The Regeneration of the Dramatic Gene in Contemporary Cinema: Based on Linda Hutcheon's Dual Interpretation of Adaptation from Cultural and Biological Perspectives

In recent years, numerous films that have won awards or been nominated at prestigious international film festivals have exhibited an application of traditional dramatic techniques in their creative methods. For instance, the film "Oppenheimer" (2023), which swept the 96th Academy Awards with accolades including Best Picture and Best Director, employed a dialogue-driven approach in its creation, thereby diminishing the use of spectacle-oriented cinematic techniques (Dotson, 2023). The film "Anatomy of a Fall" (2023), which received the prestigious Palme d'Or at the 76th Cannes International Film Festival, adhered to the classical dramatic unities of time, space, and place in its approach. Contemporary manifestations of such phenomena in film contradict the perspectives posited by classic theoretical frameworks. The dialogue-driven, stage-like approach is more commonly found in the realm of theater and is relatively rare in the medium of film (Giannetti, 2017). The researchers found many more films than those mentioned above that used classic theatre techniques in their creation, which seems to signal a resurgence of theatre techniques in contemporary filmmaking. Researchers, borrowing the term "gene" from adaptation theory scholars, have endeavored to characterize this new cinematic phenomenon as the "reincarnation" of the dramatic gene within the medium of film. Linda Hutcheon, a renowned Canadian scholar in the field of adaptation studies, advocates for an examination of a story's adaptation across media from a dual perspective that encompasses both cultural and biological dimensions (Bortolotti & Hutcheon, 2007). This paper, based on the aforementioned viewpoints and in conjunction with relevant case studies, argues for the phenomenon of the dramatic gene's renaissance in contemporary cinema. Keywords: Adaptation, Contemporary Film, Dramatic Techniques, Gene