relationship with the male central character, whose masculinity is challenged,[1] and the two engage in a humorous battle of the sexes.[2]

The genre also featured romantic attachments between members of different social classes,[3] as in It Happened One Night (1934) and My Man Godfrey (1936).[2]

What sets the screwball comedy apart from the generic romantic comedy is that "screwball comedy puts the emphasis on a funny spoofing of love, while the more traditional romantic comedy ultimately accents love".[4] Other elements of the screwball comedy include fast-paced, overlapping repartee, farcical situations, escapist themes, physical battle of the sexes, disguise and masquerade, and plot lines involving courtship and marriage.[2] Some comic plays are also described as screwball comedies.

## Name[edit]

Screwball comedy gets its name from the screwball, a type of breaking pitch in baseball and fastpitch softball which moves in the opposite direction from all other breaking pitches.[5] These features of the screwball pitch also describe the dynamics between the lead characters in screwball comedy films. According to Gehring (2008):[6]

> Still, screwball comedy probably drew its name from the term's entertainingly unorthodox use in the national pastime. Prior to the term's application in 1930s film criticism, "screwball" had been used in baseball to describe both an oddball player and "any pitched ball that moves in an unusual or unexpected way." Obviously, these characteristics also describe performers in screwball comedy films, from oddball Carole Lombard to the unusual or unexpected movement of Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby (1938). As with the crazy period antics in baseball, screwball comedy uses nutty behavior as a prism through which to view a topsy-turvy period in American history.

## History[edit]

Screwball comedy has proved to be a popular and enduring film genre.[7] Three-Cornered Moon (1933) starring Claudette Colbert, is often credited as the first true screwball,[8] though Bombshell starring Jean Harlow followed it in the same year. Although many film scholars agree that its classic period had effectively ended by 1942,[9] elements of the genre have persisted or have been paid homage to in later films. Other film scholars argue that the screwball comedy lives on.

During the Great Depression, there was a general demand for films with a strong social class critique and hopeful, escapist-oriented themes. The screwball format arose largely as a result of the major film studios' desire to avoid censorship by the increasingly enforced Hays Code. In order to incorporate prohibited risqué elements into their plots, filmmakers resorted to handling these elements covertly. Verbal sparring between the sexes served as a stand-in for physical, sexual tension.[10] Though some film scholars, such as William K. Everson, argue that "screwball comedies were not so much rebelling against the Production Code as they were attacking - and ridiculing - the dull, lifeless respectability that the Code insisted on for family viewing".[11]

The screwball comedy has close links with the theatrical genre of farce,[4] and some comic plays are also described as screwball comedies. Other genres with which screwball comedy is associated include slapstick, situation comedy, romantic comedy and bedroom farce.

## Characteristics[edit]

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|

A still from a trailer for It Happened One Night

Films definitive of the genre usually feature farcical situations, a combination of slapstick with fast-paced repartee and show the struggle between economic classes. They also generally feature a self-confident and often stubborn central female protagonist and a plot involving courtship and marriage or remarriage. These traits can be seen in both It Happened One Night and My Man Godfrey (1936). The film critic Andrew Sarris has defined the screwball comedy as "a sex comedy without the sex."[12]

Like farce, screwball comedies often involve masquerade and disguise in which a character or characters resort to secrecy. Sometimes screwball comedies feature male characters cross-dressing, further contributing to elements of masquerade (Bringing Up Baby (1938), I Was a Male War Bride (1949), and Some Like It Hot (1959)). At first, the couple seem mismatched and even hostile to each other but eventually overcome their differences in an amusing or entertaining way that leads to romance. Often this mismatch comes about when the man is of a lower social class than the woman (Bringing Up Baby and Holiday, both 1938). The final romantic union is often planned by the woman from the outset, and the man is seemingly oblivious to this. In Bringing Up Baby, the woman says to a third party: "He's the man I'm going to marry. He doesn't know it, but I am."

In The Lady Eve, Jean (center, played by Barbara Stanwyck) passes herself off as an upper-class woman.

