TCF
112 Motion Picture History and Criticism
Class Notes: Genre
and Screwball Comedy
Genre
Study
- Definition problem
- Andrew Tudor: Empiricist Dilemma
- Critical purpose
- Cultural consensus
- Rely on presumed consensus
- Working definition uses both approaches
- Validated by films themselves
- Ways of defining genres
- Audience response
- Style -- the how rather than the what
- Subject matter (narrative/theme)
- Theme, narrative structure
Screwball Comedy
- Defined by audience response
- Defined by subject matter
- In terms of "screwball"
- Screwball = crazy, nutty, wacky
- Subject Matter (theme/narrative)
- Theme
- Sexual antagonism
- Male vs. female
- "Battle of the Sexes"
- Strong, independent male & female characters
- e.g., His Girl Friday (1940)
- Ideological/class conflict
- Working class vs. bourgeoisie (upper class)
- Depression-era films (1929-41)
- E.g., It Happened One Night ('34)
- Insanity as transcendent
- Wackiness transcends normal problems
- Minor themes
- Rural vs. urban
- Parents vs. children
- Reason vs. intuition
- Narrative structure
- Man and woman meet
- Immediately dislike each other, but linked together
- E.g., My Man Godfrey (1936)
- They are linked together
- Suffer through a trial, test or journey together--over the course
of which, they fall in love
- Resolution: conflicts resolved: Couple is united
- Style
- Visuals follow classical conventions
- Humor
- Predominantly verbal
- E.g., Ball of Fire (1941)
- Some physical humor (slapstick)
Last revised:
January 5, 2005 10:35