Film/Genre revises our notions of film genre and connects the roles played by industry critics and audiences in making and re-making genre. Altman reveals the conflicting stakes for which the genre game has been played and recognises that the term 'genre' has different meanings for different groups, basing his new genre theory on the uneasy competitive yet complimentary relationship among genre users and discussing a huge range of films from The Great Train Robbery to Star Wars and from The Jazz Singer to The Player.

Rick Altman is Professor of French and Film Studies at the University of Iowa, USA. He is the author of The American Film Musical (Indiana University Press and BFI Publishing) and the editor of Cinema/Sound and Sound Theory/Sound Practice.