These pictures also offered a kind of cultural escape valve: a safe battleground on which to explore serious issues such as class under a comedic and non-threatening framework.[13] Class issues are a strong component of screwball comedies: the upper class are represented as idle, pampered, and having difficulty coping with the real world. By contrast, when lower-class people attempt to pass themselves off as upper class or otherwise insinuate themselves into high society, they are able to do so with relative ease (The Lady Eve, 1941; My Man Godfrey, 1936). Some critics believe that the portrayal of the upper class in It Happened One Night was brought about by the Great Depression, and the financially struggling moviegoing public's desire to see the rich upper class taught a lesson in humanity.

Another common element of the screwball comedy is fast-talking, witty repartee, such as in You Can't Take It with You (1938) and His Girl Friday (1940). This stylistic device did not originate in the genre: it is also found in many of the old Hollywood cycles, including gangster films and romantic comedies.

Screwball comedies also tend to contain ridiculous, farcical situations, such as in Bringing Up Baby, where a couple must take care of a pet leopard during much of the film. Slapstick elements are also frequently present, such as the numerous pratfalls Henry Fonda takes in The Lady Eve (1941).

One subgenre of screwball is known as the comedy of remarriage, in which characters divorce and then remarry one another (The Awful Truth (1937), The Philadelphia Story (1940)). Some scholars point to this frequent device as evidence of the shift in the American moral code, as it showed freer attitudes toward divorce (though the divorce always turns out to have been a mistake).

Another subgenre of screwball comedy has the woman chasing a man who is oblivious to or not interested in her. Examples include Barbara Stanwyck chasing Henry Fonda (The Lady Eve, 1941); Sonja Henie chasing John Payne (Sun Valley Serenade, 1941, and Iceland, 1942); Marion Davies chasing Antonio Moreno (The Cardboard Lover, 1928); Marion Davies chasing Bing Crosby (Going Hollywood, 1933); and Carole Lombard chasing William Powell (My Man Godfrey, 1936).

The philosopher Stanley Cavell has noted that many classic screwball comedies turn on an interlude in the state of Connecticut (Bringing Up Baby, The Lady Eve, The Awful Truth).[14] In Christmas in Connecticut (1945), the action moves to Connecticut and remains there for the duration of the film.

## Examples from the classic period[edit]

A promotional photo for the 1940 screwball comedy His Girl Friday

* The Patsy (1928), directed by King Vidor, starring Marion Davies, Marie Dressler, and Lawrence Gray
* The Front Page[15] (1931) (remade as His Girl Friday), directed by Lewis Milestone, starring Adolphe Menjou and Pat O'Brien
* Trouble in Paradise[16][17] (1932), directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, and Herbert Marshall[18]
* It Happened One Night[19][20] (1934), directed by Frank Capra, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert
* Twentieth Century[15][20] (1934), directed by Howard Hawks, starring John Barrymore and Carole Lombard
* My Man Godfrey[19] (1936), directed by Gregory La Cava, starring William Powell and Carole Lombard
* Cain and Mabel (1936), directed by Lloyd Bacon, starring Marion Davies and Clark Gable
* Libeled Lady (1936), directed by Jack Conway, starring Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Spencer Tracy
* Theodora Goes Wild[21] (1936), directed by Richard Boleslawski, starring Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas
* The Awful Truth[19][20] (1937), directed by Leo McCarey, starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant
* Nothing Sacred[19] (1937), directed by William A. Wellman, starring Carole Lombard and Fredric March
* Bringing Up Baby[19] (1938), directed by Howard Hawks, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant
* Holiday (1938), directed by George Cukor, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant
* His Girl Friday[19][20] (1940), directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell
* My Favorite Wife (1940), directed by Garson Kanin, starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne
* The Philadelphia Story (1940), directed by George Cukor, starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart
* Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941), directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard
* The Lady Eve[19][20] (1941), directed by Preston Sturges, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda
* Ball of Fire[22][23] (1941), directed by Howard Hawks, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper
* Unfinished Business (1941), directed by Gregory La Cava, starring Robert Montgomery and Irene Dunne
* The Palm Beach Story[19] (1942), directed by Preston Sturges, starring Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea
* To Be or Not To Be[24] (1942) directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack
* The More the Merrier (1943), directed by George Stevens, starring Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea
* The Miracle of Morgan's Creek[25] (1944), directed by Preston Sturges, starring Betty Hutton and Eddie Bracken

