Romantic Comedy Blog Spring 2020

Mary Grace Cusumano  Professor Sinowitz ENG 255 21 April 2020  Roman Holiday (1953) and the Disappointment of an Ending Nothing fulfills my heart more than watching a romantic comedy and seeing the couple finally end up together. I truly am a sucker for romantic comedies and overly express way too much of my emotions while watching these films. I invest my whole heart into the couple and act like I know them personally. Through my investment in the couple, I smile when they have their moments, but I also will get sad when they go through a challenge as a couple. From my experience watching romantic comedies, I tell myself that the couple is going to make it out in the end since that usually ends up being the case. However, in the film Roman Holiday (1953), it is certainly not the case. Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn) and Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) do not make it out in the end as a couple. As the audience, we are left until the final seconds of the movie with hope t...

Lindsay Parks Professor Sinowitz Romantic Comedy 21 April, 2020 Roman Holiday: Not Your Stereotypical Happy Ending but Nevertheless Still One             The romantic comedy Roman Holiday (1953) by William Wyler strays from most other films in the genre because it does not follow the conventional ending, so much so that when watching it I actually paused the movie to see how much time was left because I thought there was no possible way that it could end like that. Traditionally, the two protagonists, in this case Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn) and Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck), would end up together living happily ever after; instead, Princess Ann and Joe Bradley go their separate ways in the end. While they do not end up together, they do both end up happy even though Princess Ann must leave Rome and return to her duties as Princess as Joe Bradley stays behind in Rome. While, personally, every part of me wanted to fight ...

Natalia Rueda-Marshall March 21, 2020 ENG255 Throughout this Romantic Comedies course, we have watched many films that have depicted many types of relationships with seemingly happy endings. However, The Graduate , as directed by Mike Nichols seemed to lack both romance in general and a satisfying end. With this, the question arises if The Graduate can even be considered a romantic comedy despite its classification as such. It seemed to me that the film was more focused on Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) and his aimless life after college and less about his relationship with Elaine Robinson (Katharine Ross). Their relationship acted as more of a crutch for Benjamin in an attempt to give his life some direction more than anything else. Even the ending where Benjamin and Elaine run away together lacks love between the two, leading me to believe that it wasn't quite a happy ending at all. The Graduate ’s classification as a romantic comedy is misleading be...

Campbell Montgomery  Professor Sinowitz  ENG255 13 April 2020 Say Anything and Female Expectations of Men Ever since I was a young girl, I have dreamed of the big romantic gestures that I would one day receive from my significant other who just could not contain his love for me. He would throw rocks at my window, plan an elaborate date, sprint miles in the rain to see me, show up unexpectedly to my house with flowers, or even hold a boombox up outside of my window. Romantic gestures are a common theme in many romantic comedies. The male love interest always takes part in a large gesture to express their love for the woman in their life. As an audience, we have begun to expect a grand gesture at some point in the movie. This expectation has transferred to real life, leaving women everywhere (myself included) to expect a romantic gesture from their significant other. Romantic Comedies have shown us time and time again that if a man wants to e...

Olivia Neal Professor SInowitz Romantic Comedy  April 12, 2020 Experiencing The Film Pillow Talk: Forgiving Behaviors   Out of all the romantic comedy films we have watched so far, I found Micheal Gordon’s Pillow Talk to be my favorite. In my opinion, Pillow Talk is the most modern film we have seen thus far in our class. The intriguing characters and storyline of this film left me invested, laughing, and longing for more! However, even while enjoying this engaging film, I couldn’t help but notice the underlying sexism that flooded the storyline. That being said, I began to question how I was able to forgive this kind of behavior while watching a film I enjoyed. The film, Pillow Talk is filled with so many promising and compelling features that made me overlook the problematic issues of this film. Throughout this essay, I intend to discuss my experience of the film, Pillow Talk , and what made this romantic comedy so appealing to me, but also troubling at the...