Hollywood Romantic Comedy Research Articles

Love Them, but Get Them to Leave You - Neoliberal Ideals of Love, Romance and Family Life Imprinted on Contemporary US Cinema

Itself a very coarse and in different regions distinctly utilized term, “neoliberalism,” this paper argues, can be described as the prominent ideology in America today. Its significance is based on a distinctly American type of reverence for the economic opportunities of capitalism. As an ideology, neoliberalism transcends the capitalist nature of the market and incorporates important aspects of US identity as well as American notions of liberty and self reliance. Thereby it determines desirable human qualities and presets an appropriate social value system. Today, the Hollywood entertainment industry is by far the most impactful cultural industry on the planet. Their “motion pictures” reach audiences around the globe, their stars are famous all over the world. Just as much as Hollywood is part of the American economy and a staple of its society, it is also a significant mediator of the American self-image. The question then is: how does the neoliberal ideology function within US cinema? As one of Hollywood’s most resilient film genres, the romantic comedy surely is a formidable example of the neoliberal subconscious. This paper will establish comprehensive typologies of neoliberal ideology and Hollywood romantic comedy. These typologies will serve as tools to dissect the contents of a prototypical sample of romantic comedy texts and display specific neoliberal markers. Of course, the results of the analysis rely on interpretation. However, a previously compiled thorough theoretical body testifies to the fact that the interpretations conducted from content analysis are well-founded.

The Lady Knows the Recipe

This article outlines the methodology of my PhD thesis, which examined the reception of contemporary Hollywood romantic comedy in Britain, France and Germany. I underline the significant epistemological and methodological shift which took place over the course of four years, as my research went from a positivist mixed-methods study aiming to describe national differences in reception, to a constructivist and qualitative interrogation of the specific pleasures of romantic comedy viewing as manifested by a small group of participants. I conclude that whilst there is no single perfect feminist methodology, doing feminist research must include a degree of self-introspection at all stages of the research, from recruitment to data collection to analysis.

No Country for Queer Dogs

This paper seeks to explore the potential of developing a distinct vegan mode of reading. It uses the increasing incidence of anthropomorphic canine companion animals in the contemporary Hollywood romantic comedy as a starting point, focusing on close readings of the films Marley and Me and Legally Blonde 2: Red White and Blonde. An analysis of the increasing incidence of domestic dogs in the romantic comedy is shown to have significance for examining social and cultural anxieties around how veganism, as the rejection of animal exploitation of any kind, might challenge the rigid human-animal divide that defines contemporary society. Building an analysis that seeks to explore the latent speciesism of popular cinema and noting how this relates specifically to the representation of vegan identity, within a genre noted for its muting and denigration of queer identity, this paper seeks to situate veganism as a radical queer mode of being.

Hollywood Romantic Comedy of the Fifties. A Critical Study of Film Genre

Hollywood Romantic Comedy of the Fifties. A Critical Study of Film Genre

미국 영화 >프로포즈<에 나타난 로맨틱 코미디의 장르적 관습과 관객의 반응 -한국, 미국 관객의 영화 수용 양상의 국적별, 젠더별 차이를 중심으로-

본 연구는 할리우드의 최근 로맨틱 코미디 영화인 <프로포즈(2009)>를 대상으로 하여 미국 할리우드 로맨틱 코미디 영화의 장르적 관습이 관객에게 수용되는 데 있어 관객의 국적이나 젠더가 그 수용 양상의 차이에 어떤 영향을 끼치고 있는가 하는 문제를 실증적으로 확인하고자 시도하였다. 할리우드 로맨틱 코미디 장르는 대부분 남녀 배우가 드러내는 매력을 중심으로 하여, 이들이 만나고 헤어지는 어느 정도 관습화된 플롯 위에 전개하는 특징을 갖고 있다. 영화 <프로포즈> 역시 이러한 관습화된 플롯 구조를 한편으로는 따르면서, 한편으로는 변주하고 있다. 본 논문에서는 영화 <프로포즈>에 등장하는 '배우'와 '등장인물'이라는 요소와, 할리우드의 일반적인 로맨틱 코미디 플롯에서 '사랑의 완성'으로 제시되는 '결혼식'과 '프로포즈'라는 요소가 한국과 미국이라는 국적과, 남성과 여성이라는 젠더에 따라서 어떤 다른 선호가 나타나는가 하는 바를 관객 반응을 묻는 설문조사와 통계를 통해 살펴보았고, 관객이 지향하는 가치들 사이의 상관성 분석을 통해 드러나는 의미를 해명하였다. This study is on Hollywood's latest romantic comedy movie <The Proposal(2009)>, attempted to identify whether nationality or gender difference of the movie audience is affecting on their acceptance to the genre characteristics of Hollywood's romantic comedy. Most of Hollywood's romantic comedy movies are centered on attraction of female and male actors and its' formulated plot (boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl structure). Although the movie <The proposal(2009)> is following the formulated romantic comedy plot, it shows a variation from the typical romantic comedy genre. In this thesis, based on audience research data, statistics and interrelationship analysis on audience value orientation, we elucidate how Korean and American, Female and Male movie audience have different preference to actors and characters in the movie <The Proposal(2009)> and representation of archetypal Hollywood romantic comedy happy ending such as propose and wedding scenes.