Other films from this period in other genres incorporate elements of the screwball comedy. For example, Alfred Hitchcock's thriller The 39 Steps (1935) features the gimmick of a young couple who finds themselves handcuffed together and who eventually, almost in spite of themselves, fall in love with one another, and Woody Van Dyke's detective comedy The Thin Man (1934), which portrays a witty, urbane couple who trade barbs as they solve mysteries together. Some of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals of the 1930s also feature screwball comedy plots, such as The Gay Divorcee (1934), Top Hat (1935), and Carefree (1938), which costars Ralph Bellamy. The Eddie Cantor musicals Whoopee! (1930) and Roman Scandals (1933), and slapstick road movies such as Six of a Kind (1934) include screwball elements. Some of the Joe E. Brown comedies also fall into this category, particularly Broadminded (1931) and Earthworm Tractors (1936).

Actors and actresses featured in or associated with screwball comedy:

* Jean Arthur
* Fred Astaire
* Ralph Bellamy
* Eric Blore
* Charles Coburn
* Claudette Colbert
* Gary Cooper
* Marion Davies
* William Demarest
* Melvyn Douglas
* Irene Dunne
* Clark Gable
* Cary Grant
* Jean Harlow
* Katharine Hepburn
* Edward Everett Horton
* Harold Lloyd
* Carole Lombard
* Myrna Loy
* Fred MacMurray
* Ray Milland
* William Powell
* Ginger Rogers
* Rosalind Russell
* Barbara Stanwyck
* James Stewart

Directors of screwball comedies:

* Frank Capra
* George Cukor
* Howard Hawks
* Garson Kanin
* Gregory La Cava
* Mitchell Leisen
* Ernst Lubitsch
* Leo McCarey
* Preston Sturges
* W. S. Van Dyke
* Billy Wilder

## Later examples[edit]

A screenshot from a trailer for How to Marry a Millionaire One, Two, Three (1961)

Later films thought to have revived elements of the classic era screwball comedies include:

* Champagne for Caesar (1950), d. Richard Whorf
* The Mating Season (1951), d. Mitchell Leisen
* Monkey Business (1952), d. Howard Hawks*
* How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), d. Jean Negulesco
* The Seven Year Itch (1955), d. Billy Wilder
* Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958), d. Satyen Bose[26]
* Bell, Book and Candle (1958), d. Richard Quine
* Pillow Talk (1959), d. Michael Gordon
* Some Like It Hot (1959), d. Billy Wilder
* The Grass Is Greener (1960), d. Stanley Donen
* Lover Come Back (1961), d. Delbert Mann
* One, Two, Three (1961), d. Billy Wilder
* Charade (1963), d. Stanley Donen
* It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), d. Stanley Kramer
* Man's Favorite Sport? (1964), d. Howard Hawks
* Send Me No Flowers (1964), d. Norman Jewison
* Walk, Don't Run (1966), d. Charles Walters
* What's Up, Doc? (1972), d. Peter Bogdanovich
* For Pete's Sake (1974), d. Peter Yates
* Heaven Can Wait (1978), d. Warren Beatty and Buck Henry
* Une Femme ou Deux (transl. "One Woman or Two"; 1985), d. Daniel Vigne
* Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), d. Susan Seidelman[27]
* Something Wild (1986), d. Jonathan Demme
* Overboard (1987), d. Garry Marshall
* Raising Arizona (1987), d. Coen Brothers
* Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), d. Pedro Almodóvar
* Oscar (1991) d. John Landis[28]
* Sólo con tu pareja (1991), d. Alfonso Cuarón
* The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), d. Joel Coen
* Radioland Murders (1994), d. Mel Smith from story by George Lucas
* Flirting with Disaster (1996), d. David O. Russell
* Runaway Bride (1999) d. Garry Marshall
* Little Nicky (2000), d. Steven Brill
* Rat Race (2001), d. Jerry Zucker
* Intolerable Cruelty (2003), d. Coen Brothers
* Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), d. Adam McKay
* Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008), d. Bharat Nalluri
* Our Idiot Brother (2011), d. Jesse Peretz
* While We're Young (2014), d. Noah Baumbach
* She's Funny That Way (2014), d. Peter Bogdanovich
* Mistress America (2015), d. Noah Baumbach
* Hail, Caesar! (2016), d. Coen Brothers
* Chongqing Hot Pot (2016), d. Yang Qing[29]

