An Overview of Popular Film Styles for Improvisers
by Jeff Gosnell

Edited by Dave Sawyer

Last Updated: Monday, Feb 24, 2003

Popular improv games often draw their suggestions from Movie styles and directors. Much of our pop culture comes from the movies, so it is important to have a strong reference level from these works. This list is designed to give some suggestions of what directors genres commonly are suggested by audiences, and what works would be helpful to view.

You are in the middle of a replay scene. A film genre that you are unfamiliar with is suggested. You begin to panic, now relying entirely on your scene partner. You follow their lead and make your way through the scene anyway because, hey, this is improv man. Yet you realize how much the scene (and therefore the show) suffered because you didn’t know how to play the film style of Fellini or Jarmusch or Kubrick or whatever. “I should know this!”, you think.

If this scenario sounds familiar to you, then you’ve got work to do my friend. You’ve got to increase your general level of reference to film styles. You’ve got to study. But relax, this work is easy. Go watch movies - simple as that. Of course you would have to watch a lot of movies to become an all-knowing improv film style genius. But the good news is that many moviegoers do not pay attention to directors and can only name a handful. Verse yourself in the most well known film styles, play with them, and you’ll be on your way to funnier, and more inspired scenework.

The directors that are easiest to re-create on stage are those that can be considered “autuers”- what the French consider the “authors of the film” who adopt similar themes and whose world outlook seldom vary from film to film. there are directors such as Speilberg, who are jack of all trades, and direct in so many genre’s that they are difficult to get a general handle upon.



Stanley Kubrick
A tough one to improvise, because his career embraced many different genres,film noir (Killer’s Kiss, the Killing), to satire(Dr. Stangelove) to Science fiction (Clockwork orange, 2001 a space Oddessy) to literary adaptations (Lolita, Barry Lyndon) but all of his work had an underlying very cynical, dark humor. Picking out a few of his characters would be the easiest route for improvisation. Good character choices include HAL, the killer computer from “2001”, Dr. Strangelove, the wheelchair bound evil genius whose mechanical arm randomly gives the the nazi salute, Jack Nicholson’s ax wielding intro Here’s Johnny!!!” from the Shinning, or Alex, the bowler and codpiece wearing punk sadist who delights in rape/torture while singing “Singing in the Rain”
Required viewing: Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Oddessy, Clockwork Orange, The Shinning.


John Waters
Delights in sick humor and practically invented post modern’s obsession with irony. Most of his films starred Divine, a 300 pound transvestite obsessed with looking glamorous. The ultimate joke is that each of the characters in his films treat her as if she were indeed a beautiful woman. Waters burst on the scene with his sickest film, Pink Flamingos, which involves Divine’s attempt to defend her reputation as the “filthiest person alive.” His films are distinctive for their deliberately poor acting, outrageous characters, poor taste, and obsession with poking fun at fifties era middle class values. Divine died in the eighties, and Waters has continued with out his favorite leading “lady”, but he has gotten tamer with each new film, his latest work barely raising eyebrow.
Required Viewing: Pink Flamingos, Polyester


David Lynch
A true Autuer and one of the easiest to re-create on stage. Lynch delights in passing weird for the sake of being weird off as high art. Dreams, nightmares, outrageous characters His definitive film is “Blue Velvet” which he described as “the Hardy boys go to hell” It contains the role that forever stereotyped Dennis Hopper as one the screens greatest villains. In it teenager Kyle Mclaughlin finds a severed human ear while walking in a field one day an though he reports it to the police he decides to investigate it on his own, which leads him into a bizarre underworld of kidnapping, murder from er and sadistic sex.
Required Viewing: “Blue Velvet” “Wild at Heart” and the first season of his TV series “Twin Peaks” which is available on video and DVD. Skip the second season and find out who killed Laura Palmer by watching “Fire Walk With Me”.


Quentin Tarentino
His films are talky, obscenity filled populated criminals who pass the time between killings and beatings by analyzing pop culture (“Madonna’s Like a Virgin is about big dicks”; “Quarter Pounders are called Royalle with Cheese in Amsterdam”). Tarentino’s genius comes from his background as a video store clerk - He draws his influences from highbrow French new wave film to lowbrow shoot-em up Hong Kong action flicks. To Tarentino, a good movie is a good film, and worth stealing from.
Required viewing: Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction


Martin Scorese
Probably the most knowledgeable director working in Hollywood today. His work includes musicals such as “New York New York”, costume dramas The Age of Innocence” picturesque Cultural dramas like “Kundun” yet these works are overshadowed in popular consciences by his gangster pictures like “Goodfellas and “Mean Streets”. Although his films can be obscenity filled, having characters simply spout off misses the edgy creepiness an violence waiting to explode just before the surface. Good Character choices for improv would include Travis Bicekl.(As in his showdown with the mirror, :You talking to me?) or Joe Peci weasley hot tempered gangster “I make you laugh, what am I a clown?; “Dance for me!” and overweight palooka Jake Lamonta in Raging bull.”
Required viewing: Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Raging Bull