“How Big is Big Enough?”

This article examines the representation of masculinity in Sex and the City through an analysis of the characters Big and Steve. Although the show is unique in that it presents female characters as the primary subjects of identification and presumes a female audience, it participates in the patriarchal project of measuring men, especially Big and Steve, against each other. At first, Big represents classic old-style phallic male character, the hero of both fairy tale and Hollywood romantic comedy. Steve, on the other hand, represents the new man, a flawed hero of modern relationship myths. However, throughout the course of the series, the illnesses of these two characters shift these representations. The series ultimately opens space for new representations of masculinity.

Newfangled Computers and Old-Fashioned Romantic Comedy: You’ve Got Mail’s Futuristic Nostalgia

Tom Hanks et Meg Ryan interprètent deux propriétaires de librairies rivales de l’Upper West Side de New York dans You’ve Got Mail (1998), la comédie romantique de l’ère Internet de Nora Ephron. Les opposants ne réalisent pas qu’ils sont aussi des amis virtuels, aussi chers qu’anonymes, échangeant des confidences de plus en plus intimes et qu’ils sont destinés, par les conventions narratives de la comédie romantique, à consommer leur romance dans la vie réelle tout comme dans la vie branchée avant la fin de la dernière bobine du film. Cet article questionne la façon avec laquelle ce qui n’est d’abord qu’un terne conflit économique peut se transformer en un récit de comédie romantique à succès, proposant que ni une nostalgie toute de rose teintée (pour le film de l’âge d’or hollywoodien dont il est une nouvelle version), ni un futurisme techno-déterministe (mis en évidence par la place qu’occupe le dispositif de messagerie électronique) ne peuvent en rendre compte. Plutôt, le film d’Ephron déploie ultimement aussi bien le futurisme que la nostalgie, de façon sélective, pour rendre le cadre narratif plus actuel, et donc plus acceptable pour l’audience, et faire une intrigue romantique plus plausible.

Hollywood Romantic Comedy: States of the Union, 1934-1965 (review)

Hollywood Romantic Comedy: States of the Union, 1934-1965 (review)

'Europe' within and without Narratives of American cultural belonging in and through My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)

This article examines My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), a Hollywood romantic comedy in which Greek-Americanness features for the first time. Three tropes are debated that are linked to American social and national self-narration: the first is concerned with the assertion of Greek difference within American identity. The second examines the WASP cultural norm which is simultaneously valorized and contested. The third trope, which comprises a strategy of idealization of American identity, purifies American self-narration of its contestable aspects and represses cultural insecurities. The article draws mainly on American responses to the film, in order to understand how cinematic narratives are debated by the audience. It will be argued that the film reproduces a dilemma central to American cultural self-narration. This dilemma is concerned with American self-recognition as 'pure', European, ethnic and multiform, all at the same time.

Between friends: love and friendship in contemporary Hollywood romantic comedy

Between friends: love and friendship in contemporary Hollywood romantic comedy

Bound to bond: gender, genre, and the Hollywood romantic comedy

Introduction Part I: The Four Hollywood Love Stories The Pursuit Plot The Coldhearted Redemption Plot The Brokenhearted Redemption Plot The Prick Foil Plot The Dweeb Foil Plot The Bitch Foil Plot The Temptress Foil Plot The Permission Plot Part II: The Number Also Tell Stories A Sample and a Typology Constructing Inequality: By Point of View Constructing Inequality: By Plots Constructing Inequality: By Genre Types Constructing Inequality: By Themes Part III: The Four Other Hollywood Love Stories Once Upon a Time, They Did Not Always Live Happily Ever After Conclusion Bibliography