Elements of classic screwball comedy often found in more recent films which might otherwise simply be classified as romantic comedies include the "battle of the sexes" (Down with Love, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days), witty repartee (Down with Love), and the contrast between the wealthy and the middle class (You've Got Mail, Two Weeks Notice). Many of Elvis Presley's films from the 1960s had drawn, consciously or unconsciously, the many characteristics of the screwball comedy genre. Some examples are Double Trouble, Tickle Me, Girl Happy and Live a Little, Love a Little. Modern updates on screwball comedy also sometimes are categorized as black comedy (Intolerable Cruelty, which also features a twist on the classic screwball element of divorce and remarriage). The Coen Brothers often include screwball elements in a film which may not otherwise be considered screwball or even a comedy.

The Golmaal movies, a series of Hindi-language Indian films, have been described as a screwball comedy franchise.[30][31]

## Screwball comedy elements in other media and genres[edit]

The screwball film tradition influenced television sitcom and comedy drama genres. Notable screwball couples in television have included Sam and Diane in Cheers, Maddie and David in Moonlighting, and Joel and Maggie in Northern Exposure.[32][33]

In his 2008 production of the classic Beaumarchais comedy The Marriage of Figaro, author William James Royce trimmed the five-act play down to three acts and labeled it a "classic screwball comedy". The playwright made Suzanne the central character, endowing her with all the feisty comedic strengths of her classic film counterparts. In his adaptation, entitled One Mad Day! (a play on Beaumarchais' original French title), Royce underscored all of the elements of the classic screwball comedy, suggesting that Beaumarchais may have had a hand in the origins of the genre.

The plot of Corrupting Dr. Nice, a science fiction novel by John Kessel involving time travel, is modeled on films such as The Lady Eve and Bringing Up Baby.[34]

## Further reading[edit]

* Screwball Comedy: Defining a Film Genre, Wes D. Gehring, 1983.
* Hollywood Screwball Comedy 1934-1945: Sex, Love, and Democratic Ideals, Grégoire Halbout, 2022.
* Pronovost, Virginie (2020-06-08). 'Screwball': A Genre for the People : Representing Social Classes in Depression Screwball Comedy (1934-1938). Stockholm University Library: DiVA portal, Stockholm University, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Media Studies, Cinema Studies. Retrieved 8 May 2023. "Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (One Year)), 10 credits / 15 HE credits"