Spike Lee
In my experience, one of the most maligned directors in improv scenes - actors are often unfamiliar with his films, so they begin speaking in Ebonics, freely using “bitches” and “ho”. In reality, Spikes films are far cry from the “ Gangsta’s in the hood” type films, and instead tackle social issues head on in a way few directors in Hollywood have the guts to. Spike is more successful when he asks questions (how can the races get along and where does loyalty belong in “Do the right Thing”) rather than when he tries to provide answers (Inter-racial love is dismissed as couples buying into ethnic stereotypes; having “Jungle Fever” than genuine affection for each other.) Spike’s greatest character is himself, as he often plays minor characters in almost all of his films, His greatest character is Mars Blackman (Please Baby Please Baby Please!) from his first feature “She’s Gotta Have It”. Mars was made more famous than the film thanks to a series of Nike ads featuring Lee and Michael Jordon.
Required viewing: Do the Right Thing, She’s Gotta Have It


John Woo
The director who most personifies the world-wide popularity of the Asian action film. He is not a martial arts director, he favor guns and explosions. His stories feature brooding, silent cops who must take on corrupt gangs single handedly. The stories are not especially deep, or maybe a lot of depth is lost in the subtitles, but for action they cannot be beat. His favorite leading man is chow young Fat, and he can never seem to get enough of him leaping backwards with a two handguns blazing. He loves using effect of slow motion not just to show action, but at seemingly random moments that just might make his hero look cooler as he put on his sunglasses. Woo loves to contrast his extreme violence with the serenity of nature, often showing a flock birds taking flight just after the big explosion. Woo has had success since coming to Hollywood, but the sheer spectacle of his action sequences has not been equaled from his Hong Kong work.
Required viewing: Hard Boiled, The Killer, Mission Impossible II


John Hughs
Yes, he has made some films geared towards adults,(Planes, Trains, and Automobiles; She’s Having a Baby) but he has demonstrated time and time again that no director in Hollywood understands how crappy high school is and what it means to be a teenager better than Hughs. His favorite leading lady was brat packer Molly Ringwald, and she has suffered through having her birthday forgotten by her own parents (16 Candles), being held for detention with a representative from all the cliques in school(Breakfast Club) and having her crush returned by the most popular guy in school(Pretty in Pink). He favors the geek and the underdog, and his stories are about their often quiet and unrecognized personal triumphs. His soundtracks were sometimes more famous than his films themselves, as he was instrumental to popularizing new wave bands like Simple minds or OMD and laying the groundwork for what would be called “Alternative” in the 90’s. Good character choices comes from the Breakfast Club (and probably your own high school) The Jock, the Princess, the Geek, the Stoner, and the Quiet one. The bulk of his work was made in the eighties, and he hasn’t directed much since, (He’s probably busy still cashing royalty checks for having penned “Home Alone”) but it seems that his work is timeless, as one generation discovers the angst of teendom and the preceding generation forgets and needs a reminder.
Required viewing: The Breakfast Club, 16 Candles, Pretty in Pink


Alfred Hitchcock
The master of suspense and arguably the most famous director of all time, certainly one of the most recognizable, due to his “hidden cameos “ in each of his films, and his dry, macabre intros each week on his TV Series Alfred Hitchcock presents. Hitch controlled absolutely every thing you saw on the screen, right down to his leading lady’s hair color and her choice of suit. A myth he liked to perpetuate that he was once punished by his parents as a child by having a police officer take him away and put him in a cell for several hours, and from the experience he became obsessed with the notion of the innocent man accused of the crime he didn’t commit. (i.e. The Wrong Man, Spellbound, North by Northwest) His favorite leading man was Jimmy Stewart, the everyman audiences could identify with as he unraveled the incredible circumstances and cleared his name. To create suspense on stage is tricky especially in the span of a few minutes but perhaps the answer can be found in an example he once gave- Two men talking on a couch, isn’t very suspenseful, but if the audience sees the villain come into the room and plant a bomb under the couch moments before, then their every sentence becomes filled with terror and suspense-(What are you doing? Get the hell out of there!) But characters such as Normon Bates Shower - slashing granny transvestite, the killer flocks of birds, The swooping crop duster from North by NorthWest, or once of his “cameos” may be more useful in getting the point across.
Required viewing: Rear Window, Vertigo, The Birds, Psycho, Strangers on a Train