Tone, Style, and Genre

The director’s aesthetic and stylistic palette arises from the narrative and dramatic elements of the screenplay, and the genre of the film. Its tone also becomes a conduit for the director’s particular temperament and vision for the story. Naturalistic movies are filmed in authentic settings and use commonly found objects and costumes. Lighting may be available or natural light, and any lighting fixtures are carefully placed to replicate natural sources. German Expressionist film, epitomized by Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , borrowed its style from contemporary developments in the graphic arts and used a nightmarish, altered reality to reflect the zeitgeist of inter-war Germany and encroaching Nazism. Genre actually indicates more than just a story type and narrative parameters: elements of tone produce a narrative convention and suggest common stylistic approaches to telling those stories. For example, film noir is a genre of betrayal, violence, and sexuality.