## See also[edit]

* Hawksian woman
* Love-hate relationship

## References[edit]

1. ^ Dancyger, Ken; Rush, Jeff (2006). Alternative Scriptwriting (Fourth ed.). Focal Press. p. 85\. ISBN 978-0240808499. "The screwball comedy is funny film noir that has a happy ending... The premise of the film is about the struggle in their relationship. During the course of the struggle, which is highly sexually charged, the maleness of the central character is challenged. The female is the dominant character in the relationship. This role reversion is central to the screwball comedy."
2. ^ a b c Cele Otnes; Elizabeth Hafkin PleckCele Otnes, Elizabeth Hafkin Pleck (2003) Cinderella dreams: the allure of the lavish wedding University of California Press, p. 168. ISBN 0-520-24008-1.
3. ^ Beach, Christopher. Class, Language, and American Film Comedy. Cambridge University Press (February 11, 2002). p. 125.
4. ^ a b Gehring, Wes D. (2008). Romantic vs. Screwball Comedy: Charting the Difference. Lanham: Scarecrow Press Inc. p. 186.
5. ^ "Screwball (SC)". MLB.com. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
6. ^ Gehring, Wes D. (2008). Romantic vs. Screwball Comedy: Charting the Difference. Lanham: Scarecrow Press Inc. p. 9.
7. ^ Sarris, Andrew (March 1, 1978). "THE SEX COMEDY WITHOUT SEX". American Film. Vol. 3, no. 5\. New York. pp. 8–15. ProQuest 964099959. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
8. ^ Three-Cornered Moon AllMovie review by Craig Butler, accessed October 28, 2023
9. ^ Byrge, Duane; Miller, Robert Milton (1991). The Screwball Comedy Films: A History and Filmography, 1934-1942. McFarland. p. 104\. ISBN 978-0-89950-539-8. "With the explosive exception of His Girl Friday, screwball comedy had calmed considerably by 1940 from its peak of zaniness in 1937–38."
10. ^ "Under the Radar: The Hays Code and the Birth of Screwball". virginia.edu. University of Virginia. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
11. ^ Everson, William K. (1994). Hollywood Bedlam: Classic Screwball Comedies. New York: Carol Publishing Group.
12. ^ Citation Sarris, Andrew. You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet: The American Talking Film, History & Memory, 1927-1949, Oxford University Press, New York, 1998
13. ^ [1] The Screwball and Its Audience - University of Virginia
14. ^ Cavell, Stanley. Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1981
15. ^ a b Tim Dirks. "Comedy films: Screwball comedy". filmsite.org.
16. ^ Alberti, John (2014). Screen Ages: A Survey of American Cinema. Taylor & Francis. p. 111\. ISBN 9781317650287.
17. ^ Halbout, Grégoire (2022). Hollywood Screwball Comedy 1934-1945. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781501347627.
18. ^ White, Armond. "Trouble in Paradise: Lovers, On the Money". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 2022-12-03.
19. ^ a b c d e f g h "10 great screwball comedy films". British Film Institute.
20. ^ a b c d e Robbie Collin (23 June 2015). "Who killed the screwball comedy?". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12.
21. ^ "Theodora Goes Wild (1936): Boleslawsky's Screwball Comedy Starring Irene Dunne in Oscar-Nominated Performance | Emanuel Levy".
22. ^ WILSON, JAKE (2011-02-25). "The lost art of screwball comedy". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
23. ^ Gemmill, Allie (9 August 2017). "These 21 Underrated Rom-Coms Should Be Next In Your Netflix Queue". Bustle. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
24. ^ Haslam, Jason (2013). The Public Intellectual and the Culture of Hope. University of Toronto Press. p. 164\. ISBN 9781442641846.
25. ^ Jaeckle, Jeff, ed. (2015). ReFocus: The Films of Preston Sturges. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 118–120. ISBN 9781474406574.
26. ^ "rediff.com, Movies: Classics Revisited: Why Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi is nonstop fun". m.rediff.com. Retrieved 2023-04-30.
27. ^ Described as a screwball comedy in Roger Ebert's contemporary review.
28. ^ "Stallone's 'Oscar' Recovers From Bad Start". chicagotribune.com. 26 April 1991. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
29. ^ Marsh, James (March 23, 2016). "'Chongqing Hot Pot': HKIFF review". Screen Daily. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
30. ^ "Golmaal Again Review {3.5/5}: No logic, Only magic. Gags, fights, songs, giggles, ghosts, here is a buffet you can overdose on". The Times of India.
31. ^ "Golmaal: A wacky winner". www.rediff.com.
32. ^ Scodari, Christine (March 1995). "Possession, attraction, and the thrill of the chase: Gendered myth‐making in film and television comedy of the sexes". Critical Studies in Mass Communication. 12 (1): 23–39. doi:10.1080/15295039509366917. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
33. ^ Spencer, Metta (2006). Two aspirins and a comedy: How television can enhance health and society. Paradigm. pp. 207–208. ISBN 9781594511554.
34. ^ Gevers, Nick (16 October 1999). "Corrupting Dr Nice by John Kessel". infinity plus. Retrieved 29 August 2012.

