Overview
TEMPLATE DIRECTED WRITING 1 for It Happened One Night.
Question 1: How does It Happened One Night fit the four standard romantic comedy requirements?
Cite specific examples. Your response should be a short answer, a sentence or two for each item below, briefly describing a scene or a line or two of dialogue or a particular image or action.
1) Imagery—
--Location: an urban, star-lit city.
--Props: wedding articles, beds, candlelight, flowers
--Music: romantic; nostalgic/romantic
--Costumes: special outfit for the big date--stylish clothes; latest hairdo
--Latest gadgetry/technology
--Stock characters (unsuitable partner; slightly sharper best friend): EXAMPLE (s) King Wesley is an example of the _____ stock character because_____
- Plot —
How does the plot of it happened one night fit the Basic Rom Com plot—boy meets girl, loses girl, then finally gets girl?
3) Recurring Motifs and Conventions
--Tears—frustration, joy, heartbreak
--Slapstick--pratfalls, slapstick gestures and sound effects.
--His friend’s advice vs. her friend’s
--Break-up and make-up
--Adversarial relationship turns to love.
--Meet Cute--couple meets in a funny, unlikely, or suggestive fashion.
--The Aborted Wedding—one party flees.
--The Masquerade—one/both of the characters pretend to be someone else
--Public Spectacle—a humbling, sometimes humiliating, idiotic act to prove love is more important than dignity.
4) Ideology—
--Reflects society--the dream the culture is having—its anxieties, assumptions, desires, and problems.
--Importance of the couple and that finding true love is desirable. Plus implied sex—that is secure, within-a-relationship sex.
--Both main characters must change in order to deserve the other’s love.
--Female oriented (audience and lead character) and a tendency to downplay the genre.
Question 2: What also distinguishes It Happened One Night as a “Screwball” comedy? Again, find examples of the following.
1-- Screwball Imagery—
Chic clothes and costumes
Art Deco setting vs. slapstick action
2--Screwball Plot:
--Face paced; quick and witty dialogue where neither side wins; the friendly draw;
--Two people from different cultural backgrounds
--Conflicting personalities.
--Reverse class snobbery—To be poor is noble and good; to be rich is out of touch with reality; academic learning is inferior to common sense; class conflict where middle class wins over upper class.
--Disruption of normal life—things are topsy-turvy: heiress forced to live poor, pauper suddenly wealthy; lots of chases and pratfalls.
--Frequently there is role play:characters masquerade as someone else; may take on a false personae; aliases names, fake accents.
3--Screwball Conventions/motifs
--Aggression—a battle between male & female leads; friction and frustration drive the plot; affection through aggression.
--Tears not central here; characters cry out of frustration & use humorous events to punish—insults, humiliation, fast flung insults.
4—Ideology: Cultural and Historical Context of the Screwball Comedy:--Great Depression—Films realistically portrayed society’s troubles but with characters ultimately triumphant.
--Freud—one character repressed, dry and stuffy, asexual (usually the male); the anarchic female, helps free male from his mundane day to day and discover his sexuality.
Reading is attached, and film info is available through search as well. Was made in 1934