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Mar. 8th, 2008 03:46 pmI just finished watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for the first time. (Next up, Lost in Translation. Yes, I am catching up on my 2004 Oscar winners.)
That was a sci fi film, right? I mean, that was clearly science fiction. But it's billed as "offbeat romantic comedy." Even when in reviews the phrase "imagines a scientific procedure" pops up, the words "science fiction" magically do not. The film clearly is a romance, but as romance is a genre of story and sci fi a genre of world, "science fiction" doesn't presuppose anything about the story being told, so it can be both. I'd even go further and say that it, like all good sci fi, explores something essential about human nature and how memory defines who we are.
I'm not surprised it's billed as romantic comedy. I doubt many people would have watched it if it had been labelled sci fi, and I doubt very much it would have won an Oscar. But this just strikes me again how the label sci fi can put off the general audience even if they enjoy the story itself. It's another example of a film painting over its genre roots to be taken seriously. Funny how the best examples of genre fiction are always said to transcend their genre rather than epitomize it.
That was a sci fi film, right? I mean, that was clearly science fiction. But it's billed as "offbeat romantic comedy." Even when in reviews the phrase "imagines a scientific procedure" pops up, the words "science fiction" magically do not. The film clearly is a romance, but as romance is a genre of story and sci fi a genre of world, "science fiction" doesn't presuppose anything about the story being told, so it can be both. I'd even go further and say that it, like all good sci fi, explores something essential about human nature and how memory defines who we are.
I'm not surprised it's billed as romantic comedy. I doubt many people would have watched it if it had been labelled sci fi, and I doubt very much it would have won an Oscar. But this just strikes me again how the label sci fi can put off the general audience even if they enjoy the story itself. It's another example of a film painting over its genre roots to be taken seriously. Funny how the best examples of genre fiction are always said to transcend their genre rather than epitomize it.