Romantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre

by Tamar Jeffers McDonald

Overview

Romantic Comedy offers an introduction to the analysis of a popular but overlooked film genre. The book provides an overview of Hollywood's romantic comedy conventions, examining iconography, narrative patterns, and ideology. Chapters discuss important subgroupings within the genre: screwball sex comedy and the radical romantic comedy of the 1970s. A final chapter traces the lasting influence of these earlier forms within current romantic comedies. Films include: Pillow Talk (1959), Annie Hall (1977), and You've Got Mail (1998).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231503389
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	04/10/2007
Series:	Short Cuts
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Tamar Jeffers McDonald is lecturer in film studies at Rutherford College, University of Kent, United Kingdom. She is the author of the forthcoming Hollywood Catwalk: Exploring Costume in Mainstream Film and editor of Virgin Territory: Representing Sexual Inexperience in Film.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Romantic Comedy and Genre
2. Screwball Comedies
3. The Sex Comedy
4. The Radical Romantic Comedy
5. The Neo-Traditional Romantic Comedy
Conclusion
Notes
Appendices
Filmography
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

A very worthwhile addition to the media library.

MEA Newsletter

This volume crams everything from Doris Day to The 40 Year-Old Virgin into its 117 pages. Each of its five broad catagories is examined over the lifespan of the genre and includes valuable case studies. Highly recommended.

Empire