## External links[edit]

* Screwball Comedy \- Green Cine
* Home of the Screwball \- University of Virginia
* Screwball Comedy \- Everything2
* Screwball Comedy Film \- wordiQ
* Great Directors: Mitchell Leisen \- Senses of Cinema
* Head Over Heels \- The Guardian
* (in French) La Screwball Comedy \- CINEMACLASSIC.free.fr
* (in German) Screwball Comedies \- University of Hamburg

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* Prison
* Women
* Race
* Rape and revenge
* Road
* Rubble
* Rumberas
* Sexploitation
* Bavarian porn
* Commedia sexy all'italiana
* Mexican sex comedy
* Nazi exploitation
* Pornochanchada
* Nunsploitation
* Sex report
* Shoshimin-eiga
* Slavery
* Slice of life
* Snuff
* South Seas
* Sports
* Spy
* Eurospy
* Superhero
* Surfing
* Swashbuckler
* Sword-and-sandal
* Sword and sorcery
* Travel
* Trial
* Vigilante
* War
* Anti-war
* Euro War
* Submarine
* Western
* Acid
* Contemporary Western
* Dacoit Western
* Fantasy
* Florida
* Horror
* Meat pie
* Northern
* Ostern
* Revisionist
* Science fiction
* Singing cowboy
* Space
* Spaghetti
* Weird Western
* Zapata Western

By movement
or period|

* Absolute
* American eccentric cinema
* New Objectivity
* Australian New Wave
* Auteur films
* Berlin School
* Bourekas
* Brighton School
* British New Wave
* Kitchen sink realism
* Budapest school
* Calligrafismo
* Cannibal boom
* Cinéma du look
* Cinema Novo
* Cinema of Transgression
* Cinéma pur
* Commedia all'italiana
* Czechoslovak New Wave
* Documentary Film Movement
* Dogme 95
* Erra Cinema
* European art cinema
* Film gris
* Free Cinema
* French New Wave
* German Expressionist
* German underground horror
* Nigerian Golden Age
* Grupo Cine Liberación
* Heimatfilm
* Hollywood on the Tiber
* Hong Kong New Wave
* Indiewood
* Iranian New Wave
* Italian futurist
* Italian neorealist
* Japanese New Wave
* Kammerspielfilm
* L.A. Rebellion
* Lettrist
* Modernist film
* Mumblecore
* Neorealist
* New French Extremity
* New German
* New generation
* New Hollywood
* New Nollywood
* New Queer
* No wave
* Nuevo Cine Mexicano
* Pan-Indian film
* Parallel cinema
* Persian Film
* Poetic realist
* Polish Film School
* Poliziotteschi
* Praška filmska škola
* Prussian film
* Pure Film Movement
* Remodernist
* Romanian New Wave
* Slow cinema
* Spaghetti Western
* Socialist realist
* Social realist
* Kitchen sink realism
* Soviet parallel
* Structural
* Surrealist
* Sword-and-sandal
* Telefoni Bianchi
* Third Cinema
* Toronto New Wave
* Vulgar auteurism
* Yugoslav Black Wave

By demographic|

* Adult
* Black
* Children and family
* Anime
* Men
* Seinen
* Stag
* Teen
* Shōnen
* Shōjo
* Women
* Chick flick
* Josei

By format,
technique,
approach,
or production|

* 3D
* Actuality
* Animation
* Anime
* Art
* Cartoon
* Computer
* Stop-motion
* Traditional
* Anthology
* Art
* B movie
* Behind-the-scenes
* Black-and-white
* Blockbuster
* Cinéma vérité
* Classical Hollywood cinema
* Collage
* Color
* Compilation
* Composite
* Computer screen
* Cult
* midnight movie
* Database cinema
* Docufiction
* Ethnofiction
* Experimental
* Abstract
* Feature
* Featurette
* Film à clef
* Film-poem
* Found footage
* Grindhouse
* Hyperlink cinema
* Independent
* Guerrilla filmmaking
* Interstitial art
* Live action
* animation
* Low-budget
* Major film studios
* Masala
* Maximalist film
* Message picture
* Meta-film
* Minimalist film
* Mockbuster
* Modernist film
* Musical short
* Mythopoeia
* Neorealist
* No-budget
* One-shot
* Paracinema
* Participatory
* Poetry
* Postmodernist
* Reverse motion
* Satire
* Sceneggiata
* Semidocumentary
* Serial
* Shinpa
* Short
* Silent
* Slow cinema
* Socialist realist
* Sound
* Underground
* Video nasty
* Vulgar auteurism
* Z movie

* Category
* Portal

Authority control databases: National |

* Germany
* Israel
* United States

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