num_pages: 432
description: From one of our leading film historians and interpreters: a brilliantly researched irresistibly witty delightfully illustrated examination of the marriage movie; what it is (or isnt) and what it has to tell us about the moviesand ourselves.As long as there have been feature movies there have been marriage movies and yet Hollywood has always been cautious about how to label themperhaps because unlike any other genre of film the marriage movie resonates directly with the experience of almost every adult coming to see it. Here is happily ever afterexcept when things aren't happy and when ever after is abruptly terminated by divorce tragedy . . . or even murder. With her large-hearted understanding of how moviesand audienceswork Jeanine Basinger traces the many ways Hollywood has tussled with this tricky subject explicating the relationships of countless marriages from Blondie and Dagwood to the heartrending couple in the Iranian A Separation from Tracy and Hepburn to Laurel and Hardy (a marriage if ever there was one) to Coach and his wife in Friday Night Lights. A treasure trove of insight and sympathy illustrated with scores of wonderfully telling movie stills posters and ads.
language: None
title: I Do and I Don't: A History of Marriage in the Movies
publisher: Vintage